Morgellons Disease Fearmongering - Bullshit Disease Supposedly Caused by GMOs, Chemtrails, etc.

[chimpburgers]

I read The Mandela Effect thread today and when I read the description of it, I suddenly remembered a "disease" that a lot of conspiracy theorists on the net love to claim is real. It's called Morgellons Disease and there's whole foundations dedicated to try to prove that it exists. I think it's so weird on its own that I wanted to really talk about these people and why they believe in this.

Under the Wikipedia article for Morgellons, it's listed under "alternative diagnoses" and "conspiracy theories." The name was first created by Mary Leitao back in 2002 if you read the beginning of it. The CDC in 2012 made it clear how the "symptoms" of this so-called disease are really just other actual diseases.

The main gist of what the symptoms are is that the person feels that they have been infected with parasites. They don't actually have parasites in them but they have a delusional belief that has been the case. There's more information on this page from Medicine.net that has a more formal definition and list of symptoms for this.

Morgellons disease is a little-known disorder that is often associated with nonspecific skin, nerve, and psychiatric symptoms. Some refer to it as a fiberdisease. People with this disorder seem to be more likely to develop lowthyroid functioning (hypothyroidism). Caucasian females from about 35 to 50 years old tend to develop this uncommon condition more than other groups, and Texas and California seem to have a higher incidence of this condition than other U.S. states.

Really, the whole paranoia over this is just as bad as how there are crazies that buy into the idea that fluoride will kill them. Many people who think they have Morgellons self-diagnose themselves on the Internet for it, so it's not even an official diagnosis for them at all.

This whole thing is silly enough to be made fun of by ED where they list out the other "symptoms" that people believe that they have when they self-diagnose themselves as having Morgellons.

Now for the fun stuff. Countless videos on YouTube dedicated to trying to prove that Morgellons is real. There might be some cringe in here. I didn't watch all of these in full.

Then there's several articles disproving that this is even a real thing and that it's really other conditions.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_facto...cdc_study_that_debunks_the_skin_ailment_.html
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/01/26/still-more-evidence-that-morgellons-dise-1/
https://illuminutti.com/2014/01/02/morgellons-disease/

 

[0xDEADBEEF]

I think these people have what's called "first-year-medical-student syndrome". Its name comes from how first-year medical students would hear about all these obscure diseases and think they have them all suddenly. That was before the internet though.

Now that we have the internet, anyone can look up symptoms online and think they have something. This is the logical extension of that delusion.

 

[DrJonesHat]

The study I saw basically says it's psychosis caused by meth or other psychoactive drugs, and since drug addicts tend to have shitty hygiene, they injure themselves due their drug-induced hallucinations/delusions, then since they don't care for themselves, the wounds get infected and their deranged minds invent the idea they've got bugs or whatever in their skin.
Fun aside: Once when I had a job I didn't care about, I called in sick one day and told them my Morgellon's was acting up. I got the idea from some online comic strip. My boss googled it, and called me back and thought it was hilarious (she hated the place too, and let it slide). When we thought about taking an unauthorized day off, we joked about having a Morgellon's flare up. In my defense, it was a really shitty job (debt collections, I wanted to shoot myself at the end of every shift).

 

[Trombonista]

Fun aside: Once when I had a job I didn't care about, I called in sick one day and told them my Morgellon's was acting up. I got the idea from some online comic strip.

It was Natalie Dee, wasn't it?

 

[VLAD]

The study I saw basically says it's psychosis caused by meth or other psychoactive drugs, and since drug addicts tend to have shitty hygiene, they injure themselves due their drug-induced hallucinations/delusions, then since they don't care for themselves, the wounds get infected and their deranged minds invent the idea they've got bugs or whatever in their skin.

Morgellons is just a manifestation of delusional parasitosis. Most people self-diagnosed with Morgellons will point to weird-looking skin lesions with fibers "growing" out of them, when it's really just another skin condition with some stray threads from their clothing that collected there. The best are the people who claim it's an NWO Masonic reptilian Bilderberg Illuminati conspiracy, a result of fluoride in the water, and other associated batshittery. Morgellons is just another in the massive web of crackpot conspiracy theories, and someone who believes in its existence is liable to believe in many others.

 

[Mrs Paul]

I read an article on Jezebel (yeah, I know) that they actually found that some of these so-called fibers were actually body fibers left behind by a species of itch mites. (Say it with me: eeeww)

 

[The Lawgiver]

HOLY FUCK THESE GUYS

I found out about this shit years ago when I had some weird skin rash that came and went. The first result for anything skin related always led to crazy morgellons sufferer postings. It's about time we had a thread on these people.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I don't really understand the difference between this and hypochondria or whether it actually has any real psychical symptoms at all

 

[Pikimon]

I don't really understand the difference between this and hypochondria or whether it actually has any real psychical symptoms at all

Hypochondria is more closely related to OCD, while this is more of a Personality Disorder.

 

[DrJonesHat]

It was Natalie Dee, wasn't it?

That's the one. I wasn't feeling original that day.

 

[AnOminous]

Hypochondria is more closely related to OCD, while this is more of a Personality Disorder.

Hypochondriacs are overly likely to assume normal feelings of discomfort are signs of some serious disease, but not that inclined to focus on completely imaginary diseases that don't exist. They might be excessively germphobic (without good cause like a compromised immune system). But germs actually exist. Morgellons doesn't.

It's more of a nutty conspiracy theory than a clinical psychological disorder.

