Secrets Unraveled: Overcoming Munchausen Syndrome

Why would a person deliberately and repeatedly make herself sick or injured enough to require long stays in a hospital? That’s the focus of Secrets Unraveled: Overcoming Munchausen Syndrome, which unveils an extraordinary case of this perplexing psychiatric illness. These patients are so knowledgeable about medicine that they are able to create symptoms that lead to numerous ER visits and hospitalizations. Taking on the “sick” role fills a deep, psychological yearning for attention. But how does someone come to have such a disorder?

The patient in this book was brutally abused as a child by her father, who was a Holocaust survivor. She quickly learned that the only way she could get attention, love, and support was from hurting herself. Carrying this lesson into adulthood, she caused and endured hundreds of hospitalizations, with family and friends unaware of why she was chronically ill. By co-writing Secrets Unraveled: Overcoming Munchausen Syndrome in alternating sections this patient and her psychologist have created an intimate, detailed account of the condition, and her remarkable recovery through the psychotherapy relationship. Working outside the box, Dr. Thomas Hall offers much more access than is usually done, allowing emails and phone calls as well as face-to-face consultations over many years. Determined and patient, he is finally able to break through her secrecy and help her on the road to recovery.