N&PD Moderators: Skorpio
You should upgrade or use an alternative browser.Neuroscience Trauma Is Neurological
kiely
Bluelighter
Thank you for your Contributions greatly.
kiely
Bluelighter
in many ways.
This pattern does go way back to late adolescence or early adulthood.
And the pattern leads to problems, such as, like either internal distress or problems in relationships or your work or school.kiely
Bluelighter
But instead, it's observed as a behavioral disturbance that's present inside of other disorders, like some personality disorders, like antisocial personality disorder, and some brain disorders like Korsakoff's syndrome, which is brain damage from alcohol.
Pathological lying used to be called pseudologia fantastica. ( what a mouthful definition lol )
And it referred to people who told multiple outrageous lies that would border on the fantastic.
And those were more than just simple lies. These would include elaborate details that seem questionably believable,
and when you challenge the person on the details, they tell even more lies to make the story work.
The motive behind the lying isn't always clear, and sometimes it was and is just to impress people.kiely
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but the more recent research has focused on non-criminal settings.
And in that research, there has come this understanding of deception. Lying is defined as the deliberate attempt to get someone to believe something
that you know is not true, of course.kiely
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normal, prolific, and pathological.
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Pathological lying is still seen as a different entity that takes lying to a different level.
But normal lying and prolific lying were considered behaviors that were non-pathological.kiely
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Now, before you think that seems excessive because "I hardly ever lie,"
let's take a look at how they broke down the lies.
In one of the studies of these references, they divided the lies into little lies.
And big lies using specific examples.
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These were considered little lies.
Telling a lie to keep from hurting someone's feelings.
For example, "No, your butt doesn't look too big in those jeans."
Telling a lie to protect someone.
"No, no, no, no. It wasn't him. I took the $500 cash from your drawer, sorry."
Telling a lie when you don't like someone's gift. "Oh yeah. I love those polka dots socks
and the matching flannel panties. Hmmm. Thank you, yeah. Yeah, thanks."
Telling a lie to stop someone from finding out a secret. "Oh, Gina is abstaining from alcohol because she's observing lent."
But really, Gina isn't drinking alcohol because she's pregnant and she's not ready to tell people yet.
And then telling a lie when a child wants something that he or she can't have. "You can't have that toy because it belongs to the boogeyman and he may get mad at you if you touch it."
Do any of these sound familiar or similar as lies !!!!
These can be thought of as lies that are justified in some way because they serve a bigger purpose to protect someone.
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Now, these were considered big lies.
Lies about whether or not you love someone.
Not telling your partner who you've really been with,
Not telling your partner where you've been.
Calling in sick when you feel fine, and considering it a mental health day.
Lying about whether you like someone.
Lying about how much money you've spent on someone.
Pretending you were too busy to take a call.
Saying that you haven't had that much to drink when you really have.
And telling someone they look good when they don't.
This is similar to the little lie of not admitting that someone looks fat.
In this case, you offer that someone really looks good when you know they don't.
They didn't ask you so you could've kept it to yourself, but instead, you build them up with these false statements.kiely
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On average, normal everyday lying was telling one to two little lies a day, and one big lie a week.
Prolific lying was telling six little lies and three big lies in one day. That's a lot of deception and as such,
Prolific lying tend to result in more problems in the work setting and in relationships.
An observation from one study that seems interesting is that they found that the prolific lying group tended to be younger, male,
and had higher occupational status, like being in a managerial or supervisory position.
Does this mean that chronic deception creates advantages over always being completely honest?
So both normal and prolific would be considered non-pathological, even though prolific can still cause problems.kiely
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And these lies don't have a clear motive or benefit.
It can seem like lying for the sake of lying.
Some people start to believe their lies
And then have trouble even knowing what the truth is.
When that happens, it's pointless to challenge the person on their lies.
Because they may have gotten so lost in the lies that they can't even dig their way out.kiely
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There's therapy to help increase the person's insight into their lives and identify what triggers the behavior, and even help the person recognize
that they're getting into a lying loop.
Believe it or not, for some people, it can become like ordinary talk and they don't even see themselves as spinning a lot of lies.
They just see it as talking, like storytelling. And what's wrong with storytelling !!!!
So for that person, it could be helpful to help them recognize that their storytelling is harmful to others and themselves.
As for a medication approach, there isn't a specific medication to keep people from lying.
But if you treat the lying like a compulsion where the person becomes very anxious if they don't lie, or uses the lies to compensate
for some obsessional thinking that they have, then it's possible that they may experience some improvement from taking an antidepressant
similar to what we use for treating obsessive compulsive disorder.
So that's pathological lying.
Thanks for listening !?!
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Have you ever hit a wall not physically but mentally. Maybe you were finally getting into a good routine feeling optimistic
about a new direction and then something blindsides you. A relationship ends. A project collapses. A health scare pulls
the rug out from under you.
Suddenly everything you were working on feels out of reach for you you're stuck. Unmotivated and questioning whether you
even have the energy to get back up. If this sounds familiar you're not alone.
Mental health, education, and self-improvement are all ways of changing the neurological patters of your brain.kiely
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kiely
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Your brain experiences a setback as a mismatch between expectation and reality and that mismatch creates a dopamine crash! Dopamine is your brain's motivation chemical. It's heavily involved in anticipating rewards and driving goal directed behavior.
When you're working towards something your dopamine levels rise as you visualize the outcome. But when a setback disrupts that outcome especially if it's unexpected dopamine drops. And that drop doesn't just affect motivation it creates a kind of mental
whiplash.
You might feel flat, unmotivated or like what's the point. And that's not laziness or lack of willpower. That's your brain adjusting to the loss of expected reward. You're working against a temporarily disrupted motivation system.
And the solution isn't just powering through. it's helping your brain find its rhythm again.kiely
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Dopamine, motivation, and the mental slowdown
setbacks don't just sap your motivation. They also impair the very part of your brain that helps you figure out what to
do next.
The prefrontal cortex and this is the region that handles planning decision making and emotional regulation.
Under stress especially when the brain perceives a threat or failure the prefrontal cortex becomes less active.
That's why you might find yourself staring at your to-do list unable to decide what to tackle or why even small
decisions may feel overwhelming.
And at the same time another area of the brain, the amygdala, becomes more active.
And the amygdala is your brain's alarm system.
When it senses danger or emotional distress it kicks in to protect you but it's not great at seeing nuance.
It doesn't distinguish between I missed a deadline and I'm in real danger.
So now you've got low dopamine executive dysfunction and a brain that's tagging your setback as a threat.
No wonder it's hard to feel like you can move forward.kiely
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And to add something important here. These brain changes can feel like depression for some people. But they aren't the same thing.
Setback related disruptions are typically acute and tied to a specific situation.
Depression on the other hand involves long-term changes in brain function. But if you don't intervene a prolonged setback has more significant
consequences for you. So that's why it's so important to support your recovery early.kiely
Bluelighter
So let's pause a minute to make an important distinction.
Because how you label your experience changes how your brain processes it and there's a difference between a setback and a failure.
A setback is usually something external. You got sick. Someone let you down. Life happened.
The difference between a setback and a failure :
A failure is more often interpreted as internal. I didn't try hard enough. I messed up. I'm the problem.kiely
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And this kind of thinking can lead to what we can call learned helplessness. A state where you stop trying because your brain has
internalized the belief that effort doesn't make a difference.
But most setbacks aren't about personal inadequacy. They're about disruption your nervous system lost. It's rhythm your executive system got overwhelmed and now
your brain is defaulting to protective mode that's not failure. That's a stress response.