2019-10-01 Cosmopolitan

n season 6 of

The Real House-

wives of Beverly

Hills, Yolanda

Hadid got sick. She

told everyone she had

Lyme disease, but her

castmates diagnosed

her with something

else: a mysterious

mental illness called

Munchausen syndrome.

For most Bravo

addicts, this was

fascinating—a totally

unscripted plot twist

that seemed serious

and obscure and

maybe true.

The problem?

Yolanda didn’t have

Munchausen (she was

actually physically ill).

But the flame was lit,

and suddenly, every-

one was googling the

sickness. Hollywood

noticed, and poof:

The intriguing ailment

started showing up in

more and more new TV

shows and movies.

In case you missed

out on Sharp Objects,

Ma, Phantom Thread,

and The Act (P.S. go

watch all of these

things), Munchau-

sen is when someone

pretends to be sick,

despite having noth-

ing clinically wrong

with them. Their end

goal is often attention

or sympathy. Screen-

writers especially love

Munchausen syndrome

by proxy, or MSBP, à

la Gypsy Rose’s mom

in The Act—a form of

abuse in which one

person deliberately

makes someone else

sick for extended peri-

ods of time (96 per-

cent of cases involve a

mother and child).

Can’t-look-away

compelling? Yes. But

also, IRL, a danger-

ous—sometimes even

fatal—mental disorder.

“It’s usually horrific,”

says Munchausen

specialist Marc D.

Feldman, MD. “But

They love medical

mysteries and psycho-

logical puzzles. MSBP

combines all these

elements.”

As we know, the

most gruesome cases

make the most binge-

worthy TV. And while

glamorized versions

of MSBP haven’t

been proven to cause

copycat crimes, they

certainly haven’t

discouraged them.

“In the past year,

MSBP has irretrievably

entered into the public

consciousness,”

Dr. Feldman says.

Medical profession-

als are even—perhaps

to combat onscreen

glorification and

emphasize the disor-

der’s severity—distanc-

ing themselves from

the term “Munchausen”

and using “factitious

disorder” instead.

There is one silver

lining: More peo-

ple than ever are

approaching Dr. Feld-

man to report that

they’re worried some-

one they know is being

affected by MSBP.

Whether those cases

are real or Yolanda-

Hadid-castmate-level

crying wolf is TBD, but

you’ll probably find out

about it...when you see

their stories on Netflix.

i

The hottest disorder

on TV is...

...Munchausen syndrome, which is

weird because it’s pretty problematic?

SHARP OBJECTS YOLANDA HADID

THE ACT MA

Law & Order

The “Precious”

episode follows

a real-life woman

whose mom

has MSBP.

A Child’s Cry

for Help

I n t his T V m ov i e, a

doctor diagnoses

MSBP, but no one

believes her.

The Sixth Sense

Villain (and

implied MSBP

patient) Mrs.

Collins poisons

her daughter.

Fragile

In this film, a

nurse with MSBP

purposely breaks

her patients’ bones.

Mommy Dead

and Dearest

HBO’s deep-dive

doc into Gypsy

Rose Blanchard’s

lif e is a h u g e hit.

Phantom Thread

The Oscar-

winning movie

has a shocking

MSBP twist.

Gypsy’s Revenge

A TV-movie

version of The Act,

before The Act.

1994

1994

1999

2005

2017

2017

2018

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30 Cosmopolitan October 2019

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