Compulsive liars

[Mrs Cucumber]

I swear I seem to attract this type of people! two really stick in my mind.

first was a girl called Laura, I first met her when we were both in hospital, me for appendicitis, her for having her drink spiked (apparently) she annoyed me on the ward as spent the whole day walking around and I couldn't move lol fast forward a few weeks and I start a new job and in she walks, we made the connection of how we recognized each other, she then claims that she was bed bound in hospital and couldn't leave her bed, over the years I knew her she claimed to be pregnant about 8 times, 3 times with twins that she apparently miscarried, the rest she just never mentioned again, made out she had ovarian cancer, kept checking in at the hospital on facebook, once she did that and I was behind her in the shop! If I ever mentioned something she had mentioned previously, e.g the pregnancy she would make out it was me making things up!

Second was a bloke called Dave, met him working in a hospital on a training week, we got on really well and he had a couple of procedures on his skull, not really ever sure what for but he always seemed to have some massive drama going on, He offered to do my wedding photo's, then on the morning of my wedding text me to say his car had been seized so he wouldn't be attending, he then blocked me on fb!
he left the hospital to be a private paramedic, used to post pictures of himself in his uniform, I popped into a burger king at a service station on my way home from work one day and he served me, he had broght the uniform of ebay I guess!

 

[Rippedjeanmaybe]

I used to have a friend like this, I met her when I was 10 at a childminders and then we ended up at the same high school.

She made up all sorts, she once told her primary school teachers that her nan had died (she hadn’t).

She told us (her friends) that she had done brain surgery over the summer holidays, that her dad worked for Russia as a spy, that she had to have an operation on her ears because we drew on her in her sleep… all lies.

the best one was when she was on video on msn and she was pretending she had visitors over and she would go out the room and come back in dressed up as the “visitors” .

my other friend is still friends with her now and she hasn’t changed.

 

[I am undercover]

I'm a compulsive liar. I haven't always been this way, its strange because I have a very similar experience to OP regarding a childhood friend who would lie constantly and humiliate me. Despite that, I still thought she was the coolest person on earth and forgave her each time and allowed her to create more lies about me. She really messed my head up but for some reason, I started doing the same thing (minus the humiliation part) - if I am caught out in my lie I would just admit I have gotten it wrong.
I HATE being this way. I've been to 3 different doctors and been wrongly diagnosed each time. I don't think about my lies and I have a terrible memory so I trip over them and mess them up. The lies come out of my mouth before I even realise what I've started. I do this alot. About anything small or big. I'll exaggerate things massively and even manipulate the lie to involve myself more. Maybe in hopes I'll seem more interesting idk.

Anyway, I've probably not helped in figure out why people do this but i wanted to contribute from a different perspective I guess.

This is an anonymous forum so I'll be super honest here even though it's hard for me to admit and speak about.

Tldr; I'm a compulsive liar, I don't even think about the lies I tell - I just spout them and worry about them later when it's back to bite me on my arse.

 

[Rita Chevrolet]

Have none of you checked out the BIGGEST compulsive liar in the universe yet, she he spouts crap all over the media?

Step forward Katie Price, bullshitter extraordinaire!

If you want to see the depths of it's depravity then I suggest you click over to her pages on Celebs and then you will see for yourself the lies it puts out on a daily basis that are so transparent its hard to believe the media keep publishing it.

 

[Moe]

