How is Pathological Lying Treated?

Hey bloggers! What's up?

Estava agora a preparar-me para fazer o meu ansiado serão de cinema, com aqueles filmes lamechas e românticos que toda a gente tanto odeia e que eu tanto adoro e choro e derramo rios ao vê-los, quando encontrei esta interessantíssima página online: How is Pathological Lying Treated?

E podem chamar-me néscia, se quiserem, mas eu nem sequer sabia que esse tipo de patologia existia. Achava simplesmente que pessoas que mentiam compulsivamente são apenas seres infelizes que preferem mascarar a realidade a lidar com ela. Contudo, de acordo com este artigo, isto é pode ser uma doença, o que torna a mentira bastante interessante. Bem, melhor do que eu para explicar isto, ficam aqui as partes interessantes do artigo.

«The term pathological lying essentially translates to uncontrollable lying. This can mean that a person who is suspected of pathological lying is considered to have a disease, and therefore cannot control the lying. However, psychologists and psychiatrists fail to account for a specific definition of pathological lying as a disease. It can be symptomatic of other conditions, like antisocial personality disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). It is not always present in these conditions, so a clear treatment set for pathological lying has not been defined.

An interesting study on pathological lying published in the October 2005 British Journal of Psychiatry suggest that the pathological liar may have a slightly different brain than those people disposed to tell the truth. In the prefrontal cortex of the brain, pathological liars were shown to have 26% more white matter than do people with other psychological disorders who don’t lie. Previously, white matter has been linked to ability to lie. Lower amounts of white matter is typical in the brains of people with autism, who generally cannot lie, suggesting that more white matter disposes one to the increased ability to lie.

Therapy and medication require compliance from the person being treated, and the pathological liar who has antisocial disorders may not wish to be treated. A person who suffers from pathological lying must on some deep level be committed to the work required in cognitive behavioral therapy, as well as be willing to take medications. The trouble with these methods is that pathological liars can quite easily lie about taking their medications, or about their effectiveness of medications. They can also quite credibly lie about what is happening in their life, which may void the efficacy of therapy.

Pathological lying remains an issue of much debate in the medical community. There is, as yet, no clear path to treatment. The best that can be said is that some treatments will work for some people, but no one treatment will work for all.»  by: WiseGEEK

Really Interesting, isn't it? Actually, there is a disease for people who live lying! How funny is that?

For me, the only truth about the lies and liars is that Everybody Lies. I try to lie as little as possible but being the human that I am, I fail at times. I'll have to admit, I lie more than I want to....so I just go silent when tempted to lie. What about you? Let me know! :)

Love, 

Tommy

"Façam o Favor de Ser Felizes"- Raul Solnado