QUESTION:
Dear Dr. Heller,
I have a friend-in-law who is a pathological liar. He suffers from attention deficit disorder and his short-term memory is practically non existent. He is fairly bright but never finished college and has bounced around from job to job. He is grossly overweight (400 lbs on a 6'2" frame). He needs to impress people with his "quick knowledge" and constantly tells lies professing of knowledge in all sorts of areas. He is generally pretty convincing to the newcomer, but those who know him and know more than him know he is lying. His biological father divorced his mother before he was born and the only father he knew was killed in an accident when he was 15. His father was in the military and a strict disciplinarian. He raises his sons as if they are in the Marines and is very strict and sometimes crushing of their spirit. My question deals with the connection between ADD/ADHD and the pathological no-no's. Is his son who has been diagnosed with ADD also at risk of adopting this unacceptable defense mechanism? How do we help dad solve his compulsive eating and lying problem? Seems the son without the ADD has a lying problem!
ANSWER:
You described a number of problems: Lying, AD(H)D, compulsive eating, morbid obesity
and treating his children harshly. Lying can result from fear of consequences, and can
cause lifetime problems.
There is likely a link with some forms of characterological disorders, but to the best of
my knowledge this hasn't been proven. Studies on identical twins separated at birth
would likely give much more detail on the genetics.
My approach is to treat the diagnoses that are in my
screening
test. I also have a
FAQ about pathological lying.
