“Liar, Liar pants on fire….” So your wondering about pathological liars, well my friend you have come to the right place. My entire life I have know people who lie, I my self have told several lies in my troubled-some youth, so needless to say I know a lot about people who tell lies. There is one person in particular that I have know for many, many years she is a Pathological liar. She lies about what she ate for dinner, she lies about her hobbies anything and everything really. Now I know that confronting this person is not the right way to approach her, and here's why…
A pathological liar is usually a person who tells lies to make them selves look better, feel better and seem better. These people are often depressed with their lives, they often have very low self esteem and are lacking in social society. Confronting such a person can cause an emotional breakdown, where the lies they have told when confronted bring the person to the reality they are trying so desperately not to face.
So how do you help the pathological liar, well one approach is helping in a very subtle manner. Catch them in small fibs, if they said one day they spent ten bucks in gas to get somewhere and then tell the same story and change the number to twenty bucks, a small reminder it was only ten bucks. And do it often let them know with out being blunt you are listening, and in a way watching. Subconsciously the person will begin to catch themselves before they speak. This process can take many years and it may or may not work, I am not a professional Psychologist, just a human with experience.
Being lied to whether intentional or nor makes us the victim so to speak, feel disrespected. Of course, this person isn't trying to make you feel bad but rather make them selves feel better.
If you feel the person truly needs help beyond your capabilities, or you want more professional advice, don't be afraid to ask. A psychologist, a doctor someone in those professional can give advice and offer other resources. This person obviously has deeper issues then just telling lies and those are the issues that need to be dealt with the most. And if you yourself suffer from being a pathological liar, it is time to face the truth, “you need help!”
How to Spot a Pathological Liar
- They change their story all the time
- They will exaggerate and lie about everything, the smallest and easiest things to tell the truth about and the big serious things
- What ever you do, they can do it better.
- They often don't value the truth, and can often live in their own type of reality.
- They will act defensively when questioned or challenged, they see their lies as not hurting anyone
- They lie for sympathy or to seem better
- They usually never own up to the lies
- They contradict what they say, they lose track of the many lies told
- They lie because they are insecure
for example:
"troubled-some" is wrong - it should be "troublesome".
also, "someone in those professional" should be more like "someone working in one of those professions"