I’ve got a good one.
This person I got to know ten years ago had started a business which was financed by the then current boyfriend. He also signed all the guarantees. They split up some years later but he carried on being her guarantor in new business premises.
Further down the line she wanted to sell the business it wasn’t doing very well by that time. I was interested in buying it. I asked to see accounts and she got her sister to type up a profit and loss. They were a complete fairy story. The lease was shit and the landlord was a nightmare, so I decided I would have to buy whole building.
Dealing with her and the landlord became more and more problematic (too many reasons to go into).
I decided to withdraw my offers to both parties, however as I am stupid and felt sorry for here I paid her rent for six months and gave her 10K to help get the business back to what it was on the understanding she would repay me back when able to.
Of course she never did instead she helped the new boyfriend buy a car which one day would be hers. Still hasn’t passed her driving test to this day.
She also paid for her daughter to go on holiday to Mexico.
The building did get sold to someone else who was much more lenient than the previous owner. He let her rack up over 8K in rental arrears before giving her notice to quit the premises.
She managed to get the 10K small business grant even though the business was not functioning by that time. The landlord went after the former boyfriend for the arrears. She also told the former boyfriend she had not received the grant.
The reason I’m writing this is because I found out last week that prior to moving here she lived up north and was convicted of embezzlement for over 150K and sent to prison for two years.
I haven’t told anyone just wanted to get this out. I’m so annoyed with myself and to anyone that reads this don’t ever be a guarantor or stupid!

 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Roxanne Pallet comes to mind.

 

[Blue pumpkin]

I have a friend who often tells me things like she got chatted up in a shop or a lorry driver/van/car beeped at her. A bus went by and the driver winked at her. The man who did her vaccine shot asked for her number. A woman stopped her in the street and asked her where she got her coat from. Another woman came up to her in the pub and asked her where she got her shoes from yet whenever we are out together none of this stuff happens.

 

[gashers]

Katie Price the lying narcissistic pile of poo.

 

[Hinchhater1442]

I don’t know if he was a compulsive liar or just trying to hide something…

I used to work with a guy, let’s call him Josh. Josh had a massive crush on another girl at work, I’ll call her Shannon. Somehow Josh convinced Shannon to go out on a ‘friend date’ with him to Thorpe park on a weekend. The following Monday he comes into work with a dodgy shoulder, I asked him what he’d done… he went into great detail about the outfit Shannon wore to Thorpe park- apparently a short short skirt and could almost see her bum cheeks(fantasising for sure). Anyway, apparently they were queuing for a ride when a group of guys behind them were overheard making comments about Shannon’s outfit/body so Josh decided to confront them and it got physical.
Except when I asked Shannon none of this of course happened.
And when he’d told her about his sore shoulder, he told her he’ got into an altercation on a night out.
Bizarre that he never thought I’d speak to her about the alleged Thorpe park story, given that we work in a small place. More bizarre that he then fled England a few weeks later and we found out he’d skipped bail.

 

[lemonlime]

I was like this for a few years in my late teens. I hated myself and my life and wanted to be someone else so badly I wrote stories around it and just blurted them out left and right. No clue if people actually believed me or saw through my bullshit but it wouldn't have changed anything as no matter what I told others, my reality remained the same lol. I stopped because I was exhausted and no amount of momentary rush made it up to the stress and anxiety of having to keep up with an endless list of lies I've told others. Telling the truth or just not saying anything about things I'm uncomfortable with has been one of the best changes I've made for myself. I hope nobody got hurt or felt like a fool because of my own issues in the past. Thankfully my situation never got out of hand enough to get me imprisoned

 

[Right on top of that rose]

I had a horrific experience with an old colleague, in that she told the most awful lies about things I had done/ said... then when I denied doing/ saying the things she lied about, she then made me out to be a batshit crazy compulsive liar for saying I did these things in the first place. Absolutely awful time of my life. I soon left, but I heard through the grapevine that she had a massive falling out with her work clique- I often see them out and about and wonder do they realise now that she was the one that was a few sandwiches short!

 

[Saddlesoap]

I had a 'friend' who was/is a complusive liar. She accused me of bullying. Her mum challenged me once on my way home asking why I had slapped said friend in the canteen the day before (a day when I had actually been off sick, so had a great alibi). My own mum went mental. Didn't really speak to her after that.

 

[BananaRama]

Ok, so I LOVE this thread. I met my boyfriend and we had been together for around 4 years at this point. Told each other everything as you do. I had to travel for work, so boyfriend went to my sisters and her fellas for a few drinks. Came home after a few days and he was like ‘Er, why didn’t you tell me you had a miscarriage?’ I was like ‘EH?!’ So according to my sister, when j was 16 I had a miscarriage on a park bench, she rushed me to my parents house and they took me to hospital. Have only been pregnant once.
She is so deluded she rang me telling me my mum Had took loads of pills and tried to commit suicide. I called my mum and she got pissed and fell over.
I have never confronted my sister. No one has. We just know she lies.

