![]() Although the symptoms are a moral issue, the cause may not be a purely moral problem: it could potentially be physiological as well (e.g., due to a brain injury). ![]() They need a different approach to try to achieve the same outcome. But if the person cannot stop and sincerely wants to stop and all you are doing to try to motivate them to stop is using moralistic interventions (impressing them with how wrong it is, how God hates lies, and Satan is the father of lies)… that’s all true but it is not going to actually help them stop if there’s a head injury. Sometimes people get upset with me when I point out the possible physiological basis for these kinds of issues - am I trying to excuse or to minimize something that is morally wrong? No, I am not. If your executive function is impaired you might not ever get out in front of that initial impulse. If your executive functioning is intact, when the cop pulls you over you may be tempted to lie to him or her but your executive function kicks in and you realize, no my kids are in the car, I need to be truthful and do some good role modelling here. Problems with executive functioning may look like difficulty with controlling the impulse to lie. The first process, executive functioning, is about the ability to control and monitor your own thoughts, as well as control impulses and organize yourself This impairment affects two important mental processes: Executive Functioning These impairments could be caused by head injury, degenerative diseases, infection, epilepsy, or be present from birth. Neuroimaging of patients who show compulsive lying reveals impairments to the prefrontal cortex. Serious forms of chronic lying may be due to differences at the brain level. Not for the purpose of justifying the behaviour or asking you to be OK with it, but just to create a little compassion and hopefully even some possible treatment strategies. It’s also helpful to know that someone who is a pathological liar may be mentally well adjusted in every other way, or they may have other difficulties such s personality disorders (especially narcissistic personality disorder), ADHD or memory problems. They often get caught up in a web of increasingly unrealistic lies. That’s why I say we use the label too freely: there’s a much lower level of lying that is still problematic but strictly speaking, pathological lying should have all these components.Īlong with this you’ll often see that the compulsive liar, when challenged about his or her lies, may attempt to downplay what was said or may try to get out of it by telling more lies. Those are a pretty serious set of criteria. Compulsive: lies are often told automatically without any conscious decision.The person simply sees an opportunity to lie and does so. Impulsive: the lies are not necessarily intended to manipulate people or gain anything. ![]()
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