Compulsive lying - personality disorder

[Andy008]

I have known a guy for several years now ( i used to work with him) and he still drinks in many of the pubs back where I used to live. Myself and several other people have noticed that he literally cannot seem to stop lying, so much so that he does not seem to consciously realise he's doing it. Whilst everyone lies to a degree, usually so-called "white lies", this bloke seems to have even convinced himself that what he's saying is true, it's hard to describe without meeting him, but it's almost like he's created his own fantasy world. Is lying to this extent a sign of mental illness?

[Fish Kid]

Fight fire with fire.

I had the pleasure of working with someone who sounds very much like your drinking comrade. At first we would just ignore some of his outlandish lies, after a while we made up even more prepostorous ones. This resulted in many amusing debates in the pub.

P.S. I'm not sure it is a mental illness, my colleague was just a nob.

[smudge]

We knew a fella who was exactly the same & people around him, used to discreetly turn around to look at each other's expressions when he was rambling on with his lies. He would try to convince others & himself that he'd been here, been there, had this, had that, etc., & we all knew most of it wasn't true.

He was classed by most as a champion bullsh*tter, but I can read people like a book & felt he was very insecure & needed help.

[Trojanfarce]

Similar to Fish and Smudge, but I went to school with this particular Billy Bulls**t. His outlandish claims were believable then whilst being difficult to disprove so initially he was 'da man', centre of attention and all that. However, when we all left school, several of us kept in touch and started comparing notes on his stories. They started getting stupid, (he once told us he'd joined the Israeli army after going out there on a kibbutz) so none of us bother anymore.

Mental illness? I doubt it in this case, just an attention seeking muppet trying desperately to cover up his own shortcomings.

[OBonio]

My brother is like this. I put it down to his diabetes. Got a good sized chip shop on his shoulder about it. Thinks the world owes him something because of it. He tells people he has a degree in business and finance. He did do an HND, but failed it (because a group project he did wasn't completed by the other members of his group... ). It ends up he changes his group of friends every 4 or 5 years. He seems to regress back to 18 year olds who believe his BS, then when they grow up a bit and realise it is only BS they move on and he regresses again.

It's very sad, but he's 35 coming up and I fear he'll never change his ways.

Mentally ill? No. Just very insecure about himself. He needs to be impressing people all the time. He even puts on a cockney accent to support his 'Spurs fan' status. We've never lived in London in our lives.

[4getmenot]

Yer we had a bloke like that in our pub. Although he used to lie about things that were pointless and wouldnt impress anyone at all. But there is a mentail illness like this but I dont know what its called, where people create their own little life if they are unhappy in their own.

[Drusilla1S]

The attached is interesting Andy and they may even be interested in your comments for further study.

http://www.osric.com/university/pathlying.html

[andy-hughes]

I think it is a sign of serious insecurity - the notion that your friend's life and conversation are simply not interesting enough to be worth mentioning, unless embleished - why not just side-step the lies, and let them go? It's not hurting anyone.

[andy-hughes]

I have to tell a story about a guy i was at college with - exactly the same sort of stories - 'three German officers buried under his garden shed', ' a friend called Tony who loaned him his 650cc Triumph bike', and so on.

One day my friend advises me that we are lunching in a local, and expensive Indian restaurant. I advise i can't afford it, and he says it's OK, Patrick is paying. patrick whom? Patrick Moore. What, as in the astronomer Patrick Moore? That's right, he's a family friend.

This I have to see, so off we go, and he keeps up the lie right until we get to the door of the restaurant when ....Patrick Moore invites us in, and buys us lunch!!!!

You just never can tell .......

[smudge]

Yes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf comes to mind there too Andy.

[flashpig]

Funny story, but how do we know whether to believe you, andy?

[Trojanfarce]

Blimey AH, having read your posts here and everywhere else on AB, I think that you should go into practise with Englishbird, you seem to have a decent word to say about just about every situation and everyone, which is massively commendable. If you ever wanna run for Pope (or whatever your persuasion), you get my vote!!

[dove]

lmao@Trojanforce

[joko]

as AH's story shows, sometime people just can't accept other peoples good fortune and assume it must lies - they then tell everyone else about these 'lies' and the person gets a rep as a liar, and soon everything they say is treated with scorn.

sometimes it is the accusers who have a chip on their shoulder.

when i was 29 i once told a 19 year old about a song called 'gordon is a moron' - she just looked at me and smiled, which showed she either didn't believe me, didn't care or already knew and wasn't bothered - i assured her again it was true. she gave me the look again and nodded - i turned to a much older guy and said 'isn't it?' and he confirmed my story - she suddenly came to life with shock and amazement that anyone would call a song that. i was mildly annoyed that she would think i would bother my arse to make something that pathetic up - truth is often stranger than fiction.

could have just been youthful arrogance on her part but if i hadn't confirmed it she would have gone away thinking i was a compulsive liar and therefore anything i said in the future or past must be a lie too.

i had not know her that long but it made me think how many other things i have said and not noticed her 'look' because i wasn't looking at her face, that she has thought i made up.

[joko]

having said that i have a few people i know whose lies are so blatant and clearly said as a platform or excuse that i do think it can be some kind of mental illness

one girl decided that as i never compliment her outfit i must hate her clothes - therefore i am always slagging them off!!...??? - go figure! i have no feelings on her clothes whatsoever.
she is on so much medication though that i think she dreams or imagines things and cannot distinguish and they become fact to her.

this is only the tip of the ice berg with her though - she told everyone her dad abused her (he didn't) she told a girl whose sister had leukamia and her best friend had killed herself, that she'd had a dream that she saw the girl lying in bed with all her hair falling out and that her dead friend had come to her in the dream and told her to befriend this girl!! she later admitted that it was a lie "I had to do something to get through your front door" she said like it was nothing!!!

another guy - known him for about 15 years - said he would take me out for a few driving lessons, but before the first one he had told almost the whole pub that we were practically a couple and i was always on the phone saying i needed him! fortunately everyone in the pub knows us both, knows what he's like and and knew it was utter b-locks.

obviously with him it was a sort of attempt to show off (that he'd got a babe like me! lol), but with her it is downright sick and twisted - and potentially dangerous.

[Trojanfarce]

Dove - Could you translate as I'm not sure what you mean? Cheers

[smudge]

Trojanfarce - LMAO is an abbreviation for:

Laughing My Ar$e Off

Hope that helps!

[Trojanfarce]

Cheers Smudge, I'd found a few other variants and was wondering......!!

[smudge]

Your'e very welcome Trojanfarce - just found this list with many more Here .

[Trojanfarce]

Cheers again Smudge, I can now join the ranks of the textually edumercated!

[smudge]

You're welcome Trojanfarce - I never use text speak on my mobile phone, or on here, expect for the odd LOL, etc.

I loved English too much at school!