I don't like the word "fake" used here. I don't ever think symptoms and ways of being are ever "faked." People do things for a reason that helps them and that's what life/living is about. We choose our symptoms based on our own intrapsychology (it is a good concept kimmydawn :-) and needs that our environment throws up around us. Our illnesses are "personal" in that sense.

I wouldn't necessarily "tell" a T as much as I'd just act/try to respond differently and she'd see that. That's the whole point of therapy, to respond differently in ways that help us better than the older, "ignorant" ways we've chosen as children when we didn't have as many options and were under "attack" by stronger, abusive adults or other situations we just couldn't deal with straight out for some reason. If I said something to my T, it would be along the lines of how I felt I may have been "faking" and then would discuss what I meant and why I felt that way, etc. The bottom line is that it's all there to help us survive/live good, healthy lives and there's nothing "wrong" with how we choose to do that. If we want to change, heal, do things differently, we will.