It works great when you are directly under someone else's care (legally or otherwise, but especially legally). Once in high school I blew off a massive break assignment and then conveniently passed out when we were discussing it before handing it in. My teacher was notoriously impervious to bullshit, but as soon as a kid hits the floor that just...vanishes. The best part was that I got to sit there and insist on staying while being sent home on an excuses absence and ever-so-conveniently getting another day to finish the assignment.

In all fairness, I didn't fake the blackout. I occasionally get real faint wjen I stand up too quickly and have actually fallen down a couple of times, so I just didn't drink any water before fourth period that day, stood up as abruptly as possible to go to the pencil sharpener, and then didn't get back up right away once I let myself fall (rather than leaning on a desk or wall).

Unfortunately, I learned that a similar trick works in college with mental illness. I have some actual accommodations for depression, adhd, and mood instability, and these are usually enough. In the past though, when I felt like indulging my attention deficits or Wild Turkey self-medication I'd just go to office hours and insert and offhand remark about a rough week or "new meds" or even just say something that normies find morbid or unsettling. You can almost hear the brakes screeching as the conversation comes to a halt and then bam-- extra week for that paper you never even read the prompt for. As an added bonus, you sometimes get mad brownie points and an "in" because they appreciate your candor and the trust that you're placing in them. The college culture "against" stigmatization and neglect of mental illness are a glaringly exploitable flaw for anybody crazy and/or unscrupulous enough to go there.

I highly recommend against this behavior though. It is incredibly effective at what it accomplishes but it cascades and it makes whatever issues you are actually having that much worse. Keep faking stomachaches and busted ankles but for the love of Armok don't start to do it with actual health issues. (This isn't to say that you should not get the accomodations and leeway that you can aquire or reasonably expect to deserve, you absolutely should. Once you start to abuse them though you are impeding your own health and making stupid, reactionarycollege policies and behaviors that much worse. )