Sociogenic

**DISCLAIMER :** *This page is in no way intended to designate any particular person or community. It is not intended to accuse of lying or faking. It deals with a particular phenomenon that does not concern all people with DID. The existence of DID and the difficulties it represents are not questioned.*

The feeling of being a system without medical evidence of being a system, or by presenting erroneous characteristics that usually characterize people diagnosed with Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), can be due to a phenomenon called **sociogenic illness** or **mass psychogenic illness** (MPI) .

A person may, through a vivid imagination, repeated self-affirmation, performativity, role-playing, a lack of knowledge about the concept of identity, or because of another disorder, believe that they are the subject of multiple personalities or "alters" within their consciousness, when none of the characteristics of a dissociated identity are found.

The premise of **sociogenic illness** is simple: people who witness people with symptoms or simulation of symptoms are then subjected to the same symptoms by suggestion. This form of collective psychosis spreads or is shared via a psycho-pathological phenomenon of social contagion.

The first reported cases of **sociogenic illnesses** seem to date back to the Middle Ages, notably with the "dancing mania".

The number of people affected by **mass psychogenic illness** varies from more than a dozen to several thousands or millions. This phenomenon is amplified by the globalized internet communication .

### Context

The recent increase of unexplained cases of people claiming to suffer from Tourette's syndrome, DID, ADHD, BPD, eating disorders, and autism was quickly noticed during the first lockdowns due to the Covid-19 epidemic. It is largely attributed to the massive consumption of social networks and isolation.

Sociologically speaking, this phenomenon is currently observed almost exclusively in pre-adolescents and adolescents (sometimes reduced to the term Generation Z), and people assigned female at birth.

### Reception by health professionals

The phenomenon has begun to worry doctors as we enter 2019. Some patients do have real symptoms that can be linked to known conditions, while not meeting medical criteria. Regarding patients presenting themselves with a strong presumption of DID, they may be dismissed by physicians on their diagnosis for the following reasons:

* symptoms are inconsistent
* symptoms are exaggerated or extreme (patients with the worst level of each symptoms)
* patients have all the symptoms of the criteria
* patients already have an extensive knowledge of the illness they're coming for
* patients claim they can control switches, they have no memory loss, or don't match other criteria that are related to DID
* patients report being heavy users of social media and following influencers known to share content about DID
* patients are angry and disappointed when their self diagnosis is dismissed, even if the psychiatrist proposes another explanation or another diagnosis for the symptoms. Some patients will then seek out the next psychiatrist who will validate their self-diagnosis.

Some health professionals claim that it is possible to detect impersonated pathologies, while others claim that it is impossible to tell just from a video. The arguments in this sense are that:

* The person could really be suffering from the disorder but the way they express it would be exaggerated due to the influence of the media.
* Only a long-term diagnosis in a doctor's office can establish the existence of a pathology

### Reception by media

The media generally follows the opinion of health professionals in talking about a phenomenon created by social networks. However, other media are less kind about it and talk about "phantom problems", and only deal with the "trendy" part of the phenomenon without questioning the underlying problems. The term "faking" is often found although it is difficult to distinguish people who genuinely believe in their disorder from those who proactively glamorize a disorder they do not have.

### Community

This category of people malingering diseases mainly meet on the instant messaging platform Discord, and create content on Tumblr, TikTok and Carrd.co.

The content shared and the discussions that are conducted go far beyond the context of mental illness, self-help and awareness. These communities develops their own universe, notably influenced by fiction and certain spirituality (notably the Buddhist concept of Tulpa, or the concept of soulbonding). These concepts can also be blended with distorted concepts from the LGBT+ community.

People diagnosed or in the process of being diagnosed with real psychological suffering cohabitate with people who are much less pragmatic and for whom the sharing of misinformation is commonplace, as well as speeches inciting the withdrawal of the medical profession and even of society.

The danger of these echo chambers creates a dangerous context in which already vulnerable people are drawn into a spiral of beliefs far removed from their emotional and psychological needs.

