Hi guys. I can't tell you my name because I have an embarrassing
psychological condition. It's not something that I can control,
and my therapy is still continuing. So I don't want to reveal
who I am. Guys, I'm a compulsive liar! Like I said, this is a psychological condition. Doctors also call it pathological lying, which means from a doctor's perspective, I'm sick. I know it sounds horrible but my sickness is lying. What is being a compulsive liar mean? Why is this even a condition? But more importantly, is there treatment for it? For those who don't know, I'll try
to answer these questions with examples. I'll also tell you about my biggest lie soon. When that lie came out, my parents
found out that I had the condition, and I started getting treatment. Usually people lie when they need to. Everybody lies. Let's think about the simplest example. You're a kid. You're playing ball
with your little sister. You accidentally break
your mom's favorite vase. Your mom comes in from the kitchen
when she hears the noise. She's angry and asks, "Who did this?" You get scared of being punished, and you point to your sister. You blame her saying, "She did it. I told her so many times she can't play here, but she doesn't listen." Whether your mom believes you or not is another story. But what matters here is that there is
a reason for you to lie in this situation. The people who are pathological liars
don't need reasons to lie. We make a big and small lies unnecessarily. Lying is part of our life. When we lie so much we become experts. We begin to create elaborate scenarios. We play a kind of convincing game. First, we say, "Let's see how good a lie
I can come up with?" Then we start playing a game, I wonder if I'll be able to convince them. There's a park that I take my dog to. Once my dog started fighting
with another dog. The owner was a girl around my age. After the dogs calmed down, and started playing, we sat down and started chatting. As we were talking, I was making up
a lie in my head. She asked, "What do you do besides school?" I said, "I'm training for the Olympics!" She said, "Really? Which sport?" And I started telling a story. I've been swimming
since I was a little kid. I don't really like it, but my mom
pushes me to do sports. One day, my swimming coach
noticed that I was much faster than the other kids. He asked them to get out of the pool, and told me to swim four laps. He timed me. When I was done, he was really excited. He kept on saying, "You're amazing!
You're unbelievable!" We realized that day that I had
a god-given talent for swimming. My coach pressured me to compete, but I didn't want to become
a professional swimmer. Like I said I don't like sports, and the idea of becoming a professional
swimmer doesn't appeal to me at all. The girl was all ears. From time to time,
she would say things like, "Yes, there are people like you
with hidden talents" or "I think you should go for it." When I saw that she believed me,
I kept on embellishing the lie, turning it into a film scenario. She asked, "How did they convince you
to go to the Olympics?" Now it was my time to add in some acting. My dad, I said, choking back tears, we lost my dad in a car crash
last year, and... I couldn't finish my sentence
because I started crying. She took out a tissue and gave it to me. "You don't have to tell me. I'm sorry that I upset you", she said. As I wiped my tears I said, "No, it's not your fault.
It actually feels good to share", and continued. My dad was always very excited
to come to my swimming practice. He would always say,
"I'm proud of you", and hug me afterwards. But I hadn't done anything
to make him proud. If I had competed, and
won something, he would have been so happy. But I didn't do it. So now I'll go to the Olympics, break the world record, and tell the cameras, it's a gift to my dad! Now my new friend was crying too. I'm especially good at
short distance swimming. During practice, I break the world records
for 50 meters and 100 meters freestyle. I'm going to give my dad not one
but two records! I practice eight hours a day. My goal is to do much better
than the current records, so that they won't be able
to break my record for a long time. Then my success will be
worthy of my dad's pride. I know that he watches me from above. I can't wait to make him proud. We hugged and started crying. It was unbelievable. I had made up thousands of lies before, but none had been
as effective as this one. That night I felt like a general
after a big victory. I admired myself more and more each time
I retold the story in my head. Still, even when you have this condition, You know that what
you're doing is wrong. So you have to be really careful. For example, I never tell big lies
to my friends or family because they could easily
figure them out, and it would be hard to convince them. But as I've shown you, you can easily convince
someone you've just met, or someone you'll never see
again of pretty much anything. I broke my rule of not lying
to friends and family once, and that's how my parents learned
about my condition. Now I'm going to tell you
about that lie... One weekend, I was going to a friend's birthday party
in a different part of the city. As I was checking the map on my phone, I bumped into a man. He was big with a bald head and a beard. He looked me up and down. I apologized, and continued walking. When I looked back, I saw that
he was following me, or at least I thought he was
until he turned to another street. I guess he just needed
to go in the same direction. As I was approaching my friend's house,
I had an idea! What could possibly happen
if I lied to my close friends once about a man I'll never see again? It would make this party unforgettable
for me and my friends, or so I thought. I started acting out the lie right then. I turned off my phone and threw it
into a trash can with my bag. That way, I would get
a new phone too. When I arrived at my friend's house,
I could barely breathe, and I was crying at the same time. As I walked in,
everybody just gathered around me forgetting about the party. I started telling my story
with no shame! I was walking looking
at the map on my phone. Suddenly, a man just appeared
in front of me. He told me to give him
my phone in my bag. Before I could do anything
he grabbed my bag. As I was giving him my phone, he took hold of my wrist, and asked me how old I was? I started crying like crazy. He started dragging me. Just then, someone from inside
one of the apartments yelled, "Let her go! I'm calling the police", and he freaked out. So I started running
without looking back. I owe that woman my life. But my phone in my bag were stolen. My goal was to get all the attention, and then enjoy the party. But then things took
an unexpected turn! I didn't know that my friend's dad
was a high-level police man. He came home right away
when he heard about what happened. He apologized to me several times. He said that "it was unforgivable that
a guest should experience such a thing!" We went to the police station together. They took my statement. Then an artist came in, and made a sketch
based on my description. I regret not describing someone else. Like an idiot I described the bald man
who I thought followed me., A week later, my friend's dad
came to our house, and took me and my parents
back to the police station. They had caught him. They took us into a room. We could see the man
through a two-way mirror. "Is this the man who robbed you?",
they asked. Yes, it really was the same guy. They said, he got out of prison last year,
and has a record of similar crimes. He hasn't done anything since he got out,
but these kinds of men never learn. Apparently, he went back
to his old ways. The police were sure that
they got the right guy. It was obvious that I was just there
as a formality. I was shaking with fear. I never thought it would come to this. I didn't know what to do. If I said, "Yes it's him", I was going to be responsible for
an innocent man going to prison. I had described him so well that he looked exactly the same
as the person in the sketch. They were so alike that
I couldn't say, "It's not him". Suddenly I started crying. My mom hugged me. I was blabbering, "I lied, I lied again." Everybody in the room
looked at me and in shock. I confessed that I had lied, feeling like I was in a trance. I don't think I'll ever be
so ashamed in my life again. When we came back home
my parents were so sad. Their only daughter was a liar. But they didn't get angry with me because
they knew I didn't have bad intentions. Like I said, they were just really sad. They made me an appointment
with a psychiatrist. In the first session, I tried telling
everything honestly. Then the doctor told me and my parents
what kind of therapy I was going to have. Apparently, it was going to be
a difficult process that would include
both medication and therapy. We don't know how long
it will last. Apparently the success of the treatment
depends on how eager I am. I really want to be cured of this condition, and I'm going to succeed no matter what. Thanks for listening to me. If you want to tell your story, send it to the email address
in the info section Bye!
