Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood
I was sickened when I read that Julie, as a little girl, had been an unknowing accomplice to her mom's harmful actions. To appease her mother, Julie looked up doctors while her frenzied mother (Sandy) obsessed over a symptoms book to make up various diseases.
I scan the streets, pen to paper, desperate to spot the right one that will calm my mother down. "That one looks like they'd be good, I'll get the number Okay? Mommy?"
"Jesus, Julie, you don't have to ask. Why don't you take initiative and help me out for once? Do I have to everything around here?"
How messed up is that?
Any fictional thriller or mystery involving MBP is disturbing enough, but there are doctor's notes and bills parsed throughout the book to show that what happened to Julie Gregory was very, very real. Bills stacked up and to offset the expenses, the family took on foster kids, depriving them of the care they deserved and using the extra money to send them all to doctors for falsified maladies as well.
One of the more traumatic instances involved bewildered doctors cutting open a conscious yet sedated Julie, just to prove to her mother that there was nothing there. Doubtful teachers dismissed Julie's brave family confessions as fiction from an over-imaginative child. This book was incredibly stressful to read, and I only had reprieve of it at the very end, when Julie was finally old enough to take matters into her own hands. The ending was unsatisfying because she still craves the approval and love from her parents, but at the same time, she wants their apologies. Unfortunately, they are unrepentant, and her younger brother has suppressed his childhood memories.
It's a good read and will make you want to call your parents ASAP and love them like crazy for being (relatively) sane people and raising you right. In any case, go call them, you slackers!
I loved this book. Ok, that sounds wrong, but here's the thing: I used
ReplyDeleteto be a psychiatric nurse and Munchausen and Munchausen by Proxy are my
favourite mental illnesses to learn about and therefore read about. It's
just SO fascinating and this story was also fascinating. It's hard to
believe something like this even exists.
I was interested the second I read the title. There's something fascinating (and very, very horrific) about MBP, but I've never read a book like this. I'll have to take a look for it.
ReplyDeleteI'd never heard of this before but it sounds like such a tough read, so I guess well done for sticking with it :L :) Thinking how hard psychological novels are to read, it must be so draining for the authors to write them!!... I'll recommend this one to my psychology teacher though, so thank you! :)
ReplyDeletePlease follow me back! :) http://lucy-stuffedshelves.blogspot.co.uk/
I didn't even know that that was a thing! The book sounds horrifying, but in a good way!
ReplyDeleteYes, this is definitely a thing! Exactly as you said, it was horrifying but good to read at the same time.
ReplyDeleteI got hooked into reading this book because of the title too! It is fascinating, how caring and psychotic a mother can be at the same time.
ReplyDeleteWhoa, I did not know that about you! Kudos for your nursing experience - the nurses I know if my life are incredibly compassionate people and thirst to learn more in their field.
ReplyDeleteMBP is morbidly fascinating, and it is difficult to grasp that enough parents have had the same key characteristics and actions that warrant establishing such a syndrome!
Woah! This book sounds like one you would love and hate at the same time. So interesting, but so horrible.
ReplyDeleteI loved learning about the different symptoms she would mimic or claim on behalf of her mother, but I hated how everyone enabled the mother's behavior. It was definitely a frustrating book to read, but good because I now know more about MBP.
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