What Kind of Person Would Fake Cancer?

When I first heard the story about Jessica Vega who faked having cancer in order to receive money from donors to have a lavish wedding, I immediately thought what the rest of the crowd was chanting, “Evil! Evil! Evil!” I also heard, “Karma will get her back!” Many things were said in anger, and rightfully so. What kind of person would fake cancer - a disease that takes away our friends, that takes away our loves ones, as well as ourselves? Who can actually live with themselves with a clear conscience of telling such an outrageous lie? What kind of person can rip through the wallets of sympathetic hearts in order to gain a lavish wedding and materialistic things? But if you really think about this woman, she displays every symptom of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. It’s just as serious as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

NPD has a few well know traits:
  • Shows arrogant or haughty behaviors and attitude. 
  • Is often envious of others or believes others are envious of them. 
  • Lacks empathy; is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others. (Hence why she doesn’t feel bad about taking the money from sympathetic friends/family and strangers.) 
  • Is interpersonally exploitive; ie: takes advantage of others to achieve his or her own ends. 
  • Has a sense of entitlement, ie: unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations. 
Jessica’s lawyer said, “Sorry for what happened and hopes the people who showed her kindness aren’t disillusioned or less likely to help others in the future. She got caught up in something and it just got out of hand.” I truly believe that. I think she just did something not knowing how responsive and quickly this would manifest and she just couldn’t get out of it at that point. Still, she should learn from the verdict/sentence so she’ll know better, but most of all, she should really get diagnosed and treated for whatever mental illness she has. I’m only guessing what she has - I’m not a doctor. Anyone can do a little research and find more about the behaviors of others if they want. There is not one person who is “so called normal” that would fake having cancer. It’s almost borderline sociopath because if you fake cancer, you have no regards for people suffering from it or those who have a loved one going through it. You disregard any emotion that anyone has. That’s mental illness in my book. So while we’re all quick to make a harsh judgment on this woman’s crime, or should I say, her “evil manipulation”, we can also pray for her or hope that she gets better.

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