DEALING WITH PATHOLOGICAL LYING TEENS

Does your teen lie about who they hang out with, completing their homework or just lie about anything and everything? Well, you just might be dealing with a compulsive liar.

- STEPHANIE ODHIAMBO

Remember as a teen swearing on heaven and earth to your peers that something you knew was a lie was true but tried to convince them otherwise?

I went to a public high school somewhere in Nyanza, the sugar belt of Muhoroni to be precise. But if anyone asked me where I schooled, I was too quick to say Chemelil Academy, a prestigious school that bordered our own. Reason? Almost every other teen I knew was in some expensive private school and I desperately wanted to fit in. And so I lied, not only about the school but also about my name. I mean who in their ‘right mind’ would tell the likes of Skylar Morris that your name was Odhiambo?

All these may seem harmless, especially for a teen but psychologists term what I was doing as compulsive lying. Also known as pathological lying, this is a condition where a person tells lies out of habit. German psychiatrist and author Anton Delbrueck, define compulsive lying as telling stories that are normally dazzling or fantastical but never breaches the limits of possibility.

It is a mental condition which is mostly a symptom of one or several bigger mental conditions such as bipolar, borderline personality disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity (ADHD), narcissistic personality, impulse control issues or substance dependency.

Most parents would love their children to always be open and it is frustrating when their teens turn out to be pathological liars. But how can you spot that your teen has turned into a habitual liar?

PATTERNS OF HABITUAL LYING