What is a Compulsive Liar?
Compulsive lying happens out of habit. Unlike a sociopath, a compulsive liar is not overly manipulative. They usually bend the truth, whether big or small, because they feel more comfortable telling a lie rather than telling the truth. It is said that compulsive liar roots from childhood wherein an individual grows in an environment that telling a lie is a way of life. Therefore when that person grew up, lying seems to be very automatic and is easy to do.
Compulsive Liar Symptoms
The following are the viewed common symptoms seen in a compulsive liar:
- Low self-esteem – this is considered to be the hallmark of people who have compulsive lying disorder. Their inferiority complex drives them to create stories in order to uplift their emotional regard of themselves.
- Negative Personality traits – other than having a low self-esteem, most of compulsive liars have underlying personality disorders such as being manipulative and narcissistic.
- Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – people who have ADHD will usually resort to compulsive lying in order to gain attention. People who have ADHD, if not checked promptly, would lead them to develop behaviors of uncontrollable lying.
- Addictions – a person who has addictions toward gambling, alcohol and the like may have the tendencies to develop behaviors of compulsive lying.
- Personality disorders or bipolar disorders – When someone is having this kind of personality, he or she will experience a period of depression and mania. Depression happens when one has very low self-esteem while the opposite is true to mania, one feels so much about themselves. Being impulsive is very common in this type of behavior, and for them it is easier to tell a lie than acknowledge reality.
- Recalcitrant of the truth – a compulsive liar doesn’t acknowledge the truth even when presented with facts. They will always deny everything and believe what they want to believe. Forcing the person to accept the truth will just lead to further lying and might even lead to emotional outburst.
Tests
Polygraph tests and compulsive lying are associated with each other. Polygraph test or otherwise known as lie detector tests have been commonly used in testing a compulsive liar. Although lie detector tests will not really objectively test the person of being a compulsive liar, however, the physiological responses will be the gauge whether the person is telling the truth or not.
- Blood pressure
- Respiration
- Pulse
- Skin conductivity – the amount skin electrical resistance
So how does this polygraph testing done? Polygraph testing starts by interviewing the person being examined. The information given during the interview will be used in creating control questions. The subject will also be instructed to intentionally lie, noting the his or her responses in that particular situation. In this case, the tester should be able to determine whether the subject is lying or not. After which, the subject will be asked by a series of questions. Some of the questions can be answered truthfully such as “Is your name Shirley?” while other questions are so designed that the person being asked might be forced to lie such as “Have you ever stolen something from somebody else?” The other important questions that are being thrown at the subject are the questions that the tester would really want to know about. The subject will pass or fail
Additional tests are done to help establish whether a person is a compulsive liar or not because polygraph testing is not really a hundred percent accurate and definite. Some non-scientific ways of detecting whether a person is lying or not:
- Fake or forced smile – a genuine smile will take more than just the slight opening of the mouth and the lower jaw. It doesn’t fail to show that the person is truly happy because the face will surely lighten up and show a little of their teeth.
- Too much detail – a person who is telling the truth need not to tell so much details.
- Excessive sweating – Nervousness can be felt by the person who is lying, and because the person is anxious of getting caught, then he or she will feel too much tension and increased perspiration indicates it.
- Eye Contact – a normal reaction by someone if being asked is to look upward because one is trying to remember something; however, if a person will look at you straight into the eye is probably lying.
- Body language – a person lying may act uneasy toward the person he or she is talking with. The individual often unconsciously turn away from the other person.
The things mentioned are not all truly reliable, but these are signs that you can take note of to at least guide you of not being fooled.
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Compulsive Liar Treatment
People with psychiatric problems
Most of the time, compulsive lying can also be associated with an existing psychiatric problem, so it is better to counsel them and give them proper medications to make them as stable as they can be.
Treatment for people without psychiatric illness
These people have no mental illness to begin with. They just want to get ahead of the others. They want to be much better than anybody else that’s why they resort to creating lies to make them look good and they actually feel really good about it. For people who experience such things, then he or she needs to see a counselor so that management of this behavior can be done early and can be managed promptly.
