Study: Pretending to Be Crazy May Make You Insane
Well, isn't this a fine kettle of fish we've gotten ourselves into? It seems that if you go around pretending to be mentally ill, you may actually make yourself mentally ill. A new study reports that fakers of such symptoms end up convincing themselves that they really do have those symptoms, even going so far as to adopt signs of whatever illness they have decided on for themselves. 
Occupational hazards.
Of course, why you're faking mental illness in the first place may be a sign of something in itself, but let this be a lesson to us all: No more faking! It will make you nuts. Even if you are trying to plead not guilty by reason of insanity, or just unload a bunch of cheap-ass DVDs.
On the positive side, it may be possible that pretending not to be crazy will make you un-crazy, but more research must be done on that front before we commit ourselves or anything.
[via Scientific American]
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