STRAPPED to a stretcher, Cindy Buckshon is rushed towards an emergency helicopter waiting to airlift her to hospital.
But while the medical team rallied around in a desperate bid to save her, what they didn’t realise was that this wasn’t a life or death situation. In fact, Cindy wasn’t sick at all but just desperate for attention.
Cindy suffered from Munchausen syndrome, a mental disorder that caused her to lie about being sick when she was perfectly healthy.
She told The Sun: “I spent most of my life pretending to be sick to get attention. I’ve faked seizures, fainting spells, stomach cramps, and injury.
“I deliberately gave myself a dozen concussions. I’d force myself to face-plant the floor, suffering bruises, facial cuts, and injuries, just to get the attention of authority figures and medical staff.”
Cindy is just one of only three people in the last 40 years to publicly admit she’s lied about being sick, wasting thousands of pounds on medical expenses, as well as staff time.
“I have been rushed to hospital in ambulances hundreds of times,” she admits.
“I let it happen, knowing I was perfectly healthy, wasting the time of doctors and nurses while real patients were forced to wait.
“When I got attention and treatment, I felt love and a state of bliss. I knew it was wrong, I couldn’t stop it. It’s what this condition does.
“People reading this will be shocked, disgusted, and appalled, but it’s critical I break the taboo associated with this syndrome.”
Self-imposed factitious disorder or Munchausen syndrome involves faking or exaggerating illness or making yourself sick for attention.
It differs from Munchausen by proxy, which occurs when someone induces illness in a dependent, usually a child famously seen in the case of Gypsy Rose Blanchard.
‘PEOPLE WILL BE APPALLED’
Artist Cindy, 49, who is single and lives in Calgary, Canada, admits her desire to fake being unwell started when she was just four years old.
“It was Christmas Eve 1980, and my mum was in her bedroom being cared for because of a migraine,” she recalls. “I marvelled at how people fussed over her when she was poorly.
“So I sat on the stairs, jealous and angry, and started pretending to have severe cramps and flu symptoms. When people asked if I was okay, I felt a warm glow and a sense of peace.”
What is Munchausen syndrome?
MUNCHAUSEN syndrome is a psychological condition where someone pretends to be ill or deliberately produces symptoms of illness in themselves.
People with Munchausen syndrome can behave in a number of different ways, including:
- Pretending to have psychological symptoms – for example, claiming to hear voices or claiming to see things that are not really there
- Pretending to have physical symptoms – for example, claiming to have chest pain or a stomach ache
- Actively trying to get ill – such as deliberately infecting a wound by rubbing dirt into it
The condition is complex and poorly understood, though it’s thought it could be brought on by emotional trauma or personality disorders.
Source: NHS
The sense of control and attention saw Cindy go to extreme lengths to achieve the same thrill, throwing herself off swings and, at school, suffering bruises and cuts to get the attention of teachers or the school nurse.
She explains: “In secondary school it got worse. I’d fake injuries playing baseball.
“When the coach rushed over and strapped a knee or iced a pulled muscle, I got that familiar rush.
“I then realized I could get even more attention pretending to faint in class.
“I’d fall to the floor, and the world would stop. Teachers and staff would rush over.
“The attention for being sick was instantly comforting and it was so powerful it made me want to fake even more illnesses.”
Cindy admits that if her stunts didn’t garner the right amount of attention, she would just try again with someone else.
‘FAKE MORE ILLNESS’
“The people who showed me the most care and empathy were the people who bore the sharp end of my time wasting and lies,” she admits.
Cindy was first hospitalized at 15 years old in 1992 when she feigned fainting at her boyfriend’s house and she says the joy of an ambulance call out and nurses’ attention was overwhelming.
“When the paramedics were yelling for people to get out of the way it was such a high,” she says.
“This was before the internet. Doctors took longer to research diagnosis and people more easily believed I was living with some rare condition.”
Later that year Cindy graduated to faking seizures after reading about them.
She would fall, shake herself violently, pee her pants and pretend to be knocked out and it had the desired effect.
She says: “The result was the ‘sick patient attention’ I loved, I knew I was spiralling out of control.”
As she got older, Cindy found there was a correlation between her urge to fake illness and times of stress.
She explains: “At university, stressed by living away from home, my fake fainting and seizures were more dramatic.
“I started deliberately falling, not putting out my hands, face planting onto concrete steps and paths resulting in a broken nose, scratches cuts and even concussion
“I’d do it in supermarkets, at bus stops, anywhere I knew I would be seen by people who didn’t know me.
“I was careful to do it around strangers so I would not face awkward questions from family or friends.
“I’d fall so hard I’d bleed or knock myself out but to me the pain was worth it.”
At 19, after another face plant and faked seizure, Cindy was airlifted to a top Canadian hospital for seven days of seizure monitoring.
“I remember being attached to machines day and night feeling amazing despite knowing the results would show I was fine,” she says.
“The psychiatrist told me he ‘knew I wasn’t a liar’ so clearly I must just have low blood sugar. I wanted to scream that I was lying but this just enabled me.”
I knew it was wrong but craved more of that same love and attention, I simply couldn’t stop
Cindy Buckshon
From then on Cindy’s stunts began to get more and more dangerous.
“I once ate a full jar of Tiger Balm to try and cause a seizure,” she says.
