Do you think it's possible for someone to fake a mental illness?

Unless a doctor diagnosed her then I wouldn't buy into it. So many people think its en vogue these days to have some type of disorder. Most of them read a list of symptoms and swear they have it.

Sadly this is true much of the time but a truly good therapist will not diagnose someone with something as serious as bipolar disorder just because the patient comes in rattling a few systems. They probably would prescribe an SSRI rather willy nilly, I think these things are way over prescribed, but to actually DIAGNOSE someone as bipolar, I don't think that is as likely as its a pretty serious disorder.

Now if the patient is hell bent on being diagnosed as such, then yea, they could trick a doctor eventually. Doctor's are generally going to believe their patient. BUt if she wants to be bipolar so bad she sets off to ruse her doctor, doesn't that shout mental balance of some sort anyway? Maybe not bipolar, but something is amuck upstairs if someone feels the need to be diagnosed as such that badly.

Without knowing anything more about her history -- I'm going to guess that likely her mother ignored her -- as a young child. I could be wrong.

It's obvious she is attention starved. It's obvious she craves attention and does whatever she needs to do -- to get it.

Give her attention. Love her. But don't give her attention for the bizarre s***. Give her attention when she is behaving somewhat normally.

We are all crazy. We are all wierd. But this trend thing is -- what it is. She'll outgrow it. Love her. She needs it. I think her mother was too busy for her to give her love -- when she most needed it. It may not be the mother's fault.

There are a LOT of kids out there now days -- who are so screwed up -- we can't even believe it -- and it is the direct result of mothers having to work at a job, and having to neglect their children and pawn them off to babysitters -- and it results in attention-wanting people. They crave knowing that people care.

Show her you care, but do not cater to the weirdness. I guess.

I don't know. You are a messed up generation.
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A mother's job is to raise her children. Greed has required that a mother can not do the job she is naturally designed to do. So she gets a "real job".

Your friend is the victim and product of a generation of children raised by baby-sitters and child-care "professionals".

It's a sad truth, but now we have to understand and be kind.

Pssst. That would make them a hypochondriac :P Another disorder.

Right. Which truly is a disorder.

I actually know a couple of folks who have that bad. It can actually be crippling. They really DO believe they are sick.

I am a culprit of this disorder myself. Proven by a doctor not to long ago. My therapist sent me to a doctor to prove this to me. While at the doctor I told him all my pains and he tested me for every one. I had nothing wrong with me, and was 100 percent healthy. i told him of a pain I get in my leg, he told me he couldn't find anything which would cause that pain but next time I feel it, think about if there is anything causing me anxiety. The next time I felt the pain I realized i was feeling extreme anxiety and my choice of things to focus this anxiety on was a pain I thought I felt in my leg. So as I worked out the problem of what was making me anxious I stopped feeling the pain. The mind and body works in ridiculous ways.

yep. I know a girl just like the one you described here. She lies all the time and she has screwed all of her friends over. She was actually asked to leave from her apartment because she is too lazy to clean it. She has 4 nurses to come get her because she can't get up herself to go do her shopping. Then she gets mad because the nurses try to show her how to clean up her own stuff. She owes the apartment complex $1200.000 because she was too lazy to get up and clean it up and she claims that she can't because of her mental illness but she's capable of it..