Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a person who frequently lies from one who suffers from mythomania
Everyone has lied at some point. This is an undeniable fact. In fact, although honesty is considered the highest moral value, it is possible that lying is accepted in some situations. You can lie to avoid revealing a surprise party or get rid of someone who will only bring unhappiness into your life, for example. But what about people who lie for no reason?
Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish a person who often lies from one who suffers from mythomania – a condition in which we can talk about compulsive lying. In this disorder, called mythomania, a person lies compulsively, constantly falsifies and distorts reality, in most cases he himself does not realize that he is lying and can even believe his own fictions and accept them as real.
Mythomania is more common in men than in women. Among the main personality characteristics of these people are low self-esteem, narcissism, little or no social skills, and a tendency to distrust other people.
What is going on in these people’s heads to lie incessantly for no reason?
Need for approval
This is one of the most common reasons for lying, but in this particular case there is no real environmental pressure to do so. This means that the subject, despite being in a social circle that accepts and welcomes him, continues to feel that he must win the approval of others and therefore lies.
Importance is given to the content of the lies
This situation is on more than one level, so let’s see it with an example. A man lies to his friends, saying he has a lot of money. When they find out that this is not the case, everyone is shocked. They are all of similar financial status and there has never been a collective admiration for those people who have more. Here the lie has nothing to do with the pressure of the environment, but with the inner judgment of the liar himself. For him, having a lot of money is one aspect that makes someone successful and he wants to be that way.
Feeling out of control
It may seem absurd, but fictional stories are under the control of the teller, not reality. For this reason, when he tells a story, he modifies it in a fantastic way. That is, the liar takes control of the narrative and the events he presents.
In this way, details and facts that could contradict each other are avoided.
Today’s invention is a continuation of yesterday’s invention
Usually these people get so far from reality in their lies that they themselves entangle a chain of lies that could hardly be unraveled.
They say what they wish were true
Although it may seem unlikely, repeating a lie many times can turn it into a collective truth. For this reason, many people narrate certain facts and aspects of themselves that reflect what they would like to be in reality.
To him who utters it, it is not a lie
After all, the words that come out of our mouths represent a message that has passed through the filters of our perception, mental processing, and memory capacity. That is, sometimes a lie to others can be a truth to us.
