Why Are Some People Just Natural Born Liars?

When it comes to telling the truth, are you just as bad as Pinocchio? You may think the question doesn’t apply to you, but maybe to someone you know. Perhaps you just find it hard to admit the truth, because in reality, we all lie.

You know how it is when someone backs you into a corner and forces you to confess. Your adrenaline starts to flow; your heart starts to pound, and before you know it, a lie falls out of your mouth.

Fight, Flight or Lie

They say that whenever people are confronted, our first instincts are either fight, or flight. Personally, I’ve noticed another response in people, and that is to respond with a lie.

Most of the time, it is not even planned, but like Pinocchio, some folks can’t seem to help themselves. When faced with telling the truth, they decide to lie instead.

For those of us who fall into this category, for the most part, it’s considered normal behavior. But other individuals who are a little more extreme, may be dealing with a serious lying disorder.

If the topic of this post is making you just a little bit uncomfortable, then chances are; this information is hitting just a little too close to home. But you probably don’t have to worry about it, because, for one thing, lying is wrong, but it is also normal.

As you know, there are many instances where telling a small lie (no matter what color you call it) actually prevented you from hurting someone’s feelings.

If that was the only damage that it did, it was probably more than worth it, to tell that little fib. As much as we hate to admit it, some lies are actually beneficial and have a positive result, not that this is any reason to make a habit of it.

Liars Always Lie

The other reason that I wouldn’t worry too much when it comes to telling lies is this. If your normal reaction in life is always to tell the truth, and your conscious bothers you if you don’t, you are probably not a LIAR. Liars always lie, that is why they are called liars.

If you make a habit of lying all the time, you definitely have a problem, no matter how much you feel you can justify the lies.

However, if you are among the millions and billions of people who tend to resort to a lie in extreme situations, it is safe to say that you’re okay.

After all, the fact that you’re even worried about it is enough to prove you’re well-balanced in this area. Unlike the fictional Pinocchio character, a person that is labeled as a liar has no conscience whatsoever about telling a lie!

When Lying is Serious

Obviously, lying can become a serious situation under any circumstances, but when mental health plays a role in the cause of the lying, things can get a lot more serious than usual.

After I wrote the above information, I decided to see what the experts had to say on the subject, and this is what I learned about pathological and compulsive liars. Unbeknown to me, there’s a difference in the two.

Pathological Liars

Pathological liars are people who lie any and all the time, just to get their way. They’re the people that don’t even realize they’re lying (no matter how hard we find that to believe).

Just like you might imagine, this is a serious condition, and definitely not like the typical scenarios where people tend to tell “a little lie”. Pathological lying is something altogether different. According to Medicinenet:

“It is viewed as a coping mechanism developed in early childhood and is often associated with some other type of mental health disorder like an antisocial personality disorder.”

• Pathological liars have little regard and no respect for the rights of others, or about how they feel.
• Pathological liars are often typically manipulative and considered to be very cunning.
• Pathological liars create extravagant stories that they allow to go on indefinitely, often tweaking the lie over time, to keep it going. They may even start to believe the lies themselves.

Compulsive Liar

Apparently, compulsive liars are not the same type of sly, manipulative liars that pathological liars are. Compulsive liars lie out of habit, and they’ve been bending and stretching the truth for so long, lying just feels more natural to them.

But regardless how natural lying may feel, doing so creates all kinds of problems for those doing the lying, and those being lied to. In these extreme instances, some type of treatment is needed and available but only under certain conditions.

The same Medicinenet website also had this to say:

“The success of the treatment depends upon whether the person actually agrees that they are a compulsive liar…”

• Mental health may or may not play a role with compulsive liars.
• Compulsive liars are thought to have started lying from early childhood, probably due to being in an environment that regularly fostered lying.
• Most compulsive liars use lying because they find it to be the easiest way to to avoid confrontations with the truth.

If you or someone you know, might be suffering from one of these conditions, no treatment will be able to help, unless the condition is acknowledged.

Hopefully, the information you have just read can help in making the right assessment about when, why, and how much you lie.

******************************************************

FOLLOW JUSTISS GOODE FOR MORE LIFE LESSONS, ADVICE, SELF HELP, AND HUMAN BEHAVIOR STORIES. HELP IMPROVE YOUR BODY & YOUR PSYCHE - Enjoy a little bit of Justiss every day :-)