Munchausen syndrome by internet

electrobix99

There is a Docufilm about this kind of thing called Catfish. I do not want to spoil the story for you but its well worth a watch.

rachbc

BugglyB wrote: »

I think thats absolutely the right attitude, I hate it when you see posts like 'I woke up worrying about you this morning' or 'please let me know you're ok I'm really sick about it'. At that point I think people should stop using forums as really you shouldn't let it affect your emotional wellbeing.

TBH I think the 'victims' are often as guilty as the 'trolls' - some people vocariously feed of other peoples drams on line be it made up or real. People want to believe, want to get involved cos it fills some void in thier own lives

*Louise*

Two people spring immediately to mind for me - I wasn't directly involved with them but people I know were:

One woman was dying of stomach cancer, she had operations, treatment and even towards the end a so called friend started posting on her behalf because she was 'too ill and had been hospitalised'. She had gotten really close to a few members of the site and they travelled to the hospital and there was no record of her so her story was then exposed.

Another one was a bloke from Australia who we heard all about his family, his wonderful wife and everyone sent lots of condolence messages when one of their children was stillborn and he posted poems on the website.
Turned out he was gay and didn't even have children. He confessed to everyone and asked them to forgive him, surprisingly a lot did. I don't know if he is still there as I never went back to the site.


In this place, every third post seems to be a troll looking for attention so I take everything with a pinch of salt - I will give advice where I can 'just in case' but ultimately I don't get involved (sending private messages or the likes)

BitterAndTwisted

I don't care whether other people's difficulties and dramas are real or not, my responses are always sincere and that's all that is important to me. The troll exploiter is the one who is wasting their time, not me.

The threads I get ruddy annoyed with are started by people who use this forum and others like it as if it was their personal blog. I have such people blocked now and life is so much simpler and annoyance-free.

What is it about posters who start a new alias to ask about a specific situation? It's not as if any of us know these people personally, so what could possibly be the point?

gingin_2

scooby088 wrote: »

I use this site as sometimes I get some very good tips, but what I have especially on the part of the forum the amount of alternate usernames loads of excuses like don't want OH to see as he will know i am talking about our relationship to strangers. Somehow i think these people are living in a fantasy world to actually think we give a damn.

This has baffled me for ages too. It happens more and more and more. "I'm posting this under an alias". On the whole we don't know each other and if we do I am friendly enough with someone to be "open" about who I am, warts and all (as is normal). There are 60 million plus people in this country, not to mention the overseas posters, we have usernames that don't identify our real names, why hide, unless the persona you have built up with your main username means so much to you that you can't bear to show a flaw, which is odd. I tend to ignore those posts, which means I ignore a lot these days.

mazza111

We've had one on here recently who claimed to have HMS and "bowl" problems, who was rumbled when he/she used her alias on HMS forums on here....

gunsandbanjos

mazza111 wrote: »

We've had one on here recently who claimed to have HMS and "bowl" problems, who was rumbled when he/she used her alias on HMS forums on here....

HMS? I obviously missed this, i do love it when the web becomes tangled.

Hermia

BugglyB wrote: »

I think thats absolutely the right attitude, I hate it when you see posts like 'I woke up worrying about you this morning' or 'please let me know you're ok I'm really sick about it'. At that point I think people should stop using forums as really you shouldn't let it affect your emotional wellbeing.

I never understand that attitude either. I remember reading a magazine article about one of those cases where a woman claimed to have cancer on a forum etc. The victims said afterwards that they had spent months worrying about her, had been unable to sleep and had almost made themselves sick with worrying. Compassion is a wonderful thing, but you can't get that involved with the life of someone you have never actually met. Terrible things happen to millions of people every day. If we all took those worries on we wouldn't be able to get out of bed we'd be so overwhelmed.

rainbowfairydust

electrobix99 wrote: »

There is a Docufilm about this kind of thing called Catfish. I do not want to spoil the story for you but its well worth a watch.

I have seen this film. Its mad & just goes to show you never can tell.

soolin

There are a fair few on various forums on here, always make me nervous when people start offering financial or emotional support.