Anybody know a pathological liar?

I'm just curious. I have one in my family - and to be honest, I find it frightening how he can look me in the eyes and tell me lie, after lie, after lie.

And therefore lies to everyone--a little bit different I think. Unfortunately, as I think you might recall, that kind of behavior seems to influence others to lie on their behalf as well...I am not quite sure which is worse to tell you the truth. Both bad.:(

Even when someone catches him in a lie, he covers it with something equally ridiculous.

Scarier still, some people believe him anyway.

:hug:

and yes, part of the reason he's my ex-boss is because his lies came back and bit him in the ass too many times.

Or maybe there's a lot less tolerance in the workforce vs a family situation.

A former president of the board of the nonprofit where I work was incorrigible. His favorite game was to one-up everyone he talked to. No matter what you'd say you did, he always did it too, but one magnitude (at least) bigger and better. He told me at various times that he was an award-winning photographer, a stand-up comedian who worked regularly at Caroline's, a skydiver whose parachute failed to open three times (or four, and counting), a member of the 1972 Belgian soccer team, a CIA agent... You name it, he did it. What a dangerous game that is. He got caught a lot, and he never learned and probably never will.

Oooohhhhh, the stories I could tell you - they would make Forrest Gump's life look boring in comparison. :eyes:

:hug:

Have you ever talked to him about it?

Here's my favorite:

He was in the Army from 1963-1966. No higher ranking than a GI; no college degree. In that time period, he claims that he WAS NOT sent to Vietnam because his intellect was too threatening to the higher-ranking officers. BUT....

I've caught him telling people that he served in Vietnam. He was never in Vietnam. He fucked around in South Korea for 11 months in 1965.

Furthermore, I have spent years of my life doing volunteer work for Vietnam vets - and if there's one thing they HATE HATE HATE, it's what they call "Nam-wanna-be's" or "Nam posers".

Then, he claims that he was the chief secretary to the X-Files at the Pentagon.

I have A LOT of friends whose fathers are lifetimers in the armed forces. A lot of them are highly-ranked officers. I've asked many of them what it takes to have a position like the one my father claims to have. Long story short - um, NO. He never held that position at the Pentagon. He did work there, but not as Chief Secretary.

And then when I ask him for some sort of proof, he says "It's top secret. Any proof of my position was destroyed".

Just a coincidence, I'm sure. But he also liked to insinuate that his service was highly secret and sensitive during the war.

One of his supposed falls from an airplane with a faulty parachute was supposedly over Thailand on one of these missions, and he was only saved because he fell into a deep pile of mud, he said. He was in so deep he had to be pulled out by a water buffalo bull. A co-worker here who heard someone re-tell that story said, "You should have asked 'Was the bull shitting?'"

not really.

At least not to the extent that I would consider them pathological.

That's get hard after awhile.

I had a cousin like that, nobody believed a word he said.

He lies about absolutely everything. It's just amazing. He recently told me he's been a Democrat his whole life. Yet I remember him telling me a few years back he really missed Uncle Ronnie!

He didn't lie for any utilitarian reason. He just lied.

It was amazing the stuff this guy would come out with. He'd worked in a rodeo, he'd served in Vietnam, he'd graduated from Carnegie Mellon - all absolute lies.

it was mostly during her teen years and thank gods she's since grown out of it. she could look you square in the eye and tell you the sky is green and grass is blue and everyone would believe her. a great source of frustration for me when i was younger is that i could tell people that the sky is blue and grass is green and they'd tell me i was lying. go figure :shrug:

but it's all water under the bridge now and, like i said, i'm just glad that she's grown out of it

My parents completely dropped the ball with that one. They thought the lies and thefts were cute. She lied when it wasn't necessary. I grew up with neighbourhood people always coming up to me asking why she always lied.

I feel terrible if I lie.

Prior to that, I would use that term to describe anybody that lied a lot. But after knowing this woman, I stopped doing that. It is VERY real, and it's VERY disturbing.

She would lie about anything and everything- and usually she stood to gain nothing from someone believing the lies. Unfortunately for me, one lie that I did believe early on was that she had been paying my health insurance (as per my contract). Little did I know that I was not covered for over a year.

if you can refuse to fall for their line of crap, but just study the delivery, then there's a lot of money to be made in telling a skillful lie

you need to be able to turn it on and off, tho, the ones who can't turn it off and take it home w. them end up having v. unhappy lives

it's common for them to be bipolar/addicted, a demon that is rarely conquered even w. treatment/meds -- in that case, once you've taken whatever you're supposed to learn from this, i just get away from the person and don't associate w. them any more


this is way beyond the funny tales abt vietnam heroics, ufo x-filers (do we know the same guy?) and so on -- many of the lies were not just entertaining tall tales which is OK but destructuve (claims a bf had murdered his last gf for example, claims a friend had molested her baby, for another -- the person who made these particular claims did time for extortion but not a lot of time -- a year -- compared to the families she destroyed)

Though I don't really think of him that way... I guess because I think he truly believes the lies he spews constantly. Now, I also know someone who lies all the time, but I think they're fully aware of their lies, they're just doing it for attention or to get something out of someone. I find the latter much easier to deal with... at least they live on the same planet and share the same reality as I do. The ex, on the other hand, I find impossible to deal with.

Twenty-ish years ago.

I can think of no other way to describe her than pathological liar. I don't even know if she KNEW she was lying, but one literally could not trust a single thing she said.