Tuesday, September 25, 2012

SICKENED by Julie Gregory (2004)

Little Julie was very slim and fragile. Because of this her mother was always claiming that her daughter was constantly ill. At the beginning it was a migraine, than many allergies, in the end Julie, thanks to her mother, was almost subjected to open heart surgrey. She had to bear lots of unnecessary medical check-ups and tests. It was sometimes very painful for Julie, but seemed to be a pleasure for her mother who was always excited in front of the doctors or preparing Julie to look ill. Julie's duty was to "show them how sick you are and let's get to the bottom of this."  If a doctor refused another test he was labeled an "incompetent son of a bitch".
It would be amusing if wasn’t true. Each kind of a child abuse is dreadful and misdeed but this kind is additionally ridiculous and tragic. Such mother seems to be a caring and loving parent but she in reality is a horror and a danger to her child.
Julie survived and escaped from her house. When she was over 30 she wrote this book.
Thanks to it we can learn about the Munchhausen-by-proxy syndrome which completely poisoned her childhood.  (submitted by Magdalena ƚmierzchalska)