Mythomania, pseudo-fantastic or pathological habit of lying; It is the chronic lying behavior or the desire to lie without any social interest or gain.
What is Mythomania?
With the intense stress, activities and social environment pressure in daily life, the frequency of psychological health problems tends to increase gradually. Accordingly, different mental problems occur at different levels and negatively affect the quality of life of individuals.
The behavior of lying, which is in question in mythomania, is known for satisfying a psychological need or desire of the person and relaxing after the behavior. In this sense, it differs from the behavior of telling white lies, which can also be seen in healthy people. Mythomania generally tends to be accompanied by various psychological disorders. Mytomanic lying behavior can be seen in the clinic, especially in patients with antisocial personality disorder, bipolar mood disorder or various psychological disorders such as depression and anxiety. In this context, careful examination of people with mythomania in terms of additional mental problems is indispensable for the application of a correct and effective treatment.
Why Does Mythomania Occur? How to Understand Mythomania?
Lying behavior can also be seen in healthy people. In this lying behavior, which is known as a white lie among the public, there is usually a purpose in the form of not being offended for various reasons or not learning certain information, and a gain obtained by lying. Again, white lies are known to not cause serious health or social problems in terms of their consequences. Contrary to this, patients who do not have a specific reason for lying in mythomanic lying behavior only lie because they have a psychological need. In this sense, although it is not intended to provide a social gain as a result of lies; often a secondary gain can be obtained. As a result of mythomanic lies, the person often expresses himself as the hero or victim of an event. has shown that it can evolve. In this sense, since various regions of the brain are related to personality and mental health, damage to these regions can cause personality disorders or psychological disorders. Again, mitomania can be encountered in cases of antisocial personality disorder, bipolar disorder or some psychosis. In antisocial personality disorder, the patient becomes prone to commit criminal behaviors by ignoring the rules or moral behaviors that regulate social life. For this reason, it may show more frequent and easy lying behavior. Again in bipolar disorder, patients who enter the state of mania may talk and lie about situations that do not exist in order to influence the other person. In psychosis, he may develop delusions by believing in impersonal things and talk about them as if they are true. Studies have also shown that people who lie chronically develop a predisposition and ease in displaying the behavior of lying. In this sense, it can be said that people who lie frequently are predisposed to mythomania. Despite all this, the information about mythomania is still limited and it can be said that more research needs to be done. Mythomania can be detected in various patients seen in the clinic, although there is no specific underlying disorder.
What are the Symptoms of Mythomania?
Differences in various aspects between mythomanic lying behavior and white lying behavior seen in healthy people is found. “How to understand mythomania?” This question is one of the most frequently asked questions by people who are exposed to this situation. Accordingly, the following traits are seen in people with mythomania:
- The mythomanic liar; does not feel any urge for social gain, such as getting himself out of an embarrassing situation or keeping information that he wants to be kept confidential. This creates serious problems, especially among family members. Because, although there is no reason to lie, the person persists in lying.
- In mythomanic lies; The statements are very deep, convincing, detailed and exaggerated. In this sense, mythomanic people can skillfully narrate the events that did not happen and easily convince the other side.
- Mythoman In case i, the person often portrays himself as a hero or victim in the lie he is telling. In this way, the mythomanic person gains a secondary social gain by obtaining displays of interest such as praise, pity or sympathy from the person to whom he is lying. In this situation, which is expressed as delusion or delusion in psychology, the person may accept the false situation or event as real and reject the contrary claims. During this insistence, the person may have difficulty distinguishing the truth from the lie.
- While lying, the mythomanic people do not show the behaviors such as planning the lie, blushing on the face, averting the eyes, and itching, which are often observed in healthy people. Can give quick and satisfactory answers to immediate questions, can easily construct and express lies easily.
- Mythomanic lies often have great social effects. In this sense, a person may pretend to have an unachievable success as his own or claim that he has a life-threatening disease.
How to Diagnose Mythomania?
Mythomania It can be quite difficult to diagnose. Since the behavior of lying can be made comfortable and convincing as if the person is talking about a real phenomenon, difficulties may be experienced in making the diagnosis with the history of the disease during a basic psychiatric examination. By using the polygraph or lie detector test, also known as the mythomania test, it can be examined whether the person believes his lies or how he behaves in order to persuade others by measuring his reactions during the lying behavior. Another important issue in the diagnosis is the disease history taken from the person's close circle and family. If necessary, additional examinations may be applied. In line with the information obtained, the necessary treatment is planned by diagnosing mythomania and other diseases, if any. First of all, is this a sign of another psychological problem? or whether it is a health problem on its own should be determined. If a different mental disorder such as personality disorder, mood disorder, depression or anxiety is detected, various drug treatments such as antidepressants, tranquilizers and antipsychotic drugs are prescribed. In addition, psychotherapy has a very important place in the treatment of mythomaniac people. In addition, it is very important to support the relatives of the patients psychologically after the diagnosis of mythomania. In this direction, psychological support can be given to the relatives of the patients by informing them about how to fight with mythomania. . In this sense, the difficulty of the situation should be accepted and patient should be acted upon.
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