 

[no-no]

My ex is a narcissist and the lies were just dumb-founding. When I wasn’t as attuned to them, I’d know they were lies but thought it was such a dumb thing to lie about and brush it off. But the more I read up on narcissism, the lies were part of a bigger web of deceit.

My stepdad, not a narcissist, but a terrible compulsive liar. He could literally do something in front of you and swear blue in the face that he hadn’t.

Both used lying as coping mechanisms but for vastly different reasons. It definitely started in childhood. Lying was a reflex. Your belief was irrelevant. There’s a saying “you’ll never get to the bottom of a liar” and I agree.

 

[Phoenix Lazarus]

I’ve got a good one.
This person I got to know ten years ago had started a business which was financed by the then current boyfriend. He also signed all the guarantees. They split up some years later but he carried on being her guarantor in new business premises.
Further down the line she wanted to sell the business it wasn’t doing very well by that time. I was interested in buying it. I asked to see accounts and she got her sister to type up a profit and loss. They were a complete fairy story. The lease was shit and the landlord was a nightmare, so I decided I would have to buy whole building.
Dealing with her and the landlord became more and more problematic (too many reasons to go into).
I decided to withdraw my offers to both parties, however as I am stupid and felt sorry for here I paid her rent for six months and gave her 10K to help get the business back to what it was on the understanding she would repay me back when able to.
Of course she never did instead she helped the new boyfriend buy a car which one day would be hers. Still hasn’t passed her driving test to this day.
She also paid for her daughter to go on holiday to Mexico.
The building did get sold to someone else who was much more lenient than the previous owner. He let her rack up over 8K in rental arrears before giving her notice to quit the premises.
She managed to get the 10K small business grant even though the business was not functioning by that time. The landlord went after the former boyfriend for the arrears. She also told the former boyfriend she had not received the grant.
The reason I’m writing this is because I found out last week that prior to moving here she lived up north and was convicted of embezzlement for over 150K and sent to prison for two years.
I haven’t told anyone just wanted to get this out. I’m so annoyed with myself and to anyone that reads this don’t ever be a guarantor or stupid!

I knew a man who agreed to be a guarantor of a mortgage of his brother's - I think it might have been a business mortgage. He ended up homeless because he couldn't pay when his brother defaulted.

 

[Sunshinegal]

I'm not really sure what I'm looking for from this thread (or if it's in the right section), and I did look but couldn't see another one on this topic.

I've been thinking about a girl I was best friends with for years at school who lied constantly and made my life really hard.
I was so kind to her and we got on great but then she would just try to humiliate me with her lies.
I saw someone on a different forum a few months back put that something terrible must happen as a child doesn't do this.
She did! I met her aged 11ish. I couldn't believe a word she said in the end.
The thing is I went round her house and knew her family so she must have known I knew the truth but would never admit it. One day she was putting me down about something, a week later she was bigging herself up for the exact same thing. I was so annoyed I called her out on what she said, she then embarrassed me in front of a group making out she'd never said it and why did I have to lie?!
I knew I was telling the truth but I'd also told my mum at the time who remembered me saying. Which made me feel better but I felt so crap.
I'm still enraged by it now!
Anyway, she grew up doing the same, I distanced from her as I grew older however a few years ago she started going out with someone I'd been seeing years before. No issue. The next thing she's spreading lies about me and my friends. We were mid twenties then. So she's still the same.

I knew another guy who was known for it too. He made some crazy stories up nobody believed but one day there was a fight in a pub. I wasn't even there but turned out he told a story about having to save me and gone into great detail. He was furious when I denied that. Apparently it did happen, he was adament to others. Bizarre.

