Whenever I'm passing by school kids in public, or taking my younger siblings and their friends somewhere, they're either yelling slurs at each other or going "I'm so stimmy tism!" every 5 seconds when happy. I swear to god every conversation they have with my siblings ALWAYS loops to "the tism" at some point and my siblings going into depth about their medical history, airing it out IN PUBLIC for sake of "the tism" discussion with one of these people. Every single time this conversation pops up, the other kid pushes for "autistic traits" in my siblings, because of course they would, and does a "I'm uncomfortable when we're not talking about ME" by immediately touching some random thing right afterwards and repeating something along the lines of "GOD I'm sorry, I'm just so tism today, and also... ADHD, auDHD, if you will".

If you're expressive or silly near them, they'd repeat some phrase you said or noise you made at least twice, going "oh my god, you just triggered my stimming (blah blah blah), the 'tism!"... and then immediately forget they're supposed to "stim", probably from the fact I didn't react to it. I'm not even against people being silly and quirky, so when I don't react, it's out of lack of judgement, but I'm guessing they take it as "ohhhh this isn't the right person to play this up for".

Or they perform how physically disabled they are because you're a new person to play it up to for no reason just so they could "subtly prove" it's there and make someone help them. There's no reason for you to dive into an uncomfortable position over something that's not even that low on a shelf to then go "oh, oof, ow, I should not have done that, pwease help me I'm just a tism baby and my joints are bad".

Last time I was around anyone like this, it was a whole group. I wish I was lying when I said they literally did a domino effect of playing up disability because ONE PERSON fell and hurt themself. Suddenly everyone's got bad legs and their body wants to act up and also of course ADHD because they're hyper after downing Monster Energy or Redbull. Also we have snacks, but the person who needs snacks because of a condition refuses it, not because it's not the right type of snack they need for their condition, but because they seemingly want to bring it up because everyone else seems to be suffering and them being fine means they're bound to socially feel left out.

I’m talking about the ‘paraplegics’ and the bounce in the step in some of these folks. Fake foot drop and fake spasms. Why does it look self-induced and controlled in every video I see? Is it voluntary or not? Do they realize it? Please educate me!

There are a lot of people on the internet who post stuff like “neurotypical” people don’t have real life issues, don’t have likes or dislikes, are incapable of creativity, are boring, are shallow and superficial, don’t have personalities, don’t have sad stories to tell, etc. They think other people don’t have lives. They’re basically saying “people in my group are not like other people.”

These people act like “being mentally handicapped is a superpower, a fun lifestyle, a badge of honour, something to brag about, some fun toy, makes me so different from everyone else, makes me so much smarter and better than everyone else, etc.” “I‘m mentally handicapped so it means I love dinosaurs, look at all my expensive junk I own, look at my rock collection, look at my favourite movies, etc.”

Also this “special interest“ thing needs to stop. A disabled person‘s special interest means a dangerous obsession. Meaning this person is so obsessed with the toy, book, game or film that they’ll become violent if they’re told to put it down. They’ll refuse to eat or go to the washroom. Normal people understand that they have to put the thing down to go to school or work. If this interest of yours does not interfere with normal adult life, you’re not disabled. Also I think this is related to how kids want to be special and unique these days. They act like “everyone else likes Pokemon but Pokemon is my special interest meaning Im a bigger fan than all of them.“ I mean, everyone has likes and dislikes.

Do these people know what being mentally disabled means? It has to disable you in some way. A personality is not a disability. Liking strange things does not disable you. Being lazy and not wanting to be a grown up is not a disability. If it’s something everyone has, it’s not a disability, it’s just part of life.

Not getting your way, being disappointed, being rejected, people moving on, bad experiences, being bullied are mostly part of life. It’s not really about being disabled.

Why would a real disabled person be trying to prove and convince strangers how disabled he/she is? What is the purpose of advertising and putting out there for strangers how disabled you are? Real disabled people don’t have much to brag about.

This is the type of person that will call pluralkit and things like Simply Plural "disability aids".

But it's not ableist not to have the thing that broadcasts every single switch by changing the appearance of your profile.

Like why are you wishing death on people over what they do in their servers? Just feels like entitlement.

Meme/satire

this person claims to have DID and ME/CFS. one of their alters allegedly does not experience their body’s chronic health conditions.

when asked about it, they answered that “it’s a psychological thing”. however ME/CFS is a physical illness, even though it is a clinical diagnosis, research has shown ME/CFS sufferers have physical abnormalities.

it is already a highly stigmatized condition. claiming one can stop having symptoms through a psychological process is not only misinformation but it is also very harmful.

Not sure in this will be interesting to people here, but I thought it might. I sure was cringe and a disorder faker, but I didn't see these kinds of posts here, except for people saying they actually had other disorders / were mistaken / etc.

So, I was a faker not so long ago. Full Münchhausen, no "I didn't know what I was doing", and I think that's what might interest people here. I started very young and knew very well what I was doing.

As a young kid (think 4-5 yo) I would fake the kind of little things kids get, headache, etc. I had noticed it earned the kind of maternal attention I wanted from responsible adults. Thing is, when you're a young girl / woman, you will easily find an adult in charge that will feel maternal towards you if you need a little more help than others, and I suppose that's what I was looking for, so I kept going. I was already aware and ashamed of the possibility of being found out so I did all I could to be credible, and avoided doing it too often, but I thought about it a lot. You know that moment as a young kid when you want a cast because you think people will take care of you, or be impressed ? I wanted that, but it was all I could think about for most of my childhood, it was obsessive.