Although the phenomenon is diffuse and does not currently seem to be hierarchical (although some people are clearly proactive in spreading misinformation and attempting to isolate their interlocutors), this mass phenomenon can be worrying for its characteristics bringing it closer to sectarian drifts:

* adoption of a language specific to the group
* refusal of care or discontinuation of regularly prescribed treatments
* loss of critical thinking
* enlistment of children
* stereotypical answers to all existential questions
* antisocial discourse
* mental destabilization

### Related diseases

This phenomenon is different from hypochondria because many subjects report being perfectly sane and happy with their neurodivergence.

The existence of this need to mimic diseases or to draw attention can be related to a co-morbidity of other mental illnesses. Although it is difficult to classify to which disorder these symptoms belong, it can be interesting to read about:

* Munchhausen's syndrome [by internet] also known as factitious disorder imposed on self
* Narcissistic personality disorder (NPD)
* Histrionic personality disorder (HPD)
* Maladaptive daydreaming
* Delusional disorder

### **Impact on other people**

People with DID were already suffering from stigmatization due to misconceptions about the disease, including its association with schizophrenia, and the entertainment media's portrayal of the condition as dangerous persons or exuberant characters.

Although awareness of this disease has improved the image of the disorders, this progress is now hindered by this new tendency to glamorize mental illnesses.

People suffering from these disorders feel humiliated and mocked, have their suffering minimized, are accused of lying ("are fakeclaimed") and therefore are not taken seriously, and suffer even more harassment than before.

People with dyslexia complain about the voluntary use of "typing quirks" that has spread in the community, making writing very difficult to understand.

### References

1. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC543940/
2. ↑ https://www.aafp.org/pubs/afp/issues/2000/1215/p2655.html
3. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC543940/
4. ↑ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/faking-mental-illness/
5. ↑ https://namimi.org/mental-illness/dissociative-disorder/didfactsheet
6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20141108120740/http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(09)60386-X/fulltext
7. ↑ https://movementdisorders.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/mdc3.13316
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 https://www.eviemagazine.com/post/faking-mental-illness-is-the-newest-terrible-tiktok-trend
9. ↑ https://www.teenvogue.com/story/dissociative-identity-disorder-on-tiktok
10. ↑ https://www.inputmag.com/culture/dissociative-identity-disorder-did-tiktok-influencers-multiple-personalities
11. ↑ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0004867413502092
12. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3536509/
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 https://www.steadyhealth.com/articles/munchhausen-by-tiktok-why-are-gen-z-ers-faking-mental-disorders-on-social-media-what-should-parents-know
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/technology-science/teens-fake-mental-health-issues-271569
15. ↑ https://i-d.vice.com/en\_uk/article/pkb397/illness-faking-accusations-tiktok
16. ↑ https://nypost.com/2022/03/12/tiktok-has-become-a-dangerous-mental-disorder-breeding-ground/
17. ↑ https://hunterfreemanhf.medium.com/tiktok-users-are-faking-this-disorder-now-for-some-reason-2f02f21de045
18. ↑ https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/wonderland-system-tiktok-dissociative-identity-disorder-1283571/
19. ↑ https://u.osu.edu/writing/2021/04/17/how-the-algorithm-builds-toxic-mental-health-echo-chambers/
20. ↑ https://receivinghelpdesk.com/sectarian-drive-how-can-you-help-a-loved-one-get-out
21. ↑ https://www.jmir.org/2012/4/e115
22. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3510683/
23. ↑ https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9833-munchausen-syndrome-factitious-disorder-imposed-on-self
24. ↑ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/narcissistic-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20366662
25. ↑ https://www.mhconn.org/uncategorized/narcissism-social-media-feed-off/
26. ↑ https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9743-histrionic-personality-disorder
27. ↑ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6426361/
28. ↑ https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/9599-delusional-disorder
29. ↑ https://medium.com/invisible-illness/having-dissociative-identity-disorder-looks-nothing-like-it-does-on-tiktok-995f266c57c9
30. ↑ https://typingquirkz.carrd.co/

### Popularized references

* TikTok Faking Dissociative Identity Disorder (video), *Psychology In Seattle*
* Factitious/FAKE DID: The Expert Checklist (video), MultiplicityAndMe
* TikTok: The Most Evil Buisness In The World (video), Moon