Lying Vs Mental Health

The act of deception is not of a recent origin and is not just confined to the human kingdom. In fact, it dates back to millions of years ago when different species of the animal kingdom such as camouflage used ways to manipulate themselves to others.

Lying is the most common deceptive way we all use to manipulate ourselves in front of others. But, what if you have been lying to yourself?

Does it have the same amount of impact on your mental wellbeing than lying to others?

Perhaps not.

Before we go on to discuss further, let us try to understand why as humans we lie.

Well, the most obvious reason why we lie is when we feel insecure. That insecurity, of course, may stem out of anything, be it the fear of losing one’s job or losing a potential date. People can also lie when they smell that their power or influence is under threat. At other times, one may simply lie to you as he or she may not want to disappoint you by telling the truth or just the fact that they do not want to lose you or hurt you because you might matter a great deal to them. Besides that, some people also lie because they do not even consider it a lie so much so that it gets registered in their subconscious as if it were the truth.

But, what if a lie becomes a vicious cycle that may completely ruin your life?

Yes, you heard that right.

Some neurologists believe that lying is a skill just like any other skill in the world. The more you lie, the better the liar you become. The better you perform in lying, the more often you lie. Thus, it becomes a vicious cycle that may be difficult to break. In fact, most lies in the world will exist only as long as any other lie(s) feeds it and the truth stays away from it. Whatever the nature of lie might be, one thing is certain. A lie regardless of its nature will definitely pose some threat to our inner health. 

A recent publication in the journal –Nature Neuroscience reveals that every single lie has the potential to desensitize our brain to  varying degrees  to a guilty pleasure which is just similar to a case where we cheat somebody or be dishonest.

When I was a kid, I often heard the story of the shepherd and the lion. The moral of the story got deeply ingrained in me so much so that I refrained from lying throughout my adolescent years. However, things changed when I got into college. I lied once, twice, thrice and just liked the very taste of a lie. Practice polished this habit and I gradually started becoming a good liar.

But, after a few months, I started observing a change in my own perception. I started having self-esteem issues. I looked for help.

The root cause of my poor emotional health was just that all these years I had been lying without any real need to tell a lie. I started losing my relationships and lost that so-called innocence for my parents and most importantly lost my intuition that followed me for so many years.

It was then I realised we should be mindful of our communication with others. One lie will follow the other and it will soon be a bunch of lies with so much weight on my shoulders.

In another study, it was found that our reasons for lying can be grouped into two broad categories-altruistic reasons and selfish reasons. As the name suggests, lying for altruistic reasons are likely to have lesser repercussions that that for selfish ones.

Bottom line-Lying should be sought as a  mere instrument that may be used for a constructive cause. If overused, it can have serious repercussions on our mental and emotional wellbeing-Surendra