Sickened
The million-copy bestselling true story that will keep you absolutely gripped
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3.8 • 22 Ratings
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
From 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, the world's most hidden and dangerous form of child abuse. Sickened is her story. Readers of Educated, The Glass Castle and The Memory Palace will want to read this.
'An appalling, fascinating story, expertly told' -- Sunday Times
'It blazes with truth and anger - a true story of survival and achievement against the odds' -- Sunday Telegraph
'Extraordinary - shocking and moving' -- Woman & Home
'Horrifying but compelling' -- Cosmopolitan
'Gripping right from the start and I struggled to put it down' -- ***** Reader review
'A brilliant read' -- ***** Reader review
'Beautifully written' -- ***** Reader review
'Unputdownable' -- ***** Reader review
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THE TRUE STORY OF A LOST CHILDHOOD
A young girl is perched on the cold chrome of yet another doctor's examining table, missing yet another day of school. Barely 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...
Sickened is the story of one girl's fight for survival...
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The first of its kind, this compelling memoir recounts the story of a childhood affected by Munchausen by proxy disease, a.k.a. MBP, a psychological disorder in which caretakers, usually themselves the victims of traumatic abuse,"make an otherwise healthy child sick" as a way of gaining attention and approval. Set in towns of rural obscurity, Gregory's memoir movingly describes how, as a"sick" child, she believed that her constant feelings of exhaustion and lethargy were caused by some illness in herself rather than by her mother's complicated and abusive rituals. When her mother feeds her handfuls of pills, withholds food or instructs her to"act sick," Gregory does as she is told because she wants to please her. Then, undernourished and doped up on drugs for problems that don't exist, Gregory is dragged from hospital to hospital in search of"answers." Interspersed throughout Gregory's narrative are real medical records that show the efforts of dozens of doctors, procedures and surgeries to"heal" her, efforts which instead become the source of new illnesses. Not until adulthood, when she hears a professor describe MPB during a lecture, does Gregory realize what the real problem is. Gregory's impressive and disturbing memoir uncovers the truths of this elusive and disturbing form of child abuse that is often overlooked and misdiagnosed. 22 pages of b&w white photos.
Customer Reviews
Great book
Great book, one which I found very hard to put down. A great true life story of munchausen by proxy. Books like this are few and far between. A must have for anyone interesting in psychology or child care.