Pathological vs Compulsive Lying

Everyone tells a lies from time to time, however with pathological and compulsive lying it's different. It's long term, habitual and chronic. Sometimes the lying can be referred to as mythomania or pseudologia fantastica. However there can be some difference between psyhcological and compulsive lying, and in this video Darren Magee outlines some of those differences.
Sometimes it can be part of another disorder, such as narcissistic personality disorder or histrionic personality disorder, so there can be reason or intent for the lying, other times there seems no reason or motive for the lies.
To date it is not fully understood if the chronic lying is part of a personality disorder or mental health condition, or if it is a distinct disorder in and of itself.

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#pathologicalliar #compulsiveliar #lying

[DarrenFMagee]

The videos I make are requested by you the viewer. Please feel free to suggest any mental health related topics you'd like me to cover in the future.

[HelenIngram-rj]

With heavy heart, I've cut out every liar from my life; they include close family members, my closest friend of many years and the father of my children. I value honesty and integrity above all else. If there's no trust, what is there?

[CrewmanJordan]

This has to be the best video available on this topic. I firmly believe there is a distinction between Compulsive lying and Pathological lying. Unfortunately, the mental health profession fails to make the distinction.

[raccuia]

Whenever someone lies they are telling you reality is or may present them a problem.

[chezsrandombs]

This video actually helped me figure out a few things.
I believe I might have some type of compulsive lying disorder (if that's how it works, idk), but I definitely feel guilt.
I never have motive, in fact, I dont even know I'm doing it until it happens and then I feel awful.
I hate lying but it just keeps happening.
I'm trying to get help, so knowing the difference between compulsive and pathological I think will help me discuss this with my therapist.

I've never told major lies, usually just exaggerating or strange detail switches but I still hate doing it and feel guilty.

[ProjectFates]

I had a verbally abusive father and I had to lie to stay away from his verbal abuse. That habit has carried over into adulthood, and now I habitually lie even about tiny things that don’t matter, as if the people around me won’t find me good enough if I just tell the truth. It’s awful, but I’ve taken steps to fix it. Thanks for this!

[fidelmashelton]

Thank you so much for your insight Darren. Dealing with a covert narcissist who is always lying. I just laugh now cause the lies are so out-there unreal!!!!

[NoMoreMrNiceGuy]

If they'll lie to you, they'll potentially lie about you to take you down a notch when their unsound mind decides that you supposedly deserve it. It's a huge red flag

[EgaoKage]

I have only ever met one person who would be accurately described as a compulsive liar. Whereas I have known pathological liars a-plenty, who tend to have many other traits associated with psychopathy, as well. But I think you describe the difference between pathological and compulsive lying very well. Especially the point about feeling embarrassed on their behalf. This effect only expands in severity, if they are challenged on their lies. They often become quite frantic, in their effort to "reinforce" the lie; as if it really matters to them that others accept their lie as being true. The more panicked they become, the more embarrassing the situation gets. As opposed to a psychopath, who often doesn't really care one way or the other if they're believed. If their lie "works", they might be pleased. But if it doesn't, they are often fine with just walking away from the attempt to lie; because, often, they just don't care what others think of them.

[Sil]

I have problems in dealing with people who lie... I can't stand them and I usually try to avoid having to do anything with them which becomes a problem in my working place and with family and personal relations. Probably this is due to the fact that I experienced lack of sincerity in the relationships with my narc parents and GC sibling. I try to make my life a better and more serene one by choosing people who I consider sincere and reliable though I am aware that it is not possible to leave out those who live in their world of fantasy, grandiosity and clearly, lies. Thank you for the very useful video.

[joannebennett-ntix]

Love that- always tell the truth then you don't have to remember what was said ❤

[Altairjf]

I've watched about 20 other videos RE pathological and/or compulsive lying to attempt to figure out a friend of mine, this is the first one that has really helped. Thank you for putting this out. There's a possibility he may have histrionic PD, something I hadn't even heard of until this video!

[pamigreenway]

I once had a roommate who is a narcissistic compulsive liar. He got angry if anyone would express even mild incredulity over something he said and, if actually confronted about a lie, he would absolutely cut ties with that person and try to turn others against them, even to the point of threatening them with violence.

[celenahoey]

No one should lie. It’s a slippery slope. Let’s strive to be authentic ❤️

[rileytimes]

I searched for why some people lie a lot, but I never realised pathological and compulsive liars weren't 100% interchangeable. That's cool. Thanks!

[OOBEJuanKenobi]

Thank you for doing these videos, Darren.

[WeirdButterfly]

I've been going back and forth debating if I was a compulsive liar because I literally lie about the smallest things that has no impact on me or others like it always confused me when I realized I did it and I thought I did it to be likable until I realized noone would care if I actually had a plant cactus or not.

[mitchh]

1:57 DING DING DING
I'm Borderline and I actually work very hard to own my mistakes, but I still have a real hard time being honest when being honest means a fair chance of being yelled at by someone I have any emotional investment in.
I generally don't lie to get advantage or sucker people out of things (my brother has done that for sure), but I have a nasty habit of trying to manage reality that I'm 100% sure I picked up from my dad, who I believe is likely also borderline, tending towards Quiet Borderline.


Side note: Something I think would benefit your viewers might be a video briefly examining the differences between NPD and BPD. I describe my own personality as "Ok, imagine a narcissist who actually sees that they're the problem and wants to fix the behavior". Part of the reason I watch your videos as well as Dr. Ramani's and many others' is that the behaviors they are addressing are often worst-case scenarios for my general behavior. So thank you very much for these helpful uploads. You're definitely doing great work!

[incognito]

I lied to my school, get myself out of my toxic and dysfunctional household because I didn't want to cause drama and make my parent's look bad 😔 It still haunts me today as it made me look bad instead ... I eventually cut my family off ..

[intiaboats]

Thoroughly enjoying your videos, to this point, as they bring a fresh perspective to subjects I've been watching others address for about 6 years.