bpd and factitious disorder

[love never fails]

I have not seen anyone else write about this, but my daughter tends to fake many illnesses and injuries. In the past she has faked seizures, passing out with prolonged unconsciousness, sprained ankles, broken foot, fall with head injury and other injuries/illnesses too numerous to enumerate.  She is very good at it and is able to trick providers into supporting her story.

Last week she had a garden variety cold, but insisted it was strep and could not go to school the next day.  I took her to urgent care to be sure it was not  The strep test was negative, but the NP looked briefly in her ear and declared it "infected" and gave her antibiotics.  Then my DD refused to go to school the next day.  I was stuck between a rock and a hard place because if I did not call her in for an excused absence, she would moan and complain how sick she was and I could not prove otherwise because she got the NP to document that she had an ear infection.

Starting over the weekend, she wanted us to buy her knee braces for "knee pain".  She did not have any injury, but likes to wear stuff like that to school to get attention.  We said no.  Well yesterday, she came home from school before my husband got home.  She called 911 because she said she fell down the stairs and hurt her knee.  They had to take her to the ER since she was a minor home alone so she went by ambulance and although the xrays were negative, the NP gave her a...you got it, knee brace.  So now she is hobbling around on crutches with a knee brace which is what she wanted all along.

Arggggh

Our objective is to better understand the struggles our child faces and to learn the skills to improve our relationship and provide a supportive environment and also improve on our own emotional responses, attitudes and effectiveness as a family leaders

[FaithHopeLove]

It must be frustrating to see your daughter claiming illness and injury when that is not the case. Why do you think she is doing that?

[livednlearned]

Well she certainly is resourceful.

Do you wonder if this is a new coping strategy that replaces the raging she once did?

My stepdaughter (22) does not medicalize to the extent your daughter does but she does have endless somatic complaints. Headaches, knee aches, tooth aches, stomach aches, diarrhea, constipation, back aches. If it's part of the body, she complains about one thing or another.

Have you read The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk? It helped me understand how people with intense emotions (and/or emotional experiences, like trauma) may experience their emotions somatically.

Like with a lot of BPD behaviors, she is probably genuinely in pain and also working overtime to get her needs met in ways that are counter productive. You don't want to validate the invalid, and you also want to help her express her pain in healthier ways.

I wondered if the fits would be considered conversion disorder (if you're in the US)?

Was she doing this when she was in the RTC?

[SadtimesAZ]

My stepdaughter (22) does not medicalize to the extent your daughter does but she does have endless somatic complaints. Headaches, knee aches, tooth aches, stomach aches, diarrhea, constipation, back aches. If it's part of the body, she complains about one thing or another.

You realize a lot of these are side effects of amphetamine use right?

[SadtimesAZ]

Love, I've witnessed factitious disorder first hand across 3 generations with my MIL, wife and her daughter. Grandma was always dying, the last illness was fibromyalgia. Wife claimed adhd, but was/is bpd/aspd but wants amphetamines instead of anti psychotics.  Step D went so far as telling doctors she was pregnant at 16, even after they made her take a pregnancy test. It's a fine line between attention seeking behavior and full blown factitious disorder. It's a scary thing to deal with. You don't want to end up being accused of child abuse and I hate to say if she gets desperate enough she might go there. I would strongly suggest getting a diagnosis asap and therapy. It's hard trying to explain that people are faking illness and injury for attention because everyday people can't wrap their heads around that kind of behavior.

[DadFromFlorida]

This was definitely my mom.  She was always dying with never diagnosed breast cancer, then it was stomach cancer.  Then, via prayer, she would be spontaneously healed.  It was a huge problem because we never really knew when she was actually sick.