A 53-year-old woman from New York City with a severe psychiatric disorder has finally gotten her life back. Andrea Avigal had suffered from Munchausen's Syndrome, an incurable mental disorder in which a patient constantly pretends to be sick or injured in order to get attention or sympathy from others. The mother of two daughters was so out of control she even injected herself with bacteria one time and wound up in an intensive care unit dying of sepsis. Isn't that nuts!
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Ending up in ICU was what motivated Avigal to finally seek help. She had suffered from Munchausen's Syndrome for years doing the unimaginable like purposely drinking poison, starving herself and even took 90 laxatives at a time once. "At 5, I went into the bathroom and cut my finger with glass and showed my parents," she told ABC News. "I thought it would stop the arguing and it didn't work, but I got the attention I wanted. Around 12 or 13, I faked having an asthma attack and went to the emergency room and tried to break a bone by hitting my wrist with a hammer, hard."
Her psychologist, Tom G. Hall from New Palz, New York is the one that lead her to the road of recovery. Unlike most therapists, Hall used unconventional methods of reparenting to help Avigal. He allowed her to email or call him any time outside of scheduled therapy hours. With his help Avigal eventually overcame her condition and they even wrote a book together called Secrets Unraveled: Overcoming Munchausen Syndrome. He basically became like Avigal's parent.
So what caused Avigal's condition in the first place? According to Hall most people with Munchausen Syndrome have a history of child abuse. Avigal grew up in a highly dysfunctional home with a holocaust survivor father who had bipolar disorder. She experienced everything from verbal, physical and even sexual abuse by him. She was a mess for years and the Munchausen only got worse after her 13-year-old son died of brain cancer. ¡Pobrecita!
This is such an inspiring story. It proves that with a leap of faith and the right help anyone can overcome a mental disorder, even one as awful as Munchausen Syndrome. I'm so happy for her!
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