what is muchhowsen syndrome?

Answer 1

Its Munchhausen Syndrome.

People that fake diseases or sickness to garner sympathy from others.

Actually, the above poster is only partially correct.
Munchhuasen syndrome is when one pretends to be sick to gain sympathy for themself.
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/munchausen-syndrome

Munchhausen Syndrome by Proxy involves a caregiver inducing illness or injury in another person.
http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/tc/munchausen-syndrome-by-proxy-topic-overview

Answer 2

It is a syndrome that makes you wish for bad thing to happen to family members. Usually it affects mother to child. Say you are a mother and you have a young child. You may make up diseases or illnesses that your child does not have so that you can gain attention. You may even injure your child on purpose just to get attention from rescuers, nurses, doctors. I know of one woman who spilled boiling water all over her daughter on more than one occassion just so that she could call 911. That is a severe case but you get the idea. The person may say that "my daughter passed out and quit breathing" and even though it didn't happen, she will put her child through all of the medical tests and procedures.

Answer 3

SMEM is sort of describing Munchausen By Proxy. Munchausen, by itself, is trying to gain attention by faking illnesses and intentionally hurting yourself.

1) Faking - There are people who enjoy joining support groups for diseases, message boards for people who are terminal, and that sort of thing to gain sympathy and "understanding". They may be labeled as hypochondriacs if they visit their doctor often with false symptoms. In the support groups or message boards, they may also tell fascinating stories about how THEY discovered their illnesses, how the doctors were stumped.

2) Self-Imposed - Other types of people affected by Munchausens will purposely poison themselves or inflict injury on themselves by other means so they can rush to the hospital and gain attention for being "really" sick. These types of sufferers also enjoy the praise some doctors give when they say, "It's a good thing you got here in time!" and that sort of thing.

Many Munchausen sufferers will know a lot about medicine and will use this information to fake symptoms or to duplicate real illnesses by other means.

Hope this helps! Remember, hurting someone else is not Manchausen, it is Manchausen BY PROXY.

Answer 4

" Munchausen syndrome is a psychiatric disorder in which those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma in order to draw attention or sympathy to themselves.

It is in a class of disorders known as factitious disorders which involve "illnesses" whose symptoms are either self-induced or falsified by the patient. It is also sometimes known as hospital addiction syndrome."

- Wikipedia quote -

Answer 5

It is a disease in which people will hurt either themselves or others like their children in order to get attention. there was a dr. phil episode on it. It's a sick disease.