I’m a fully functioning adult, decent job, okay social life, but I still catch myself lying about the most random, unnecessary stuff. Not big lies not anything that would hurt someone just stupid, tiny things for no reason at all. Like if someone asks if I’ve seen a movie I haven’t, I’ll say “yeah, ages ago.”
Or if a coworker asks if I’ve finished something I forgot about, I’ll say “almost done” then rush to finish it before anyone notices.
Sometimes I lie about stuff that doesn’t even matter. “Did you eat breakfast?” “Yeah!” (I didn’t.)
“Did you watch the game?” “Yep!” (I didn’t.) It’s not malicious, and it’s never anything serious, but I’ve done this since I was a kid. I think it’s half habit, half social anxiety, half laziness. I know honesty is the better route, but my brain always picks the easy way first.
Anyone else do this? Or am I the only one out here still telling little kid-level lies at 20?
Comments
that sound like pathological lying to me
Were you often punished for telling the truth as a kid? or face excessive hassle over small inconsequential decisions
okay you aren’t going to like this. ruthless honesty. the cure is to immediately call bullshit on yourself to the person who you lied to. example conversation:
p1: have you seen xyz movie?
p2: yeah it was great(the lie)…no wait, I lied about that but I don’t know why.
unpleasant and embarrassing, yes. curative yes.
This isn’t little stuff. When you continually lie to people like this, you are mostly just ruining your own life, because you aren’t being authentic with anyone, which means all your relationships are based on “little” lies. If you struggle to maintain long term relationships, or deep meaningful connections with anyone close to you…. It’s because you are not being your authentic self. People can feel these things and definitely notice the lies over time. They might not be saying it to you (I have a habitual liar for a brother), but trust me… they know.
Your lies seem to be coming from being put on the spot, as if they were motivated by social pressure rather than malice.
It sounds like a classic situation in which reflecting upon the issue will help you know your reasons and hopefully tackle them according to whatever strategy you want your social game to be.
Lies often tell us deeper truths, good luck!
This just seems more inconvenient than telling the truth. If you lie about seeing a movie and someone wants to talk about it, you know nothing about it anyway so you can’t make conversation. Someone asks what you had for breakfast and you have to come up with another lie. Who cares if you eat or don’t eat breakfast? I don’t even get the reason for lying about it.
I wanna smash my neighbors wife. She comes outside in lil booty shorts and shirts you can see thru with no bra. I’d like to smash my old neighbor too she’s a lot older big breast and she goes out back sunbathing topless but never lets me see them. She will be on all four pulling weeds with her cleavage hanging out. Just had to get that off my chest
It sounds like you are hypersensitive to criticism and judgment. Many of the scenarios you mentioned don’t have any judgment attached but you are afraid that if you don’t go along, they will be unhappy. Try to remind yourself that you are allowed to be yourself and do what you please without concern. Your choices are valid and valued by others.