I had a friend who regularly presented a string of bizarre illnesses and every time we talked to each other, it always seemed to centre around these illnesses.
I spent quite a few years providing a sympathetic ear, trying to understand but also staying skeptical and non-committal.
As time went on, it was always the same phone call...
Him "Hi, how are u doing?"
Me "Ah not too bad blah blah blah......"
Two or three minutes of me going on about me ...then:
"So how are you?"
"Oh (*sigh*) not too good actually, I've discovered I've got skladoomitty kababah's syndrome"
"Oh dear, have you tried this?"
"Yes but..."
"Have you tried that?"
"Yes, but..."
Then on and on it would go.
Every time he phoned me, it was some new "debilitating" but increasingly unheard of physical condition and the more and more calls I got, the more and more I started to believe that his "illnesses" were psychological, especially as EVERY time I tried to give advice, he would instantly shut it down with some bullet-proof reason why any of my suggestions wouldn't work.
I tried every trick in the book to try and help him, even adding an element of humour ...eg
"I tell you what you've got! HYPERCHONDRIA!!/Oh no! Not that as well!!"
This worked for a while but each call became more and more doom laden, to the point that I started to believe that I was being manipulated into playing some sort of sick game with this guy. The latest "illness" was some bizarre sound sensitivity thing that meant he could not leave the house, or do this or that or the other.
In the end, having ignored quite a lot of phone calls from him, I made some quip on Facebook about cold callers and using a referee whistle and he blew his top at me. It was at THIS point that I'd had enough and I told him exactly what I thought, not in too many words, but enough. He sent me a rude PM and I unfriended him.
The I received a PM from him saying something about being ignored followed by "Ciao" (as in: goodbye forever).
Conclusion: I can help some people, but not all.