Letters to the Editor
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Eh.
I'm sorry, but faking an illness as an adult is not normal, and it's also not creative, eccentric or magical. Constantly lying is not any of those things either. And bottom line, the letter writer wrote in because he/she is disturbed at these behaviors, feels "dead inside," and wants to address those feelings. Otherwise, why not just enjoy your magical/creative self instead of writing to an advice columnist? Yes, most of us faked illnesses to miss school as children. And many of us have been known to "call in sick" to work on occasion when we don't feel like going, are hungover, etc. Faking stomach cramps in the emergency room is not the same thing. Constantly lying to everyone around you is not the same thing. People who do those things do it because of an overwhelming craving for attention, and anyone who carries that kind of behavior into adulthood has some issues. But ok, if you are narcissistic and dishonest and love the way you are, don't seek help; I don't really care. It just seemed to me that maybe the LW wanted help. On the other hand, maybe he/she just wrote in to see his/her magical creative writing in print, and thus garner even MORE attention. Either way, my theory stands.
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Yeah, okay, so it's a little extreme....
...but (again, if this is real, as others had said, this letter is suspiciously well-written for someone your age), you do read like someone who should be writing novels or doing something heavily creative with your life.
The best advice I ever got from a professional writer was, "the drama should always be on the page."
So now I figure, if I'm really banging against the oft-restrictive walls of what everyone else keeps screaming at me that I should care about (sorry, but reality television, tract homes, IPods, smoothies, gossip, manicured lawns, the IRS and what your boss said to you at work or how your basketball team is doing are never, ever going to get my motor running in a real way)...then I'm clearly not writing enough.
As others have already said, you need a creative outlet. You'll find yourself in a much better place to cope with reality once you've got a place to deal with your frustration over its limitations.
I would also suggest meditation. Unlike drugs, there are few to no negative side effects, and you can get a sense of reality that is separate from all the petty crap most people obsess on and would like everyone else to obsess on too.
Like meandering guy, I find a lot of these responses very neurotic and, well...American. So he was afraid of the thin guy as a kid. For me it was the dwarf in the closet (shrug). So what? My parents didn't let me sleep under the bed, but I don't consider myself in need of medication. And I went through a pathological liar stage. Now I write novels. Again...so what? I see people lie like crazy, all the time at work...to cover their ass, to convince someone they're better than they are, to themselves so they don't have to face this or that. Most of the time, they just aren't self-aware enough to even notice. My lies were more creative, but I would hardly consider them outside a normal range of bizarre human behavior.
We're all freaks, folks. It's just that some of us are more conformist in our freakiness than others.
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I'm suffering that, too
I used to be so imaginative, but I don't have an imagination anymore - well, maybe I do, but its pretty derivative. I attribute it to my desire to fit in, increase the pool of people I can date, succeed in business, and not be singled out for a schoolyard-style pummeling. I've been feeling so bereft, that I am thinking of chucking all that and returning to the fascinations of my earlier years - the Society for Creative Anachronism and science fiction conventions. I understand there is new stuff for the 21st century - Burning Man, Steampunk and various other things that the vast majority think are "nerdy".
Maybe when the house is paid off....
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regarding the letter writer's age
I know the stereotype is that all people below the age of 25 write in 1337-speak and don't use punctuation. However, there are plenty of very talented young writers online. I don't find it at all unlikely that an 18-year-old could have written this letter.
Still shaking my head at the thought that faking an emergency room illness requiring a five day hospital stay and morphine is just like faking a stomachache to get out of school. Wow, I don't recall ever risking addiction to get out of school when I was a kid. I was a pretty imaginative kid myself, but I would have balked at causing an uproar resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in medical bills. Not to mention scaring the pee out of my parents for no good reason would have bothered me.
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My take
In writing, there is a difference between being true and being factual. A great novel is full of truth, but it isn't factual.
Let's look at this letter. The letter writer atates: "Now I lie uncontrollably, compulsively -- anything is game." Hmmm.
He or she talks about five days in the ER, successfully scamming the medical professionals into giving this person, in the letter only 18 now, morphine.
There is a factitious disorder called Munchausen's, in which a person uses faked physical or mental symptoms to receive medical services so they can be seen and treated as being ill. It's different from malingering, in which a person fakes symptoms for a concrete gain--such as stomach ache to stay home from school when there's a test, or calling in sick to take a mental health day or go for a job interview. Most people have heard of Munchausen's by Proxy, in which a parent fakes symptoms in their child. It's the same thing, but the person uses themselves. The disorder is named after the fictional character, Baron Munchausen, who regaled others with stories of his fabulous (but fabricated)adventures.
Or, maybe that's a lie. We were warned, weren't we?
Like another poster brought up, the thin, bald man who searches for the child in the child's bed, is a mighty interesting concept. Bald, eh? Even without the cries for rescue by Peter Pan, my child protection experience hears alarms and sees red flags whipping in the breeze.
Creative, bright and imaginative children always have a crisis when they realize that reality of their imaginary worlds has receded, and that those worlds are indeed only in their mind. I remember vividly when it happened to me at about fourteen. Creative, bright and imaginative adults find a joy and pleasure in the beauties and mysteries of the world outside their minds in ways denied to a child, and use their imagination differently, perhaps more concretely.
My take--This creative, bright and imaginative person has written a captivating essay on the transition from childhood to adulthood. There is a great deal of truth to it but perhaps not a lot that is factual.
And, if I'm wrong and it is totally factual, I think there are some very serious issues here, such as the possibility of sexual abuse and a psychiatric disorder.