So I'm just seeing others experience of people like this. I'm still annoyed about the years I was still kind to this girl even with the lies, and then as an adult she did it again! I know she hurt and lied to many nice people who cared for her and I can't understand it. Some people may be ill but others seem to just enjoy doing it. I can't understand it as they must know people don't believe them?
Does anybody know anyone that has admitted doing it and tried to stop? From experience these people never ever admit their lies so that would be interesting.
Maybe there's even someone on here who knows they do this and tell us why?

This is my first thread so hopefully you can all understand it!

 

[Sunshinegal]

I'm a compulsive liar. I haven't always been this way, its strange because I have a very similar experience to OP regarding a childhood friend who would lie constantly and humiliate me. Despite that, I still thought she was the coolest person on earth and forgave her each time and allowed her to create more lies about me. She really messed my head up but for some reason, I started doing the same thing (minus the humiliation part) - if I am caught out in my lie I would just admit I have gotten it wrong.
I HATE being this way. I've been to 3 different doctors and been wrongly diagnosed each time. I don't think about my lies and I have a terrible memory so I trip over them and mess them up. The lies come out of my mouth before I even realise what I've started. I do this alot. About anything small or big. I'll exaggerate things massively and even manipulate the lie to involve myself more. Maybe in hopes I'll seem more interesting idk.

Anyway, I've probably not helped in figure out why people do this but i wanted to contribute from a different perspective I guess.

This is an anonymous forum so I'll be super honest here even though it's hard for me to admit and speak about.

Tldr; I'm a compulsive liar, I don't even think about the lies I tell - I just spout them and worry about them later when it's back to bite me on my arse.

It sounds like you have tried to get help though and acknowledge you have a problem.
You don't humiliate people, that's a big thing. My friend did this a lot, it kind of makes people keep quiet about the lying out of fear it'll be turned on them.
You also say that you admit it if caught out
Those I've known don't seem to ever admit they have lied and will lie about me or the person outing them kind of in revenge I guess, anger that they've been caught out.
You seem to be trying to help yourself and that can only be a good thing.

I swear I seem to attract this type of people! two really stick in my mind.

first was a girl called Laura, I first met her when we were both in hospital, me for appendicitis, her for having her drink spiked (apparently) she annoyed me on the ward as spent the whole day walking around and I couldn't move lol fast forward a few weeks and I start a new job and in she walks, we made the connection of how we recognized each other, she then claims that she was bed bound in hospital and couldn't leave her bed, over the years I knew her she claimed to be pregnant about 8 times, 3 times with twins that she apparently miscarried, the rest she just never mentioned again, made out she had ovarian cancer, kept checking in at the hospital on facebook, once she did that and I was behind her in the shop! If I ever mentioned something she had mentioned previously, e.g the pregnancy she would make out it was me making things up!

Second was a bloke called Dave, met him working in a hospital on a training week, we got on really well and he had a couple of procedures on his skull, not really ever sure what for but he always seemed to have some massive drama going on, He offered to do my wedding photo's, then on the morning of my wedding text me to say his car had been seized so he wouldn't be attending, he then blocked me on fb!
he left the hospital to be a private paramedic, used to post pictures of himself in his uniform, I popped into a burger king at a service station on my way home from work one day and he served me, he had broght the uniform of ebay I guess!

Wow!
Have you seen them recently?! I bet they're still the same

 

[Sunshinegal]

My MIL is a compulsive liar, but always about the same thing. Illness and health issues.
If she'd had even half the amount illnesses over the years that she's claimed to have, she'd be dead ten times over by now.

I honestly think she had Munchausens.

Oh god if she's your MIL you must have to deal with it all the time. Do you switch off? Or ask questions? Surely nobody believes her still.

I have a friend who often tells me things like she got chatted up in a shop or a lorry driver/van/car beeped at her. A bus went by and the driver winked at her. The man who did her vaccine shot asked for her number. A woman stopped her in the street and asked her where she got her coat from. Another woman came up to her in the pub and asked her where she got her shoes from yet whenever we are out together none of this stuff happens.

Sounds like she says this stuff to appear popular or something? To feel good about herself?
I'd find it very irritating.

