what finally got you out of munching? Congrats, by the way, on not being that anymore.
You said ex-munchie... why did you stop?
Did you fake it or did you make yourself sick via meds/self harm/whatever?
What exactly is the endgame here? Infinite sympathy, asspats, donations, e-fame?
I was a fairly subtle munchie, not nearly as bold as some of the girls on here, so it was easier to stop doing it. I munched my way into a minor surgery as a child, but the rest has been vague exaggerated flu and fatigue days here and there. I can't comment on the online aspect because I never went in for the big following and drama, but I did talk to friends about it and receiving sympathy from them was the aim, so I'd imagine the draw is from all the nice supportive comments first, and fame and/or donations come later as they realise they can get away with it.
It was addressed because I had therapy for something unrelated and it came up as part of that, which is why I now have a better understanding of why I did it. I still have compulsions - if an opportunity comes up to 'be sick', my mind plays on it a lot, and I have to remind myself that I don't have to do those things to elicit care any more.
Sometimes I would outright fake, but mostly I would exaggerate something that was already there. A mild cold became the flu, or a vague ache became much more painful. If the opportunity came up, or I was feeling particularly unstable, I'd do things to introduce germs, like rubbing coins on the back of my tongue. I drank a small amount of bathroom cleaner once, to see what that would do. Ironically, I'm pretty healthy with a robust immune system, so it didn't often work.
To give you a better idea of the mindset, one example is that I've often daydreamed about having an accident and ending up as an amputee, or blind, or with a similar highly-visible disability, because not only would it provide sympathy and care from others but it would also be something to overcome and succeed at. You see it with all the munchies being 'brave and inspiring' by hiking or whatever with all their tubes - they have a very visible difficulty that means nobody is going to ask very much of them, but that will produce admiration and praise when they do something despite their big serious handicap.
You mentioned self harm, so I wanted to add that I imagine that's a similar motivation, but munching is sneakier because of the stigma that comes with deliberately hurting yourself. You want the attention, but you don't want anyone to know that you want the attention. With Kelly, for example, if she has Behcet's, she's just a poor sick girl with the bad luck to have such a devastating disease, feel bad for her, etc. When people realise she's inflicting the wounds on herself, the sympathy often evaporates, because it's your own fault that you're suffering this way. It's no longer 'noble'.
