malingering?

who?
where?
what?
why?
when?

how can someone accuse anyone else of malingering?
how can someone ever know what is really going on for the other person?
what does malingering look like?
i don't get it?

help?

Bourbon

I learned the most about malingering in my Clinical Psych and the Law class. Malingering in that class basically covered people who faked mental illness to try and get out of responsibility for whatever crime they committed. Like a lot of people try to fake being schizophrenic and say that the voices "commanded them to do it," but schizophrenia doesn't exactly work that way...not like they want to believe it does. People also fake DID to try and get out of things--or so they'll be put in the hospital, not jail. I think a fairly famous case of that is Kenneth Bianchi (one of the Hillside Str*nglers), who apparently couldn't be hypnotized...but he pretended he could, and he made up alters spontaneously, and...it was amazing he fooled his first psychiatrist, I think. I don't think he had it at all.

Personally, I would find it very difficult to accuse someone of malingering or faking. I think some people unintentionally fake or assign a label of x to something that isn't actually x, but I don't think that's malingering. I think malingering is more deliberately/maliciously faking. And with DID, I think it's especially hard to tell because so many people have so many different experiences with it.

As you say that assumes that DID is X when in reality DID is far from X for everyone?

There is another disorder, factitious disorder, that causes people to manufacture illness (mental or physical) or symptoms of illness in order to get their emotional needs met.

Eek.

How are you supposed to know if you, in fact, are suffering from factitous disorder, can you prove either?

I agree with Eisa, there's usually something to gain from it that can cause suspicions of malingering. Such as escaping responsibilities for a crime or something. As for the factitious disorder, it was one of my main fears. I thought I was making everything up to get attention, to have needs met, but my 2nd T helped to reduce those fears. I was getting attention, I was getting therapy, and I wasn't at my dad's anymore and yet things seemed to be getting worse in a sense. My world was still falling apart, my symptoms were increasing if anything, and even with my history of lying and faking things she still believed me. Why? Because my needs were being met, and yet my symptoms didn't "decrease" as they should've. My T said that people who usually fake things to help their needs to be met tend to "get better" throughout therapy, and make progress. For me, I was making progress but also falling, so I'd take 2 steps forward, 5 steps back. While my T said that sometimes a person can also fake symptoms to prolong therapy, their needs can usually be found out and worked on. Sometimes a T will confront a patient, and ask if they might be hiding anything because they're hurting so badly for needs that would otherwise not be met. She said that most T's are understanding, because like any other condition, factitious disorder patients have needs that are to be addressed, worked on, and met, and so they should be treated the same way as any other patient. I don't know if this is comforting to you or not, so I'm sorry if it isn't. My T also said there were tactics to help T's "read between the lines" in a sense, and see the real issues hidden by the faked condition, so that they may address those and eliminate the need for the person to wear the mask they created to get their needs met. I'm sorry I can't be more help to you on this, though.

Nothing is perfect so you can never be 100% but most people who are malingering give themselves away at some point. It is why most therapist who have experience dealing with people don't jump to complex conclusions about someone. Like a child who will in my experience give themselves away when attempting to lie the more you let them talk and the more questions you ask.

However there are some very good liars who have mastered the art of lying. Even them though usually slip up and if someone is paying attention they get caught. Most people can not carry faking a mental disorder for very long or consider themselves so good at it they over do there understanding of the symptoms.

There is a saying by Lyall Watson.
"If the brain were so simple we could understand it, we would be so simple we couldn't."
People who malinger do not understand that statement and that is why they get caught.

Factitious disorder is definitely something I am very afraid of. This is why some of my symptoms, like the 2 or 3 or 4 lost time episodes, still have gone unsaid in therapy(with my current T anyway.) It's also why I try to be very broad...say a lot by saying very little. I don't like to use the words trauma or dissociation in therapy or even allude that they have ever occurred(even though my T has acknowledged both).

I've tried to slowly bring up the lost time incidents by trying to move the subject to the "hospital incident," but for some reason my T never says "and would you like to talk about that?" like she does with almost everything else...argh you may just have to freaking open up your mouth bitch!

Sorry...didn't mean to turn it into a rant for myself. All I have to say is I hope you are not worrying that you are factitious or anything. I believe you have DID, and I don't even know you.

I'm not sure I understand the question you asked right after my post...sorry, I'm still really tired.

Factitious disorder is possible, but very different from malingering.

From the DSM-IV-TR, malingering is defined as: "the intentional production of false or grossly exaggerated physical or psychological symptoms, motivated by external incentives such as avoiding work or military duty; obtaining drugs or financial compensation; or evading criminal prosecution." (gotten from: http://www.primarypsychiatry.com/aspx/a ... icleid=122 )

And most malingerers do slip up and get caught, I think...

Hi, u didnt mention n what circumstance that term was used with u. I looked the word up n my thesaurus, and it defines it as slaker, dodger, goof-off, idler, loafer, shirker. Please allow me 2 attempt 2 valadate, and encourage u, as much as possible. It has taken me an embarassing amount of years, 2 wake up 2 the fact that everyone has their "issues." i actually used 2 think that i was messed up, but that it was my personal problem and everyone else was fine.
I encourage u 2, the best of ur ability, not 2 let what others think invade u. U r smart, diverse, interesting , and real, and creative. We gotta think about what we r thinking about, and train ourselves not to think about stuff that is going to make us loose r peace. There will always b people out there that r more than willing 2 try 2 have us feel bad, or hurt r feelings, if we let them. Dont let them.
Do u know what a sucker branch is? It is these little cute things, that start popping up under some trees. Someone i knew had them and when her gardner came, he would always cut/dig them out. She thought they were so cute, she asked him why he dug them out. He said that they r actually sucker branches, and they will suck the nutrients out of the main tree, and that is why they r dug out.
Sometimes we have people n r lives, and at times need to evaluate if they r really a friend or r they more like a sucker branch, that needs to b dug out/let go of. Let's face it, none of us got like this because we were treated so wonder fully. I would encourage u 2 evaluate ur relationship with this person, and see what u come up with. U deserve 2 b treated well, honored. Good luck.