Seniors, what motivates someone to tell outlandish lies?

[KathyC]

Attention..i have a sweet friend and if the story isnt exciting enough she will add to and take away from..i stopped confronting her years ago...she had a rough life growing up...i guess some scars never heal and we do what we do to get by...

[sophieb]

the answer is: the reaction they get from other people

Some people have learned that their non-interesting life is too boring even for them so they elaborate, they pour themselves into what they see in the movies or read in books to appear to be interesting and when others respond that encourages them to continue. Really they do spend time on putting their stories together. When you look forward to those stories you only encourage him to continue. Yours is a childish response, a response to someone telling you a bedtime story. You could try growing up, and even tell him you understand why he tells exciting stories but that maybe he should get to doing that kind of job, write a best seller book or write and produce a movie. These days that is possible. Stop babying the guy and point him in the right direction.

[Strange Brew]

Compulsive liars are usually narcissistic little scamps. They don't care about credibility, they care about feeling above everyone.
I've known more then just one; they're harmless unless they start making up lies about other people.

[June smiles]

Two friends of mine, grown women, are incapable of telling a truthful story. One of them, if she is speaking, she is prevaricating, the other one tells stories based on truth, but she must always embellish and expand the incident.

[Suzie s]

It sound like my nephew, his wife once confided in me the only thing she regrets about her wedding day is the fact he never wore his army officers unifrom, he was never an officer.

[CLYDE55]

Our local club had one who claimed he was at one time or another the following..........
A Lion Tamer.
A Russian Interpreter.
Made friends with wolves.
He seemed to live in a world of his own.
We named him `Walter Mitty' after the Danny Kaye character.
It all seemed harmful until I overheard him telling some wheelchair bound people that he was used to being in a wheelchair.
I had to intervene before he took it too far as the only time he had been in a wheelchair was when being taken for an x-ray after a fall.
Enough is enough.

[CLYDE55]

Our local club had one who claimed he was at one time or another the following..........
A Lion Tamer.
A Russian Interpreter.
Made friends with wolves.
He seemed to live in a world of his own.
We named him `Walter Mitty' after the Danny Kaye character.
It all seemed harmful until I overheard him telling some wheelchair bound people that he was used to being in a wheelchair.
I had to intervene before he took it too far as the only time he had been in a wheelchair was when being taken for an x-ray after a fall.
Enough is enough.

[Rosie Bloom]

It must be hard not to laugh when someone is so obviously full of it.
I would find it very hard to trust somebody like that as they can't even face the truth and the real world themselves.

[Rosie Bloom]

It must be hard not to laugh when someone is so obviously full of it.
I would find it very hard to trust somebody like that as they can't even face the truth and the real world themselves.

[lily]

He's in a fantasy world Patti, it must be difficult not to laugh in his face and take him to task over it.
No I haven't met anyone quite like that but I have met the tedious type that has done just about everything and so much better than me.