A Unique Look at Munchausen Syndrome
Secrets Revealed: Overcoming Munchausen Syndrome is Andrea Avigal’s account of how she learned to overcome one of the most misunderstood mental illnesses. Her therapist, Thomas G. Hall Ph.D., is the co-author of the book.
Andrea had a rough life by all accounts. Her father was abusive throughout her childhood and her son passed away after being diagnosed with a brain tumor at age 2. Her grief and trauma led her to engage in several destructive behaviors, including restricting her food and water intake to the point where she’d end up hospitalized every month.
She was upfront with her healthcare providers about her eating disorder, but her Munchhausen’s went undetected for quite some time.
Secrets Revealed is told through a series of diary entries and email correspondence between Andrea and Dr. Hall. Normally, I hate it when books switch perspectives all the time, but it was interesting to see how dramatically different each situation appeared depending upon who the narrator is.
The different typefaces also made it easier for me to keep track of who was speaking: Andrea tells her story in a bold face, Tom’s input is italicized, Andrea’s email messages are a large typeface, and Tom’s emails are large bold typeface.
Since I’ve never encountered anyone with Munchausens in real life, I wasn’t very sympathetic towards Andrea when I started reading this book. Purposely making yourself sick to the point where it kept you from holding down a job and nearly wrecked your marriage seemed like the ultimate in selfish behavior to me.
But, Andrea’s personal account and Dr. Hall’s professional analysis helped me realize that people with Munchausen Syndrome have a real disorder that shouldn’t be made into the butt of a cheap joke. They deserve our compassion, not criticism or ridicule.
Disclaimer: A review copy was provided by the publisher.
Photo credit: Amazon
