Sickened: The Memoir of a Munchausen by Proxy Childhood | 
 enlarge | Authors: Julie Gregory, Marc D. Feldman
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  69 reviews
Sales Rank: 350689
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 256
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.6 x 5.8 x 0.9
ISBN: 0553803077
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.85822390092
EAN: 9780553803075
ASIN: 0553803077
Publication Date: September 30, 2003
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Condition: Ex-Library. Dust Cover Missing. With pride from Motor City. All books guaranteed. Best Service, best prices.
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Product Description
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.
Sickened
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 (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 naivete 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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| Customer Reviews: Read 64 more reviews...
 Good Memoir April 21, 2008
I love memoirs, and so many are about child abuse, sexual abuse, or the like, and this one has all that and more. With parents who were both severely mentally ill, being forced to manipulate doctors with her mother in order to get attention and treatment. This book has another aspect in every memoir like this, that people never really change. In fact, they stay the same, which is both comical but sad. This is better than the Glass Castle memoir.
Disturbing story April 6, 2008
Like several other reviewers, I could not put this book down. I was horrified, but kept reading because I wanted to see her prevail. The ending wasn't quite as satisfying as I had hoped; it left me with many unanswered questions.
The tale of twisted abuse is quite disturbing. In addition to the medical abuse, Julie, her brother, and the foster children were physically, verbally, and psychologically abused. Julie's mother also neglected to care for veterans she housed (to get the money).
Julie's mother and father were also abused in childhood. Hopefully Julie will end this cycle.
 ok March 2, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
i have heard many sad stories of munchausen syndrome by proxy. when i picked up this book i read and read thinking the situations would be getting worse soon... but then it was done. not that i want someone to endure the abuse of this disorder, i was just hoping it would be more graphic, more touching. to make me want to reach out and hold the poor child. it was an ok read, i was just expecting more.i gave it to my aunt to read who has similar interests as myself, and she thought it was just 'ok' too.
Sickened January 28, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was a very interesting book. I wish the author had included a little more detail of how she pulled herself together, how she discovered fruit and vegtables (vice fixing chocolate cake batter for breakfast) I would also have appreciated knowing how she persuaded the child protective services in Montanna of the truth of her mother's 2nd round of "Munchausen by Proxy" with her 2nd family and foster children.
 This Book is Shameful January 18, 2008
0 out of 10 found this review helpful
This is the most powerful and shameful example of parent abuse I have ever witnessed. Apparently Julie is unable to tell the difference between real life and her drug/alcohol induced hallucinations. I read this book and I was totally 'sickened' by the ridiculous lies that were written about her mother, Sandy. Absolutely nothing is true in this book, not even her father's occupation. What a horrendous shame. I know this family extremely well, since early childhood, and I can tell you this book is all lies, written only for sensationalism and profit. Julie was a troubled child who has grown into an even more troubled adult that does not know the difference between good and evil. Even her credentials are fictitious. She has no degree and has not graduated from any college. As a child, she was given everything she ever wanted by a mother who wanted her to have the things she was deprived of as a child. The damage Julie has caused her family is unfathomable, personally, emotionally and monetarily. The entire family have been shunned by the community because of the vicious lies, including the innocent "adopted" children. There was an intense investigation done on this family as a direct result of this book. All charges were unfounded...period! Physiological evaluations were performed on all involved. The children were credited with making tremendous strides under the love and care of Sandy and they love their adoptive mother. Sandy herself has been absolved of any and all possibilities of being Munchausen by Proxy. Sandy, nor the family was ever interviewed by Marc D. Feldman, MD. Therefore, he cannot be considered a valid co-author of this book as he has no basis for his opinions. There was no verification of fact done by Random House before this book was published, unfortunately. Had any been done, this book would not exist other than in the imagination of a very sick person.
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