 

[Abortions4All]

Joni Mitchell, the 70's singer, thinks she has Morgellon's. Or maybe it's "chronic Lyme disease," another 100% bullshit "syndrome" that people love to claim they have so they can climb onboard the

 

[AnOminous]

Joni Mitchell, the 70's singer, thinks she has Morgellon's. Or maybe it's "chronic Lyme disease," another 100% bullshit "syndrome" that people love to claim they have so they can climb onboard the

I'm not sure how much she thinks after her brain aneurysm. Maybe having to deal with a real, serious medical condition has distracted her.

 

[Phil Ken Sebben]

It's shit like this that really makes me hate the internet.

With the advent of google and anybody with a keyboard being able to deliver their nonsense to the world more and more of these idiots are coming out of the woodwork. And because hundreds of others are saying the same thing you are you feel like it must be true because you're no longer alone.

Which makes more sense? That somehow fibers from your clothes are getting into wounds and then you miraculously find them there, or that the New World Order, Freemasons, Skull and Bones, Illuminati and the Ice Capades are somehow responsible for spraying you with chemicals and this is what it's doing to you.

 

[neverendingmidi]

I wonder how the Venn diagram of these people, the gang stalkers, and the chemtrail loons looks.

 

[VLAD]

I wonder how the Venn diagram of these people, the gang stalkers, and the chemtrail loons looks.

It's just a circle.

 

[Helvetica Scenario]

Oh, Lord, Morgies. I find these guys weirdly fascinating. I have an actual diagnosis for one of the illnesses every third conspiranoid madwoman claims to have for pity points, and even on comparatively staid NHS-sponsored sites there are lunatics blaming chemtrails and, yup, fucking morgellons for it. It seems especially popular among the self-diagnoses crowd: I once saw a grown woman encouraging a teenager to self-diagnose, telling her a bunch of bullshit about how she couldn't trust doctors amd needed to shop around until she found one who'd tell her what she wanted to hear.

The big issue with these people is how massively overdefensive they get when anyone suggests there might be a psychiatric cause behind their illnesses. They'd rather carry on yelling about how doctors don't know anything and it's definitely Morgellons because the Internet said so and the fact nobody agrees with them is proof of a massive conspiracy than take the head med and see if it helps. What do you think they are, crazy or something? I'm sorry, but I've just got zero sympathy for someone who won't even consider speaking to an actual bloody doctor because they're afraid the guy will disagree with them.

Morgellons Watch doesn't seem to be updated any more, but it's a pretty good jumping-off point for all kinds of morgie madness. There's some pretty interesting stuff there, not to mention some pretty vintage tantrums in the comments.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

Oh, Lord, Morgies. I find these guys weirdly fascinating. I have an actual diagnosis for one of the illnesses every third conspiranoid madwoman claims to have for pity points, and even on comparatively staid NHS-sponsored sites there are lunatics blaming chemtrails and, yup, fucking morgellons for it. It seems especially popular among the self-diagnoses crowd: I once saw a grown woman encouraging a teenager to self-diagnose, telling her a bunch of bullshit about how she couldn't trust doctors amd needed to shop around until she found one who'd tell her what she wanted to hear.

The big issue with these people is how massively overdefensive they get when anyone suggests there might be a psychiatric cause behind their illnesses. They'd rather carry on yelling about how doctors don't know anything and it's definitely Morgellons because the Internet said so and the fact nobody agrees with them is proof of a massive conspiracy than take the head med and see if it helps. What do you think they are, crazy or something? I'm sorry, but I've just got zero sympathy for someone who won't even consider speaking to an actual bloody doctor because they're afraid the guy will disagree with them.

Morgellons Watch doesn't seem to be updated any more, but it's a pretty good jumping-off point for all kinds of morgie madness. There's some pretty interesting stuff there, not to mention some pretty vintage tantrums in the comments.

What disease is this?

 

[AnOminous]

What disease is this?

One that doesn't exist.

 

[Helvetica Scenario]

I have CFS. Or at least that's what I'm going to call it, for the sake of having a diagnosis and some kind of treatment plan, until I'm told it's something else.

There is a massive crossover between the loonier aspects of the CFS/ME community* and conspiracy theorists positing all sorts of bullshit theories as to what causes CFS. Best guess doctors have right now is that it's a misfiring immune response, but that doesn't sound as cool as being beset by chemtrails and HAARP and a gigantic medico-scientific conspiracy aimed directly at you, so people prefer that one as well. It's a lot more comforting than admitting you have a chronic illness that nobody really knows how to treat because the medical community has so little idea what the problem is, or even if it's there at all, that they're still arguing over what they're supposed to call it.

Spoiler: This shit, however, really does not help.

Healthunlocked communities are recommended to patients on NHS Online. My tax, uh, pounds at work.


Phoenix Rising, a CFS/ME 'support group', discuss the dreaded Morgs.


Prison Planet weighs in at enormous length. Guest appearance by someone called 'JeremyStalked01', because of course the gang stalking bunch want in.

And then there's whatever the fuck this is.



Even tumblr thinks, for the most part, that Morgellons is fucking stupid - I guess most of them would rather diagnose themselves with conditions that actually exist, it's easier to get asspats that way - but it's tumblr.

Spoiler: The Itchy and Scratchy Show

Going to stop here because this rabbit hole has no bottom and I'm suggestible enough that I've been scratching my arm for the last ten minutes.

* I find 'illness communities' kind of ridiculous anyway. Having a diagnosis in common does not mean two random people suddenly have to make friends.