Munchausen's Syndrome: A Psychological Analysis

As defined by experts, a mental illness is a clinically significant behavioral or psychological syndrome or pattern that occurs in an individual and involves changes in thinking, emotion, behavior, interpersonal interactions, daily functioning, or a combination. The causes of mental illness are complex and vary depending on the theories associated to the different biological, psychological, and environmental factors. The etiology of mental illness is based on five broad models: biological, psychological, behavioral, cognitive, and social.

Mental illness: Mental illness is a term that is used to describe a condition that affects many people, this condition is often a serious disorder in a person's behaviour or thinking. Mental illness affects around 10-25% of people living in the UK at some point in their life. [Sabp, 2015] There are many different types of mental illnesses; Examples of mental illness include depression, phobias, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, addictive behaviours and schizophrenia. Mental illnesses can range fro m minor illnesses such as having a phobia to being more severe such as having depression or anxiety. [Mayoclinic, 2015] All of these metal illnesses can be treated in some way however they can become a serious part of a

Drug and chemical abuse affect many families and that particular family that lives through a loved one who is an addict and the priority is to get help for the individual. In any intervention that involves drug addicts, a family's disposition is very important. Full recovery of any drug addict involves the restoration of the person's life as well as ensuring that those who are around the addict have the best ability when it comes to helping with abstinence which is a long-term goal. Abusers are often in denial or even believe that they are totally in control of their use of drugs

Approaching the Christian Service Project my junior year, my project is already picked out. The catholic social teaching actually had a hand in helping me pick out my project. This project is through the church of St. Vincent de Paul and is the Adopt-A-Family program at Christmas. God created human beings to be in loving communion with another and God which is what this program helps to accomplish.

Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome is a very dangerous disorder. This disorder came about to identify a parent who intentionally causes harm to their child. This disorder was named after Baron von Munchausen who discovered it. Symptoms are hard to identify because many do not believe a parent could harm their own child. The main symptom is that the child only becomes sick or is harmed in the presence of their parent. The parent tries to maintain a relationship with the doctor of the child because this disorder is based on the parents need for attention from the doctor, other parents, and their child. MBPS is caused by a need for attention and sympathy of the parent for “helping” their child. The only treatment known for this disorder is extensive psychotherapy. Munchausen by Proxy is a very rare behavioral disorder. “This form of abuse claims the life of nine percent of children that fall victim to it.”

Munchausen Syndrome "is a condition manifest by persons feigning or inducing illness in themselves for no other apparent gain than adopting the sick role and thus exposing themselves to painful and sometimes damaging and disfiguring medical procedures (7)." The name of

Munchausen syndrome is a serious mental disorder in which someone with a deep need for attention pretends to be sick or gets sick or injured on purpose. People with Munchausen syndrome may make up symptoms, push for risky operations, or try to rig laboratory test results to try to win sympathy and concern.Typically, the cause is a need for attention and sympathy from doctors, nurses, and other professionals. Some experts believe that it isn't just the

Many people have mental issues nowadays. Whether they weren’t whooped enough as a child or if they really do need help. Mental illness are believed to be biologically based. Anxiety, major depression, obsessive compulsive

The reason why I choose this psychological disorder was because it was brand new topic to me. I was very interested in the fact of not knowing anything about this topic previously so I was able to go into this research with a blank slate. After researching what this syndrome was, my main topic of interest was that Munchausen Syndrome is a largely unexplained phenomena, as it is both quite rare and difficult to diagnose. It is also practically impossible to treat, as most people will emerge with negative results. Most of the

Mental illness refers to many disorders that affect your mood, thinking, and behaviour. There are many different types of mental illnesses with different severities such as depression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, eating disorders, and addictive behaviour. Having a mental illness is so common in Canada, 1 in 5 people encounter some degree of it. Many of your friends and family may be suffering from some form of mental illness without you knowing it. This can be because it is at a very early and week stage, they are on their medication, or they are doing a good job at hiding it from you. People often hide their illness to prevent being judged and treated differently from their loved ones. This can be a problem as their illness could worsen and cause long term irreversible damages. Some of our society doesn’t respect people with mental illnesses as before, people with this illness were called crazy and they were told they had a disease. This may be a reason people still don’t feel comfortable telling people close to them.

Additional information may be needed to make sure if he or she has really histrionic personality disorder. How long this behavior continues? Is she or he showing other abnormal behavior such as drinking a lot of pills and worrying and talking about other illnesses?

There are condition where intentionally the individual forged the illness or cause it to obtain attention, sympathy or emotional feedback. Therefore in Munchausen Disorder they achieve this goal through exaggerating those symptoms, intentionally faking it, than even deliberately creating real symptoms. They created complications as contaminate their own body fluids, injecting themselves bacteria in order to create illness that will then lead to primary emotional gain.

Persistent fears that harm may come to self or a loved one, an unreasonable belief that one has a terrible illness, or an excessive need to do things correctly or perfectly, are common. Again and again, the individual experiences a disturbing thought, such as, "My hands may be contaminated--I must wash them"; "I may have left the gas on"; or "I am going to injure my child." These thoughts are intrusive, unpleasant, and produce a high degree of anxiety. Often the obsessions are of a violent or a sexual nature, or concern illness.

When a person has complaints about physical illnesses that cannot be explained medically and these claims lead to interference in their lives it is known as a somatoform disorder. Hypochondriacs fall into this category of disorders. People may also actually experience loss of motor or sensory functions that cannot be explained any damage or problems with their bodies. A dissociative disorder is involved more in the disturbance of identity or memory. People will sometimes forget traumatic events in their lives or forget who they are. Other cases involve the development of multiple personalities where a person assumes the identity of more than one person which are unaware of the other identities. This type of dissociative disorder is often

     Treatment for such individuals may be to start with housecalls until they can make their way down to the office. Other treatment’s are positive self-talks like saying "I can do this and nothing is going to happen to me." Behavioral therapy where the patient has a "safe person"(someone they trust) go out places with them. Therapy (group and individual)are effective. Medications can also help but there may be some withdrawal symptoms when they come off it.