Munchausen by Web Proxy would have been a much better headline.

Commander Cyclops: CheekyMonkey: What a horrible story. As I sit here in my hospital bed, after my third nipplectomy (the result of contracting John Hodgeman's Lymphoma, after being bitten by a rabid Armadillo in the Outback in August of 2009)

You think that's bad? I had John Hodgeman's, Johns Hopkins and John Houseman's at the same time. Thank god I found someone to help me get my money out of Nigeria to pay for the operation...

Thank god you avoided non-John Hancock's. I had a mild case of Jon Hamm once. It was not so bad. Kind of nice, actually.

As someone, much like many farkers, who has been on the internet pretty much my whole life, I can't say I'm shocked by any of this.

It is definitely sad and thoroughly depressing, but from reading this I was made angrier that it's being pushed as a diagnosable disorder. I know that's probably shallow, I'm sure there's some people out there with a sickness... but actually giving them a quantifiable illness is, just seems bizarre. If you claim to have Munchhausen by Internet.... does that mean you have it, or that you don't have it?

One possible bright side is this:

There is probably nothing as thrilling, fantastical, or bizarre as an online support group for Munchhausen by Internet - just imagine the sheer oneupsmanship that would entail. "Yeah, I'm dealing with this disease which is basically me just being a douche, and I'm doing it... AFTER NINJAS KILLED MY FAMILY!"

Maybe I'm alone in thinking how impossibly funny and simultaneously sad that mental image is...

For a CSB moment, a friend of mine was diagnosed with cancer and I was brought into the loop early. I was, at the time, able to drop everything and basically help him out. Ironically it was right around the time 50/50 came out, though his initial prognosis was far less than that... there's very little heroic drama in helping someone navigate almost infinite levels of health insurance bureaucracy, and just trying to find the right group of physicians to treat an illness. There were definitely some funny or touching moments while I was down there, but my friend is a writer and playwright - if he wants to use that, he's more than welcome to, I have no such interest.

I guess the point is this, the reason people care about Munchhausen by Proxy is that it puts someone ELSE at risk, usually children. And while the article may be cavalier about saying that 1 in 5000 is low - and seriously, someone needs to discuss rates of say... any other crime with them to understand how insanely high 1 in 5000 is - that's a lot of children at risk. Where as if someone is doing all of this to themselves, well... f**k em.

As others have pointed on, on just these comments, there's no shortage of trolls and douchebags on the internet ready to use anonymity for their own gains. But this is no different than general grafting... I hate to put the onus on people running around the internet as a support group to help them... but I'd also be incredulous about alcoholics going to bars for advice. The internet is a shiatty place to get good or normal advice - the signal to noise ratio is just outlandish - and if you're in a vulnerable state to begin with... well, I can understand why she stopped blogging in the end entirely.

The internet - fantastic place for reference, news, and countless other things... but emotional support? Walls typically have more empathy, and they don't spew random racial epithets if you tell them something.


/Just a perspective...