Why can’t some people stop lying?

Who has never lied to someone in their life? To protect themselves, to avoid being punished, to avoid a conflict or even to obtain certain advantages, human beings lie. But you may have already come across people who lie almost all the time, to the point of erasing the pragmatic dimension of the lies, and who even end up believing their stories when they are exaggerated. They are called “pathological liars”.

In everyday life West Franceclinical psychologist Hillary Ammon claims that pathological liars “often lie for no reason, with no clear benefit.” A study also suggests that the brain can eventually get used to lies. Generally, pathological liars are not dangerous and their habit stems from a difficult past. “These are people who have a fragile ego, that is to say a strong dependence on the gaze of others. Often, these lies are there to avoid suffering. The mythomaniac will invent an extraordinary life to escape an absolutely uninteresting life.describes psychologist Christine Grou at the microphone of Radio-Canada.

emotional shocks

Whether mythomania no longer appears in the DSM-5the definitive work of classifications of mental disorders, chronic lies may be associated with other disordersas explained by the specialized site Qare : narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder (or borderline), factitious disorder and delusional disorder of the megalomaniac type. Pathological liars have “a deep need to escape reality that often comes from an emotional shock (death of a loved one, announcement of an incurable illness, school or professional failure, disappointment in love, etc.)”continues the media. “Furthermore, we often observe in mythomaniacs gullible, manipulative or absent parent figures.” A psychiatric and therapeutic follow-up is recommended in order to work on the self-esteem problems of pathological liars, and thus help them to reconcile with reality.