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Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood - Julie Gregory
Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood
by: (author)
3.59 145
A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor’s examining table, missing yet another day of school. Just twelve, she’s tall, skinny, and weak. It’s four o’clock, and she hasn’t been allowed to eat anything all day. Her mother, on the other hand, seems curiously excited. She's... show more
A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor’s examining table, missing yet another day of school. Just twelve, she’s tall, skinny, and weak. It’s four o’clock, and she hasn’t been allowed to eat anything all day. Her mother, on the other hand, seems curiously excited. She's about to suggest open-heart surgery on her child to "get to the bottom of this." She checks her teeth for lipstick and, as the doctor enters, shoots the girl a warning glance. This child will not ruin her plans.SickenedFrom early childhood, Julie Gregory was continually X-rayed, medicated, and operated on—in the vain pursuit of an illness that was created in her mother’s mind. Munchausen by proxy (MBP) is the world’s most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse, in which the caretaker—almost always the mother—invents or induces symptoms in her child because she craves the attention of medical professionals. Many MBP children die, but Julie Gregory not only survived, she escaped the powerful orbit of her mother's madness and rebuilt her identity as a vibrant, healthy young woman.Sickened is a remarkable memoir that speaks in an original and distinctive Midwestern voice, rising to indelible scenes in prose of scathing beauty and fierce humor. Punctuated with Julie's actual medical records, it re-creates the bizarre cocoon of her family's isolated double-wide trailer, their wild shopping sprees and gun-waving confrontations, the astonishing naïveté of medical professionals and social workers. It also exposes the twisted bonds of terror and love that roped Julie's family together—including the love that made a child willing to sacrifice herself to win her mother's happiness. The realization that the sickness lay in her mother, not in herself, would not come to Julie until adulthood. But when it did, it would strike like lightning. Through her painful metamorphosis, she discovered the courage to save her own life—and, ultimately, the life of the girl her mother had found to replace her. Sickened takes us to new places in the human heart and spirit. It is an unforgettable story, unforgettably told.
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Format: hardcover
ISBN: 9780553803075 (0553803077)
ASIN: 553803077
Publisher: Bantam
Pages no: 244
Edition language: English
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Community Reviews
Mirkat Always Reading
Mirkat Always Reading rated it
3.0 Sickened
This book had caught my eye on the library shelves a while back, but I think at the time I was already reading too many books at once (as per usual!). I bumped into it again during a random browse and decided to check it out lest I forget. Julie Gregory was an adult before she heard of Munchausen...
Booka
Booka rated it
3.0 Mama kazała mi chorować
Julie Gregory to zwyczajna dziewczyna. Taka jak każda z nas pięciolatka, później nastolatka. Coś jednak różni ją od innych dzieci. Otóż Julie Gregory ma nienormalne dzieciństwo, zgotowane przez równie nienormalnych rodziców. Ojciec ma stwierdzoną chorobę psychiczną. Zespół Münchhausena to choroba, n...
Mikka liest das Leben
Mikka liest das Leben rated it
4.0 Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood
Sickened by the absence of loveMunchhausen by Proxy is probably one of the most perfidious forms of child abuse. In most cases it's the mother that purposefully makes her child (or children) sick, mentally and/or physically - just so that she can bathe in the attention, the admiration and praiseful ...
K.
K. rated it
This was painful to read. You find out mid-way through the book that Julie's mother seemed to have suffered abuse as a child too, but at that point it was too late for me to feel anything but disgust for her and her behavior. This is to say nothing of her father, abusive, mentally unstable and unabl...
Bonnie Read a Book Today
Bonnie Read a Book Today rated it
5.0 Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood
Really amazing book. She told her story clearly and believably, with way less self pity than you'd expect. Shocking lack of whining, all things considered. And as an added bonus, she's just an extremely talented writer in every way.
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