Is there a condition/illness where...?

Question

A person 'pretends' or imagines they're are sick when they are surrounded by genuine ill people even when they are perfectly healthy themselves.
ie friend A has serious health problem. Friend B pretends they have problems too when they have nothing.

to the extent they go to Doctor and for tests.

Answer 1

The healthy person probably wants the attention that the sick person has. I know that when my father was ill, my mother developed all sorts of imaginary illnesses to attract attention.

Answer 2

Yes its called being a hypochondriac. The person ends up fooling themselves into thinking they are ill even though they are perfectly fine. Normally its people who worry and focus too much about getting ill themselves. If the person has one of the ten symptoms of a particular illness for example, they will read up on that illness and convince themselves they have the other nine symptoms.
Hypochondriacs aren't always attention seekers either, just delusional. I'm not sure if its classed as an actual illness though.

Answer 3

Munchhausen's Syndrome is actually quite rare. More common is 'factitious disorder', where a person will feign illness (or even injury) as a form of attention seeking.

Either condition requires professional medical intervention.

A very interesting book giving insights to these distressing conditions is called 'Patient or Pretender' by Marc Feldman, Charles Ford and Toni Reinhold.

Answer 4

Yes, one example is - induced dilusional disorder - where someone close to a person with dilusions also develop "pathological logics".

Though I cant come up with a specific name or classic term, this phenomenon could also fit with abnormal behaviour in a patient with a personality disorder.

When it comes to Munchausen syndrome that is something else in fact. It is close, but it does not have to involve anyone else but the persom "faking" illness... Then theres Munchausen syndrome by proxy, but that is in its usual scenario a parent(/other adult) falsely claiming illness in the child.

Answer 5

It could be she has an over active imagination.

When I looked after the elderly,if one of them died,a lot of the others thought they had the same thing and were going to die too,they even imagined they had the same symptoms.

Sometimes I think its just a very big fear of dying,she probably cant help it.

Answer 6

Yes, it is a mental illness called Munchausen Syndrome.

Answer 7

yes munchausens disease by proxy. they do it to get attention and imagine allsorts of diseases. they can harm their children to get the attention of doctors. in some cases they have accidentally killed their children. sounds as if your friend has something similar.

Answer 8

This is called Munchausen syndrome.

Check put these links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munchausen_syndrome
http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/articles/article.aspx?articleId=256

Hope helps

Answer 9

It sounds like attention seeking to me. Whether or not they're doing it consciously or not is another matter.

Answer 10

Munchausen syndrome.