Today’s technology has given us the ability to do so much more than we ever dreamed including seeking emotional support online for ailments, mental health issues and a host of other life issues.
But, things are not always as they seem, and seekers of support on the Internet must be aware that the Internet is just that — the Internet — and the potential for fraud exists even on support sites that feel safe.
For some, the Internet is “too” safe. Because of a rise in people feigning illnesses or life crises, the term Munchausen by Internet was coined in 2000 by Dr. Marc D. Feldman.
The term “Munchausen syndrome” is not new. According to an article in Self Help Magazine found at www.selfhelpmagazine.com, “people willfully fake or produce illness to command attention, obtain lenience, act out anger or control others ...” A related term is “Munchausen by proxy,” in which the sufferer, often the caregiver, causes harm to another to gain sympathy or attention.
Munchausen by Internet is another extension of this behavior, except the person carries out the behaviors in online support communities or even blogs.
“Instead of seeking care at numerous hospitals, they gain new audiences merely by clicking from one support group to another,” wrote Feldman in Self Help Magazine. “Under the guise of illness, they can also join multiple groups simultaneously. Using different names and accounts, they can even sign on to one group as a stricken patient, his frantic mother, and his distraught son all to make the ruse utterly convincing.”
One high profile case involved 19-year-old Kaycee Nicole Swenson, who wrote an online blog in 2000 and 2001 about her battle with leukemia. According to an article in the New York Times, Swenson “chronicled her remissions and relapses in her online diary, which she had dubbed Living Colours.” After nearly a year and with thousands of followers to her blog, Swenson’s blog claimed she had died.
The blog was a hoax.
Swenson was actually 40-year-old Kansas homemaker Debbie Swenson, who claimed she didn’t want to hurt anybody, but yet, thousands of people were devastated by this hoax. They had invested a great deal of emotional energy in following Swenson’s fabricated journey through an illness.
The point at hand is this — even on trusted support sites things go wrong. Munchausen by Internet is become more and more prominent.
Although we teach our children to be wary of predators on the Internet, users of support sites should be wary as well.
Things are not always what they seem.
Brandy Nance
Reporter
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