Malingering

I definitely noticed that the creator of this thread is the same person that directly accused me of malingering on another thread.

I am not malingering. I have explained that after seven years, my eye doctor realized I did have a handful of eye problems he had previously accused me of malingering. None of my therapists have accused me of malingering.

I simply have no interest in trying to prove myself to anyone. I thought I would try to open some people's minds, but it seems that certain folks have pegged me as a malingerer and won't believe otherwise, no matter what I say.

To quote a friend of mine, "you can't get anywhere when it's your word against someone else's thoughts."
 
Hear Again said:
as someone who has been diagnosed with 4 different types of mental illness, i'm fully aware of that.
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Then what makes malingering different?

Because it is a personality disorder?

Mentality plays a huge role on personality.
 
Hear Again said:
as someone who has been diagnosed with 4 different types of mental illness, i'm fully aware of that.
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All the more shocking that you should show such little compassion to people who are misdiagnosed and labelled as 'malingerers' like my mum was because she would't accept she had a mental health condidtion at all and tried to claim she had a physical one.
 
Hear Again said:
as someone who has been diagnosed with 4 different types of mental illness, i'm fully aware of that.
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Again, you are compairing your illness with another.

I have never heard of malingerers before til last night. But apparently it is a form of illness.



And I have looked it up and asked around.

It is a form of illness regardless.

It is simply hard to treat since that person is in denial.

But it does not mean those that has malingerers needs to be ignored. They need help just like any other.
 
I guess a lot of it depends on the reason for malingering. I can totally understanding malingering to get out of a military draft. Malingering for attention is a whole different ballgame, and there's obviously something not going right if someone is willing to go to that extent for attention. After all, there are so many ways to gain attention, and many of them positive.
 
I don't think malingerers are always beyond help. Even in the cases of people who believe they deserve to suffer or were meant to be sick, I have seen people who identified a root cause for this fundamental belief, and with the processing of the root cause, the belief disappeared. I have seen the same thing with psychosomatic illness. Psychosomatic illness can sometimes be an even deeper manifestation of a fundamental belief that one deserves to suffer. Of course this doesn't explain all malingering or psychosomatic illness, but it does explain some cases.
 
dreama said:
All the more shocking that you should show such little compassion to people who are misdiagnosed and labelled as 'malingerers' like my mum was because she would't accept she had a mental health condidtion at all and tried to claim she had a physical one.
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i'm not surprised at all by my lack of compassion. i have compassion for those with legitimate mental illnesses and disorders. i *don't* have compassion for those who wish to feign symptoms just to gain attention.
 
Nika said:
I don't think malingerers are always beyond help. Even in the cases of people who believe they deserve to suffer or were meant to be sick, I have seen people who identified a root cause for this fundamental belief, and with the processing of the root cause, the belief disappeared. I have seen the same thing with psychosomatic illness. Psychosomatic illness can sometimes be an even deeper manifestation of a fundamental belief that one deserves to suffer. Of course this doesn't explain all malingering or psychosomatic illness, but it does explain some cases.
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psychosomatic illnesses go away on their own. malingering doesn't.
 
nika,

did the people you mentioned seek therapy to identify the root cause of their behavior? how was their behavior changed and by whom?
 
well, it looks as if i was right. malingering is not considered a mental illness:

Malingering: Overview - eMedicine

"Pathophysiology
Malingering is deliberate behavior for a known external purpose. It is not considered a form of mental illness or psychopathology, although it can occur in the context of other mental illnesses."
 
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...and as quoted from one of my favorite psychiatric journals, the psychiatric times:

Malingering in Acute Care Settings - Psychiatric Times

"It is interesting to note that malingering is not considered a form of mental illness or psychopathology; rather it is considered a deliberate behavior. Malingering is classified in the DSM-IV-TR as a "V" code (ie, other conditions that may be a focus of clinical attention).1"
 
Babyblue said:
People that fake illnesses obviously have issues!

I'm not speaking of calling in work claiming you are sick or getting out of active duty.

I'm speaking of the ones that frequently do it for attention. It is obvious that the person may have some sort of mental illness. It may not be the illness they claim to have. Got to be an underlying cause of a person going to extreme of wanting to be sick.
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Exactly, Babyblue. And, as the usual case, when these individuals are told that their problems is actually something other than what they claim it to be, or what they have self-diagnosed it to be, or are challenged in any way to show the inconsistencies in their presentations, they become quite defensive, and claim that it is the doctor that is wrong, not them. In fact, they will normally have a history of having been to several doctors, all of whom have "failed" them in one way or another by not properly diagnosing, not properly treating, or not paying proper attention to some small detail.
 
