This is quite long, but i don't want to drip feed.
I don't know if this is a MH issue or not, but I would genuinely like some advice regarding a family member and their 'tall tales'.
This family member has always told some porkies about people they know etc and has been going on for years. It started off with phone calls, whereby she would answer her phone and 'talk' to people. She would have her phone on 'vibrate' so we would never hear it ring. Family members knew she wasn't talking to anyone and when my sister checked the phone, she hadn't received any calls for a couple of days. Another example is that once (years ago), we were out shopping and she saw some youths quite far away. She 'called' them and briefly spoke to them. As we got closer to them, I asked if she was going to go over and she said no and the youths didn't come over either - which is strange if you know each other.
We accepted this as just one of those things and thought she would have grown out of it (now mid 20's) but it seems to have stepped up a level:
Family member i friends with a famous celebrity (I'll call him D) and seems to be constantly on the phone to them.
Some examples:
D bought her a mobile phone.
D bought her a really expensive dress and took her out (the dress is stored at his house so it doesn't get ruined)
She is always on the phone to him (but he is married and American - although she hasn't claimed to have had a relationship with him)
However, nobody in the family has ever met him. Once, he came to her house when we were there, but as nobody answered the doorbell (which was broken), he drove off. He called her to say he had left and when we told her to tell him to come back, he refused.
We are concerned because it is almost like she believes this all herself. For example, if we are having a converstation, she may bring up things that D has said. Obviously, we want to believe her, but over the years, she has never once evidenced any of these tales and surely, if she was great mates with D, somebody in the family must have met him. When we have questioned her, she always has an answer for everything so whilst we can necessarily prove she doesn't know him, she can't prove she does. Recently, my sister took down D's phone number and when she called it, the number was disconntected.
In addition, this family member has a serious degenerative medical condition - I think it is unrelated to the tales, but you never know.
Anyway, I think we should just ignore it, but my sister thinks that this family member has mental health problems and is concerned about this.
Sorry this is so long, but I wanted to give you a full a picture as I can.
What do you think we should do, if anything?
Is this a MH issue or just one of those things that some people do?