Patterns

Bernard is a product of a dysfunctional family. Their father dominated everybody. It was his rules that should be obeyed. Nobody should go against him. Their subservient mother rarely voiced her opinions and ideas. She will choose to be silent than to speak, even if it means speaking for her children.

The father refused the idea that his children should go to college. He believes that they can acquire jobs as high school graduates just like him. He wanted one of her daughters to go abroad to be a japayuki and earn lots of money. The daughter went with a separated man, had four kids with him, and is currently unemployed. The other daughter chose to work at an early age after high school and lived separately, away from home.

It only took several years before Bernard was diagnosed to be mentally ill. According to his mother, he was duped to trying shabu once, and perhaps that was the cause of it all. The institution for mental patients released him after a few weeks because his was not a grave case, and besides the institution had limited accommodations, which was solely for those with serious mental illnesses.

The community where the family belongs got used to the family’s scenario later on. When Bernard throws fits, it was such like another common event in their household. Barangay tanods will arrive to bring him to the barangay hall and keep him through the night. It is such a pattern that some people wonder if Bernard is really mentally ill because the causes of the sudden outbursts will always be that he was not given money to buy cigarette or food, or that he cannot sleep. When they talk to him, he can converse naturally. He can even bet on his horserace favorite just like every normal neighborhood fellow.

Bernard’s traits are intentional. He wanted everybody to believe that he is sick. When he is brought to the hospital, he forges his depression but rejects the idea of being admitted. Such is the case of people with Munchausen Syndrome, an illness where a patient intends to deceive medics and relatives into believing that he is sick. He believes that by doing so, he will receive support and attention, which is lacking because he was neglected or deprived before or when he was younger. And truly, he receives attention from his mother who supports him with cigarettes against doctor’s advice.

Munchausen syndrome is an artificial sickness. Those afflicted have indications by way of (1) total fabrication, (false claims), (2) simulation (mimicking symptoms of illnesses), (3) illness aggravation (attempts to worsen a disease), or (4) illness induction (attempts to produce an illness or symptoms of an illness).

False psychological disorders presenting depression is much less common in Munchausen Syndrome patients. Patients commonly fabricate anemia, rash, fever, and bleeding. These patients hop from one hospital to another, creating exaggerated tales of their illnesses, and very willing, too, to undergo tests. Unmarried, unemployed, and estranged men are those that tend to display these symptoms.