Hi Dr. Hershey
Glad to hear your business expanding -- sorry to see you go.
I have been in many, many institutions for over 3/4 of my life and in handcuffs of and on from the ages of 14 to 48.
I have seen many, many instances of what you are talking about.
Goodness, there are many people who try and 'play' the system.
This puts tremendous responsibility upon your shoulders and you are correct in looking into each person having 'every symptom' and their social background to see if indeed they are lying.
In my case, I wish I was a good liar and not sick...
But such was not to be.
I was really, really sick since the age of 16.
Hospitalized then with tardive dyskinesia.
If tardive dyskinesia wasn't scary enough for me and my family, entering into psychosis at 22, 23, 27, 30, and 33.
What I would like to add to your ability to identify and vette out the liars is that as my illness progressed, it had a combination of symptoms from a variety of diagnosis that's what made it valid.
I did not want to be sick, as every human being has the natural instinct to survive and thrive.
Yet, the part of me that told me I was sick was sick and it became firestorm of confusion and pain for me, my parents, my brothers and my doctors and technician.
None of us knew what was going on.
After all these years, (I'll be 52 in a month), it seems that I started with bi-polar manic with a psychotic component then entered into schizophrenia complete with the voices.
There was a dependent disorder along with a narcissistic personality disorder in my early 20's and all of this was in flux.
The desire to sleep, sleep and sleep my psychic pain away is with me to this day.
To the outside world, especially my brothers, it manifested as pure laziness.
But, this could not be so seeing that I was a competitive swimmer in high school and had to rise at 4am and hit the water by 5am then swim from 2pm until 6 or 6:30pm
3-days, 3-weeks, 3-months or 3-years I would last on a job in the outside world without the ability to take care of myself.
I wish it was simple laziness.
I was born in winter and mom could have gotten a virus new research is coming to light.
Without medication, I would be toast -- so I'm grateful for all the research out there...
Gawd, I wish I could have had a career and raised a family of my own without being sick.
Yet, sleep is one of the better cures.
I have to rest now, because the medicine is quite powerful, yet it keeps me stable and that's all I want.
Take Care Doc... hope to hear at least some postings without articles if you can in the future.
-- Burt B.
