How to know if a person is a compulsive liar?

Lying is part of people’s daily lives. Sometimes it is used to get rid of a problem, in order to avoid hurting the feelings of others and even to get away with it.

A study from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, which analyzed more than 100,000 lies from 632 participants over three months, found that 1% of people tell more than 15 lies a day.

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The psychologist María José Avilés explains that there are three types of lies:

• Prosocials: Avoid hurting or hurting others.
• Antisocial: For malicious purposes.
• Compulsive or pathological: They have a behavior to lie.

At this last point, there are people who create a dependence on lies that becomes even a biological necessity Although it is not considered a pathology but rather a symptom or set of symptoms of a disorder or a certain type of personality.

“It is always a danger especially for the person who lies, that is because it looks like rejection because finally I start to lie and reality no longer agrees … So the risk that this person who repeatedly lies has is to be rejected and no longer being able to have a normal life, not adapting, for example, to a work context. to a family context, to their intimate relationships, friends, that is, they already begin to reject him and no matter how much he tries to tell the truth he will always have the need to lie because that is the only way he accepts his reality”Explained the specialist, who also has a diploma in clinical psychology.

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At the level of personalities, he indicates, that there is no specific one for compulsive liars, this can be histronic, also borderline.

“They are addicted to this behavior, to this behavior, and the same thing happens to a substance addict, they have anxiety for wanting to lie, then that anxiety and low self-esteem they have and the few social skills because they also do not have many social skills, their only social skill is lying so that others will look at them and accept them ”, he added.

The specialist pointed out that the origin of these compulsive lies may be genetic, psychological and even social which also causes therapy to be the same for all of us.

Compulsive lies can lead to delusions of grandeur or persecution within the individual.

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“There are multiple factors, it can be biopsychosocial, which is what is learned within clinical psychology that we look for multiple factors to be able to make sense of what happened because sometimes the percentage of genetics is very high but the social and psychological factors were very low ”, he complements.

Avilés recommends that if you know someone who lies despite the fact that their environment knows the truth, they may need to seek professional help. Although he recognizes that these liars are often not aware that they have a problem.

“These people who seek help want to change and it does not happen frequently because their life is so rigid, so inflexible that they only want to see life in that color but in the event that there is someone who does, that is how the stadiums have to be in a precomtemplative stage contemplation … Everything in your life from the age of 10 onwards, he began to make a pathological liar. You can give indicators and signs from the age of 10 and this behavior can be solidified in early young adulthood ”, he concluded.

In addition, you must be aware of not lying in front of children since “if you lie in front of your child then how are you going to tell him not to do the same”. (I)