Pathological Liar

Last reviewed by Dr.Mary on August 7th, 2018.

What is a Pathological Liar?

A person who is pathological liar refers to someone who lies compulsively or impulsively; he lies on a regular basis and is usually unable to control his or her lying even though they are aware of the consequences one can face when the time comes that the truth will come out. Although there are times when we need to lie, but in these instances, the intent to lie is geared toward achieving a positive result. May it be because you need to protect someone from getting harmed or you need to maintain peace in the environment where you are. Note that lying with aiming for a positive result can is done in a controlled, thoughtful, and reasonable manner. However, pathological liars often tell stories that have a demeaning quality to them; therefore, pathological lying is caused by a pathology, it occurs on a regular basis, and the one telling the lie does it compulsively or impulsively and has self-destructing effect.


The following are the types of pathological liars:

Pseudologia Fantastica

  • This is otherwise known as daydreaming pathological liar.
  • This is considered to be the more extreme form of pathological lying because the afflicted individual makes a matrix of fiction and facts mixed almost perfectly together, making the false and the true events indistinguishable.
  • This pseudologue type of pathological liars make up stories that are quite plausible, but in the long run, things will start falling apart and the truth will eventually prove them wrong.
  • Since they are fond of making up stories, they are usually anxious of getting caught, but they seem to be really very dynamic in making up their lies because once they are pushed into the corner and found out lying, they tend to modify their lies just to get out of it and make everything believable, again.

Habitual Liar

By the name itself, habitual liars come from doing the act of lying by habit. A habitual liar had done lying very frequently that lying seems to be automatic and effortless. It has becomes a reflex, and the person telling the lie don’t seem to care at all anymore of the consequences of his actions. However, once the act has been done and he or she comes to think about it, he or she is definitely aware that it was a lie.

The following are the usual reasons habitual liars have when doing the act:

  • Mislead a rival
  • Prevent confrontation to happen
  • Defense mechanism secondary to a lack of knowledge or cover up an embarrassment
  • To entertain or please others or even self
  • To gain unearned praise or avoid disappointment

Impulsive Pathological Liar

This type of pathological lying is usually associated with impulse control disorders such as kleptomania, pathological gambling, compulsive shopping, etc. The person lies just to fulfill his or her needs without considering the future negative impact the act might cause.

Pathological Liar Associated with Substance Abuse

Self-deception is often associated with the addictive process. People who are addicted to any substances or to any thing will do every way possible to get what they want. The same is true to lying. When one is addicted to something, he or she might resort to lie to avoid conflict, embarrassment, and to get the substances that they wanted.

Pathological Liar Symptoms

The following are notable symptoms of a pathological liar:

Mental illness

Pathological liars are almost always associated with personality disorders, depression, bipolar disorders, etc.

Attention

  • Most of the time, pathological liars always seek most of other people’s attention and they love to be the center of attraction.
  • They feel really good while a crowd is gathered around them, which leads them to lie all the more

Exaggeration

These people tend to exaggerate things and make up unbelievable stories

Defensive

They tend to become defensive when they are confronted about their lies

Negative

Some of these pathological liars create stories that they have a seemingly bad life because they would love the attention people might have on them.

Self-Esteem

People with low self-esteem sometimes develop the qualities of a pathological liar to at least lift their spirits high.

Pathological Liar Causes

  • Guilt and repercussions – Sometimes when a person has done something close to being unforgivable, they resort to telling a lie to avoid suffering the consequences of their actions.
  • Fear
  • Mental disorders such as borderline mental retardation, learning disabilities, etc.
  • Low self-esteem
  • Dysfunctional family
  • Sexual or physical abuse
  • Impulse control disorders such as kleptomania
  • Accommodating personality traits
  • Personality disorders such as narcissism, borderline, histrionic, etc.
  • Substance abuse

Pathological Liar Treatment

The best way to start in the treatment of pathological lying is psychotherapy. However, what makes things difficult about this is that pathological liars do not admit that they need help in this aspect because they themselves do not realize that they are always telling a lie already because they seemed to have believed their lies altogether. Furthermore, pathological liars should also be screened for other mental and personality disorders so that psychotropic therapy can be done in conjunction with psychotherapy.

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