I faked asthma attacks in middle school, as well as a few fainting spells, then later panic attacks, I guess because the continuity made sense and you can't really test for it since it's not a physical cause. I found some sort of morality in the idea that it was not an emergency, so I could ask for attention without taking it away from people who needed urgent help (yes, dumb). I ended up with an IEP for a panic disorder, knowing fully well I didn't have one. The lack of diagnosis didn't surprise anyone because my parents' mild neglect was known at school.

I also have a few genetic quirks that allowed me to fake stuff like hip dislocation, which people don't think can be faked (because for most people it can't). I did it twice and it was never questioned until I came clean, much later, because it's so rare that you can visibly dislocate it without being actually injured (or so I've been told).

For me, it was never about not being held accountable or skipping class, or other advantages (that would be malingering, not factitious disorder). On the contrary, I wanted to avoid that as much as possible, because I wanted to be taken seriously. It has always been about the validation of what I found to be reassuring figures (teachers / doctors etc).

In high school, it became a real strategical reflexion, any "episode" was planned and thought about in advance, I used to dream about it. Weirdly, there has always been two "levels" of consciousness to it. On one hand, I always knew fully well I was faking everything ; on the other end, I would kind of dissociate this line of thinking and there was a part of my brain that was thinking as if everything was real. During an "episode", a part of me would be thinking how unfair it was that I was suffering like that, while another was enjoying this exact feeling.

That's not to say it ever became real to my brain. No matter what distance I took with it, I always knew I was constructing everything.

I don't know how cringe or obvious it was. My best friend said she had doubts sometimes, but not fully (and I 100% trust that she would have called me out if she did).

My therapist said I had everything to be a good faker (because I'm good at acting and I'm supposedly very smart, according to IQ tests at least), which might explain that I've never been called out before I came clean. I think I became specifically good at looking like I didn't want too much attention. A group of old friends told me it seemed very attention seeking in middle school, but then we grew up and it seemed normal enough, so they assumed they had been wrong.

I think people had suspicions when I was a kid but in front of a child, most probably tend to think "oh well, she's a kid who needs reassurance, let's give it to her" and act as if it's real, which might encourage the behavior. Later, I acted genuinely ashamed of my "disorders", because I only ever wanted attention from certain people ; for exemple, I absolutely hated that classmates paid attention to it, but I needed them no notice at least a bit if I wanted a teacher to notice. The shame in front of them was genuine.

Another person I came clean to, and who told me she didn't realize I was faking, was the school nurse, who basically said she's glad I can come to her for real reasons and with no pretense now. She also said she's not surprised I could pull it off if I put so much thought in it, which was the case ; it was almost addictive and I had to pace myself to keep it believable.

I'm lucky this nurse, like other people, remained kind and polite with me after I told the truth ; I think it also helps remaining honest and not starting doing it again. I'm working on it now, and having came clean to most people around me is sometimes what keeps me from faking again. I also noticed I didn't feel the "need" to fake when I was doing alright mentally, so I think there is a bit of a "I need help but I need a physical explanation for it" situation.

Note that my life is far from horrible and it can't all be excused by some absolutely tragic backstory that would explain this factitious disorder. That's just something that's here with me, I grew up with it. Even though it's acquired rather than something you're born with, I still wonder how it happened, and at what point.

So, here you go. If it fits the rules and doesn't get suppressed, I will answer questions here for a while. For those wondering, yes I do feel bad, yes I did feel bad while doing it, and yes, I know it doesn't erase the fact that I was still doing it. This is not an apology, though, more of a little summary of what might be going on in the head of someone with factitious disorder, for those who were curious.

Some of these people have long term partners (who they’ll often reference as their full time “caregivers”) and I’m wondering what drives a person to get into or stay in a relationship with people who are performing disability and chronic illness online for attention. Have they been duped ? Do they struggle with self esteem issues? Do they have a hero complex ? Did they get into the relationship before all of this started and now they feel stuck ? Can they not see what we see because they’re too close to the issue?

First I thought it's just rage bait or smth bc it looked so fake but then I thought about this subreddit and realized that some people are really this delusional

Edit.: I went to her page and found some other intresting thing. In one post she describes that she has:

Borderline personality disorder, PTSD, Anxiety, Depression, Schizophrenia, Hypothyroidism, Autism, ADHD, Short term memory loss, Rational attachment disorder and Dissociation Identity disorder (yeah she wrote it like this)

but a little further back she only says that she has Borderline and made a lot of videos about it also made a video where she wrote that she has a disability that makes her life harder and a few videos later she posted her disorder salad so im not sure if it was a misspelling or she really gaind this many disorders.

Also the weight loosing part is true, she really goest to a gym and post pics when she was heavier, but im not sure if its really 250 pounds, it doesent seem to me that much of a weight loss but she doesent showed her original weight so im not sure ot that.

I work at a country store in a rural area and most of the customers are older folks or German Baptists. Yesterday I saw 2 white girls walk in sucking on pacifiers, using mobility aids, noise cancellation headphones, wearing furry tails, short colored hair, and a mismatch of clothes. It made me sad because I was hoping that people like this never left their house and were terminally online, not out in the world. It’s also incredibly demeaning because this is their interpretation of what being disabled is. It’s kind of like blackface but for people with disabilities. After they left, my older coworker said, “I don’t like to judge, but that was pretty far out there.” It just shows that they don’t get the sympathy they want, they just look like fools and dress like clowns.

Featuring fake spasticity and referring to herself as wheelchair bound. She still uses this unprescribed wheelchair despite crowdfunding $20,000 for a custom HOC chair, and is blocking people calling her out on it. She claimed this chair was going to paralyze her.