Thinking about the Jason Arday story this week and also thinking about 3 other people I know who have been involved in something similar. It’s got me wondering if this is some kind of diagnosable condition or is it just a case of these people lying to impress but then getting in so deep, the lies have to keep on getting bigger and bigger?
I once got pulled into something like this with a long time family friend. I wasn’t close to her (she was close to my cousin) but I’d see her at family gatherings.
Several years back, she rang me and started telling me she’d secured a book deal with a major publisher. Turns out she’d had this secret life as a high profile ‘call girl’ and had written a memoir which was about to be launched. She wanted some advice (and contacts) due to the field I work in. I had no reason to disbelieve her so I offered to help but said I’d need to see/read the book first. It then started to get a bit weird - although she said the book was about to be launched, apparently it wasn’t printed yet. Something felt off and when I spoke to my cousin she said ‘oh she does this kind of thing - it’s very unlikely to be true’. Turns out over the years she’d also claimed to have had cancer, been a victim of DV, lost a child to SIDS, been trafficked and also apparently had 3 degrees. There was loads more too.
To the best of my knowledge she wasn’t scamming people for money - she just made up stories. Had a responsible job too and apparently didn’t do this at work - but outside of work, no tale was too tall.
Wonder if anyone else has met someone like this? Could it be done kind of condition (something like munchausens) or is it just that some people live in a fantasy world and don’t care who they lie to?
I know of 2 other people who did something similar too - one of them did eventually go to prison (after scamming someone out of some money).