“I tried to overdose four times, making sure to always call a friend so I’d be taken to hospital to have my stomach pumped.
“I knew it was wrong but craved more of that same love and attention, I simply couldn’t stop.”
In an attempt to stop her lies, in her late twenties, Cindy started a job as a bus driver.
She explains: “I knew if I was driving a bus with people in it, I’d be able to control my condition as I wouldn’t want anyone else to suffer and it worked for 12 years.”
But following a breakup with a boyfriend, Cindy relapsed back into her old habits. “I wasn’t able to control myself,” she admits.
In July 2001 Cindy started to experience signs of psychosis having real life hallucinations due to stress. She was hospitalised and asked to see a psychiatrist.
“I came clean about the fake seizures, fainting and other illnesses and he told me all about factious disorders,” she says.
Two months later in October, during follow-up visits to try to work out how to help her Cindy was also diagnosed with a ‘real and provable’ case of bipolar disorder.
FAMOUS MUNCHAUSEN’S CASES
GYPSY ROSE BLANCHARD
The most recent cases include US mother Dee Dee Blanchard who caused her daughter Gypsy Rose to undergo years of unnecessary painful and invasive tests and treatments, lying about her daughter’s medical history to get medical staff to insert a feeding tube and even remove some of her child’s teeth despite her being healthy.
Despite years of suffering at her mother’s hands Gypsy Rose was imprisoned after being found guilty of being an accomplice to Dee Dee’s murder.
Since her release from prison Gypsy Rose has become a social media influencer, her new life chronicled in the TV series Gypsy Rose Life After Lockup.
BELLE GIBSON
Munchausen by internet is considered the newest form of the syndrome and occurs when those who live with self imposed factitious disorder post fake illnesses in online posts and forums to gain sympathy from followers.
The most well-known case is Australian wellness influencer Belle Gibson who pretended to have been in remission from terminal brain cancer using only diet and alternative medicine. Gibson used her fake illness to gain online followers.
Her story was so compelling that Gibson’s health app The Whole Pantry was championed globally by Apple.
She made millions and released a best selling cookbook.
Her lies were exposed and this led to a global backlash and Gibson being found guilty of fraud.
In February this year the Netflix dramatisation of her story Apple Cider Vinegar became a hit in Britain.
KENDRA LICARI
Now the Netflix documentary Unknown Number The High School Catfish has chronicled the harrowing true story of US teen Lauryn Licari, who, along with her boyfriend Owen McKenny, was subjected to a relentless campaign of cyberbullying via anonymous text messages.
In a shocking twist investigators discovered the perpetrator was Kendra Licari, who had been sending thousands of bullying and sexually explicit messages to her own child, her friends and other community members.
Experts on the show say Kendra’s behaviour shows elements consistent with cyber Munchausen by proxy, using the internet rather than physical illness to subject someone to mental distress.
WENDY SCOTT
Apart from Cindy the only other person to have publicly spoken about factitious disorder is Scottish woman Wendy Scott who passed away aged 50 in 1999.
Over 12 years Wendy sought unnecessary medical treatments for non-existent abdominal pain, undergoing 42 surgeries and being admitted to hospitals over 600 times across Europe.
She was jailed twice for illegally obtaining drugs and accommodations under false pretenses.
In 1982 she founded the London based Munchausen Syndrome Self Help Group but died from advanced intestinal cancer in 1999.
The same year, after almost two and a half decades of faking illnesses and other attention seeking behaviours, Cindy underwent a monumental life change when she joined the church.
“Religion was the first healthy relationship I had,” she says.
“I managed to slowly control my episodes and find a psychiatrist who was an expert in Munchausen.”
In April 2015 Cindy explains she found a specialist doctor who was non-judgmental and helped her confront the Syndrome that had controlled her life.
She underwent five weeks of hospital in-treatment that year followed by five weeks of outpatient group therapy.
“It was a huge relief, he saved my life,” she says. “I learnt how to control my impulses, I was titrated to the correct medication and I attended one-on-one and group therapy to confront what I had been doing.
“For the first time I began to make amends for the time wasting and money spent on my fake illnesses and understood what I had done.
I was a liar and I am still a liar. I know the suffering I caused was real
Cindy Buckshon
“I will be on medication to help control my impulses for life. I fight the urge to fake being sick daily, but I generally do not act on it now.”
In 2019, Cindy decided to come clean about her life with Munchausen disorder, sharing her experience in her book Liar Liar Gown on Fire.
“I knew I was breaking taboos and was terrified I’d be trolled and hated for what I had done,” Cindy says.
“My family is supportive; many only found out I was faking illness when they read the book.
“A few people admitted they were relieved by my book. They’d suspected but hadn’t known how to raise the issue with me.”
Cindy admits her years of pretending to be sick have left her with very real scars.
“The concussions have left me with some cognitive impairment and memory issues,” she says.
“After the first few concussions I realised I was becoming less aware and taking longer to recover.
“I damaged a nerve in my face which means lifting an eyebrow is hard. I have stitch scars and a broken nose that left scar tissue.
“My disorder is a form of mental illness but can cause very real suffering and even death.
“I am so grateful I was given a second chance at life. I am so sorry for wasting valuable medical time
“I was a liar and I am still a liar. I know the suffering I caused was real. I work daily to remain in recovery and to educate people about this still taboo topic.”