My ex is a narcissist and the lies were just dumb-founding. When I wasn’t as attuned to them, I’d know they were lies but thought it was such a dumb thing to lie about and brush it off. But the more I read up on narcissism, the lies were part of a bigger web of deceit.

My stepdad, not a narcissist, but a terrible compulsive liar. He could literally do something in front of you and swear blue in the face that he hadn’t.

Both used lying as coping mechanisms but for vastly different reasons. It definitely started in childhood. Lying was a reflex. Your belief was irrelevant. There’s a saying “you’ll never get to the bottom of a liar” and I agree.

I guess that is true. As they will lie to get out of anything. Or lie to cover up other lies. Even if there's an element of truth you don't know whether to believe it. I find it interesting to know if any have actually confronted their problem and tried to sort themselves out or if its just too ingrained.

 

[1001 others]

I don't even listen to her. I just tune her out. I feel sorry for her GP too as MIL practically lives at the practice.

Your MiL sounds so much like my mother and MiL combined! It's exhausting, isn't it?

---

I've worked with several people over the years who have lied about various things. It's one of the reasons why I try not to get too friendly too quickly with people nowadays, in all honesty (usually the passage of time will show these people for who they really are). One woman I worked with embezzled almost $1m to keep up appearances; another would listen to others' accounts of what they did on the weekend, etc., then relay those exact events to others as what she did on the weekend. There are many more examples.

One of my SiLs is also a compulsive liar and her kids are following suit. She really talks herself up - she'll say she's the manager of her department which her husband will then correct her on (it happens often); she's always reminding us how many friends she has ... yet when her husband organised her 40th (on a weekend), only 3 people turned up; says she's buying this, that, the other, or is going on holiday to some exotic location - then next minute is having to borrow money from her parents to pay her electricity bill. I think she's a fantasist in all honesty. It's getting dangerous now that the kids are doing it though - her youngest kid wagged school and when caught out, made up some story about how a man in a van had grabbed him off the street and dropped him off in the middle of nowhere, which had taken him all day to walk back from ... instead, he was doing drugs at some kid's house all day. Should have been charged for wasting police time - and drug offences! But of course my SiL's version of it all was that it was a big misunderstanding and someone else's fault it happened (it's always someone else's fault).

I think a lot of liars strive to be something they're not. It must be a very exhausting way of living in all honesty.

 

[disneys]

This is such an interesting thread ! I knew a compulsive liar at uni , I was really good friends with her in my first year but when she started making up lies that my now husband (then boyfriend) was making passes at her (he would never, he didn’t like her) , I cut her off

she lied constantly: about her grades , she always had to do better than everyone else .. in the end she didn’t graduate the constant firsts on essays and assignments turned out to be lies , she lied about men she’d slept with and lied that men fancied her , she had a story about every boy on our course making a pass at her and professors too !! She lied about her family - she told me she had three sisters but couldn’t keep up with her lies and kept changing their names and what they did / where they lived .. she only had one brother !!

she lied about her mum being a successful journalist and millionaire (an easy one to catch - did she think we didn’t have Google?)

I didn’t live with her but she lived with 2 of my other friends , whenever she came to my flat she would steal my food … just open my cupboard and help herself and blame it on other people . I once caught her in my kitchen while everyone was outside having a bbq eating 3 bags of crisps in my Cupboard !

lies ranged from white and believable to outright ludicrous …she used to throw herself at my boyfriend and then lie and say he had made comments towards her , and that was where it ended for me ! It made him and me uncomfortable , and so I cut her off ! She moved out of my friends flat in 2nd year and we never saw her again

we’re still friends on Facebook and she sometimes likes my pictures etc etc , and when I got married to the man she used to throw herself at last October she commented on one of our wedding pics saying “congratulations Mr & Mrs Disney ! Hope you’re both well , didn’t think you’d last to be honest !” … which was a bit wtf !!

I think she must be quite mentally unwell , she never graduated and moved back to her hometown in Cambridgeshire and is still there , I don’t know what she’s doing but I hope she got the help she needed .. a really sad girl I think !