Why do friends tell lies?

ineed

Some people are just fantasists, you meet them from time to time. I had a friend who was like this when I was in my teens who said their grandfather was a boxer who fought famous boxers (yet was never mentioned in these boxers autobiography works or any boxing books) and also that this friend had had a motorcycle accident and now had metal rods in their leg (they were actually too young to be able to drive a motorcycle legally and I knew they hadn't ever been in hospital for something like that). Usually these people are harmless and just tell extremely tall tales to make themselves feel good because they have other emotional issues. If it makes you uncomfortable though just have a polite word.

Jagraf

I have a friend who gets over excited and exaggerates everything. She was telling another friend of ours something which I knew all about as I has been with her, and it was so off the mark. I told her and she said she hadn't even realised.

The best is parents lying about their kids achievements.

troubleinparadise

I have some "friends" like this - well, they were friends, but there,s so much smoke and mirrors I don't feel I can believe anything anymore.

I suspect it is to do with lack of confidence and therefore they big up a story to impress; or is it arrogance coupled with stupidity not to realise that you'll work out the truth before too long?

The odd white lie I can live with; outright dishonesty and deliberate deceit feels very odd coming from someone you trusted, and usually about something that isn't important.

I always think that it must be quite exhausting keeping up with what story they'd told to who this week!

georgie262

This is a funny thread actually. When I was in primary school I was friends with a girl who told me that she had metal ribs and if we had a heatwave she'd die. She actually went on to be a liar of epic proportions and a bit of a nightmare - my mum banned me from seeing her when I was 14.
When we were very little me and my friends used to tell each other all the times we'd seen Father Christmas and his reindeer.

j.e.j.

I never say anything to them, even if I know they're lying. There's someone in my street who told me her dad's a billionaire property developer/landlord in London and gets invited to garden parties at Buckingham Palace.

Funny how she's living in social housing, given the above :rotfl:

System

..... that's where raised eyebrows come into their own when its obvious they are telling a great big whopper.;)

Eliza_2

There's a difference between little lies eg trying to get out of a party (I totally sympathise!), and the real biggies. Someone I know lives a completely different life on Facebook, her life there is a complete fantasy, something awful has always happened to her or she has a terrible illness etc etc. However she hasn't worked out her privacy settings so the world and his wife can see it (or maybe that's deliberate). She then has loads of responses from people sympathising or wanting to help and so on. It's all about attention seeking, very me,me,me. I feel sorry for her, it has to be a mental health issue. The real problem arises when it rubs off on other people, so for example, one of her family members received sympathy messages about someone who had supposedly died - it turned out they hadn't at all, not even ill, but it was very upsetting.

I don't know how to deal with it really, making them face up to the lies doesn't seem to work but as someone said, it must be hard work sustaining it all.

Auntie_Social

I know someone who has been nicknamed Billy Bigger as what ever you have he has something Bigger / Better / Blacker ..... he's so bad, if you tell him you have been to Tenerife - he's been to Elevenerife! It's got to the stage where when I know he is lying, I just nod and smile lol

j.e.j.

Auntie_Social wrote: »

I know someone who has been nicknamed Billy Bigger as what ever you have he has something Bigger / Better / Blacker ..... he's so bad, if you tell him you have been to Tenerife - he's been to Elevenerife! It's got to the stage where when I know he is lying, I just nod and smile lol

Oh yes, I know the sort: he's seen it, he's done it, he's got one upstairs.. and it's 4 times bigger than everybody else's :rotfl:

merlin68

Omg eliza it must be same person, as this one is the same.