Hear Again said:
thank you, bott. that's exactly what i've been trying to explain all this time. malingering is not a mental illness.
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Just so we don't get all tied up in semantics, malingering is not a stand alone disorder, but is a clinical feature of many disorders, and it is disordered thought and emotional regulation. One can have "malingering" noted on a diagnosis, but as a clinical feature co-morbid with another disorder, or disorder. As I said before, the most common would be with one of the personality disorders. So....does someone who exhibits malingering behavior to the extent we are discussing have a mental disorder? Yes, they do. But it is not actually called malingering. They would be diagnosed with another disorder, with malingering noted as a clinical specifier.

However, what makes malingering so difficult for the professional is that it gets in the way of treatment for the actual disorder the individual has. They will not accept treatment for what is truly wrong, in most cases, and continue to insist that their problem is the disease they want to have. A therapist has to break through that denial...often next to impossible...before they can effectively treat the disorder the individual actually has. And, given that most malingerers switch mental health professionals frequently when they find they cannot manipulate the practitioner, few ever reach the break through point.
 
jillio said:
Just so we don't get all tied up in semantics, malingering is not a stand alone disorder, but is a clinical feature of many disorders, and it is disordered thought and emotional regulation. One can have "malingering" noted on a diagnosis, but as a clinical feature co-morbid with another disorder, or disorder. As I said before, the most common would be with one of the personality disorders. So....does someone who exhibits malingering behavior to the extent we are discussing have a mental disorder? Yes, they do. But it is not actually called malingering. They would be diagnosed with another disorder, with malingering noted as a clinical specifier.

However, what makes malingering so difficult for the professional is that it gets in the way of treatment for the actual disorder the individual has. They will not accept treatment for what is truly wrong, in most cases, and continue to insist that their problem is the disease they want to have. A therapist has to break through that denial...often next to impossible...before than can effectively treat the disorder the individual actually has. And, given that most malingerers switch mental health professionals frequently when they find they cannot manipulate the practitioner, few ever reach the break through point.
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:ty: for the explanation, jillio.
 
jillio said:
Just so we don't get all tied up in semantics, malingering is not a stand alone disorder, but is a clinical feature of many disorders, and it is disordered thought and emotional regulation. One can have "malingering" noted on a diagnosis, but as a clinical feature co-morbid with another disorder, or disorder. As I said before, the most common would be with one of the personality disorders. So....does someone who exhibits malingering behavior to the extent we are discussing have a mental disorder? Yes, they do. But it is not actually called malingering. They would be diagnosed with another disorder, with malingering noted as a clinical specifier.

However, what makes malingering so difficult for the professional is that it gets in the way of treatment for the actual disorder the individual has. They will not accept treatment for what is truly wrong, in most cases, and continue to insist that their problem is the disease they want to have. A therapist has to break through that denial...often next to impossible...before they can effectively treat the disorder the individual actually has. And, given that most malingerers switch mental health professionals frequently when they find they cannot manipulate the practitioner, few ever reach the break through point.
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That what I have been trying to say. Malingerers obviously have an underlying cause and hard to dianosed them due to them being in denial.

But you! Girl! Explained so much better than I could have! :)
 
jillio said:
Just so we don't get all tied up in semantics, malingering is not a stand alone disorder, but is a clinical feature of many disorders, and it is disordered thought and emotional regulation. One can have "malingering" noted on a diagnosis, but as a clinical feature co-morbid with another disorder, or disorder. As I said before, the most common would be with one of the personality disorders. So....does someone who exhibits malingering behavior to the extent we are discussing have a mental disorder? Yes, they do. But it is not actually called malingering. They would be diagnosed with another disorder, with malingering noted as a clinical specifier.

However, what makes malingering so difficult for the professional is that it gets in the way of treatment for the actual disorder the individual has. They will not accept treatment for what is truly wrong, in most cases, and continue to insist that their problem is the disease they want to have. A therapist has to break through that denial...often next to impossible...before they can effectively treat the disorder the individual actually has. And, given that most malingerers switch mental health professionals frequently when they find they cannot manipulate the practitioner, few ever reach the break through point.
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Good Lord! That would definately cause the therapist to go :dizzy:

:lol:
 
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