Pretty Little Liars - #MondayBlogs

It’s all lies — Pretense —Make believe. Why? Why do some people think they need to be someone or something else than who they are? Do they really feel such a lack of confidence in themselves, or is it distaste?

I’ve heard people telling “war stories” repeatedly and the more often they tell them, the more we have cause to question them because of how much they change each time. Sometimes the stories are about war, sometimes they aren’t. These stories could be as innocuous as exaggerating about the price of paint, each time the story was told the cans of paint became more and more expensive; most times these tales can be put up with because they really do no harm. Then there are the times the stories are indeed wanna-be glory-hounds pretending to be war veterans, those annoy me.

I used to know a man who pretended to have served in Viet Nam and told numerous stories about some of the “great battles” he fought… to be honest, he would have been 12-years old for one of these battles! He introduced himself in group situations as a vet, tried to join organizations designed for vets, and lied to his own family about his war service. He was finally confronted by an actual war veteran and the last I heard he is no longer announcing his service in public forums – and it’s obvious he is angry at being denied the chance to boast.

Why would someone continue to promulgate such lies, these are fraudulent and of course if there is any chance of benefits might even be illegal. Does such a person have emotional damage, feelings of insecurity, a desperate need for attention, or even feelings of powerlessness? How are we supposed to react when we know these people who are lying to our faces? How much should we care and how much time should we invest in trying to correct the behavior?

According to Bully OnLine, people with Narcissistic Personality Disorder will often “fraudulently claim to have qualifications or experience or affiliations or associations which they don't have or aren't entitled to. Belief in superiority, inflating their self-esteem to match that of senior or important people with whom they associate or identify, insisting on having the ‘top’ professionals or being affiliated with the ‘best’ institutions, but criticizing the same people who disappoint them are also common features of narcissistic personality disorder.” Narcissists have fragile self-esteem and anger issues, are envious of others, abuse special privileges, and are arrogant and haughty.

I’ve reached the point that unless the person’s lies are hurting someone, I just ignore them. Maybe that’s just the easy way… How many people do you know who fit this personality? How do you react around them and their lies? I’d love to hear your opinion.