S05 Ep03: Constant Crisis
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What is the warning for this episode?
True Story Media. Before we begin, a quick warning that in this show, we discuss child abuse, and this content may be difficult for some listeners. If you or anyone you know is a victim or survivor of medical child abuse, please go to munchausensupport.com to connect with professionals who can help. With the elements of evangelical missionary work and transracial adoption in this season's case, I've gone into some unfamiliar territory. But one thing about this story that feels very familiar is the way that Sophie Hartman appears to forever be in some kind of crisis. She seemed to move from one big drama to the next. This was one of the primary things we heard from the numerous folks we spoke to on background for this story, whether it was people who knew Sophie in high school or over the last few years here in Seattle. They told us there always seemed to be something, whether it was Sophie's own health issues or dramas, this big adoption saga, or something having to do with one of her daughters.
Sophie was constantly mired in some kind of battle. And this is something I remember so vividly with my sister Megan, her constant dramas and our attempts to explain them away. So yes, okay, Megan shaved off her hair in high school and pretended to be losing it. But you know, teenage girls go through stuff. Okay, so she cashed all those bad checks, but she was really embarrassed about it and she probably learned her lesson, right? Nobody's perfect. Okay, so she did fake a whole pregnancy, but you know, we didn't like that boyfriend she was with. Maybe this is his fault, somehow. And now she's got this new boyfriend, and he seems so nice. And maybe he'll help even her out. Maybe this is all behind us now. But it was never behind us. And what was coming was always worse than the last thing. It wasn't until I started talking to experts that I understood how compulsive Megan's behavior had really become. She had this need to keep upping the ante, like she was an addict whose tolerance was increasing. And it seemed to destroy everything in her path.
So we kept waiting for the crisis to be over. But the truth was, we could patch the holes, my parents could bail her out one more time, we could make excuses for her once again, but it would never, ever be over. We have plenty of evidence, both from Sophie's own journals and from the recollections of folks we spoke to on background, that Sophie's pattern of constant crisis began long before Zambia, but certainly it escalated once she went abroad. In her memoir, Sophie tells this heroic story of emerging victorious after an agonizing battle to adopt her daughters. So okay, the battle is won. Smooth sailing now, right? But in a pattern that would ratchet up dramatically over the next several years, for Sophie and her girls, the minute one crisis faded, the next was just beginning. People believe their eyes. That's something that is so central to this topic because we do believe the people that we love when they're telling us something.
If we didn't, you could never make it through your day. I'm Andrea Dunlop, and this is Nobody Should Believe Me. Just a quick reminder that my new book, The Mother Next Door, Medicine, Deception, and Munchausen by Proxy, is on sale right now wherever books are sold. The book was an Amazon editor's pick for nonfiction, and the Seattle Times called it a riveting deep dive into MVP. And if you are an audiobook lover and you like hearing my voice, which I'm assuming you do since you're listening here... you should know that I narrate the audio book as well. If you have already read the book, which I know so many of you have, thank you so much. Please let me know your thoughts and questions at helloandnobodieshouldbelieveme.com and we will bring my co-author, Detective Mike Weber, on for a little book Q&A and post-retirement tell-all special. Thanks for your support.
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