Because your brain is an unreliable narrator. It doesn't understand truth as we often define it—aligning with fact or reality. Instead, it functions on personal truth: facts and reality that sift through the filter of our personal biases and perceptions about the world.
Your brain is a liar. It makes assumptions not rooted in fact, draws conclusions that are more about fear than any kind of logical argument, and has insights often manipulated by the media and other compelling stories. Researchers have known for years that memories are not a good source of information.
In other words, cognitive distortions are your mind convincing you to believe negative things about yourself and your world that are not necessarily true. Our thoughts have a great impact on how we feel and how we behave.
Electrical stimulation of the prefrontal cortex appears to improve our ability to deceive. This region of the brain may, among other things, be responsible for the decision to lie or tell the truth. Most people have trouble recognizing false statements.
Lying is saying something you don't believe. Changing your mind is changing what you do believe, hopefully based on evidence.
Detecting Your Self-Deception. The most important way to determine whether you are lying or not is to observe yourself, without judgment or evaluation. Just notice and start asking questions that can reveal your internal motivations.
Being a pathological liar is not in itself a mental health diagnosis. It is not included in the DSM-5, which lists mental health disorders. However, it is an established concept in psychology. Pathological lying is related to disordered thinking patterns and beliefs.
The anxious mind will have you believing things about yourself, your circumstances, and your future that are just not true.
A person may lie to gain attention or admiration. Other lies may be designed to garner pity or help from others. Even self-harming lies may provide some form of internal gratification. People who lie pathologically may mix falsehoods with the truth to make their lies more credible.
Intrusive thoughts are often triggered by stress or anxiety. They may also be a short-term problem brought on by biological factors, such as hormone shifts. For example, a woman might experience an uptick in intrusive thoughts after the birth of a child.
What is brain fog syndrome? Brain fog is characterized by confusion, forgetfulness, and a lack of focus and mental clarity. This can be caused by overworking, lack of sleep, stress, and spending too much time on the computer.
Constantly or obsessively thinking can lead to a downward spiral. Your thoughts become enslaving, and they can cause you to isolate yourself. It may cause a person to become stuck in the past and future, fantasizing about what could be and overanalyzing everything they have done.
A reason for this is that anxiety, seemingly without stopping, feeds lies directly into your brain. When we're told something over and over and over again, we start to believe it. By telling you certain lies, anxiety strengthens itself so it can keep a hold on you and your life.
Your emotional system has no reason to lie, although it can be misguided based on your previous experiences in the world that have informed it. The maladaptive guidance that your emotional memory has accumulated can be considered a component of your pathogenic beliefs—a subject for a subsequent blog.
Polygraph tests- so-called "lie detectors"--are typically based on detecting autonomic reactions and are considered unreliable (see "The polygraph in doubt"). That's why psychologists have been cataloging clues to deception--such as facial expressions, body language and linguistics--to help hook the dishonest.
Lying, like other signs and symptoms of the condition, tends to occur because the person with BPD is unable to regulate their feelings and impulses. It's an act borne out of pain and fear. Often, people with BPD even believe their own lies.
The more you understand about how your own mind works, the harder it will be to lie to yourself! Try to spend a few minutes jotting down your thoughts and feelings each day. You can also use the journal to track your actions and hold yourself accountable.
Understanding what causes the lying is the only way to change a pathological liar's behavior. Treatment, which can include psychotherapy, medication, or both, will depend on whether or not the pathological lying is a symptom of an underlying psychiatric condition.
Anxiety is a bold, seductive liar that fills our heads and our hearts with doubt, fear, and trepidation. When we are unable to distinguish our “anxiety” voice from our “wise” voice, it can be difficult to discern the truth from the deception of anxiety.
Anxiety can both cause weird thoughts and be caused by weird thoughts. Some types of anxiety, including obsessive compulsive disorder, are based on these strange and unexpected thoughts. Chronic anxiety can also alter thinking patterns, as can sleep loss from anxiety related insomnia.
Paranoia is the irrational and persistent feeling that people are 'out to get you'. The three main types of paranoia include paranoid personality disorder, delusional (formerly paranoid) disorder and paranoid schizophrenia.
The lie motif in schizophrenia seems to come into being through the attribution process of taking the others' blame on ones' own shoulders, which has been pointed out to be common in the guilt experience in schizophrenia.
Delusional disorder is a type of mental health condition in which a person can't tell what's real from what's imagined. There are many types, including persecutory, jealous and grandiose types. It's treatable with psychotherapy and medication.