Q&A for How to Stop Lying

Lying is the easy way out, and sometimes we're not brave enough to tell the truth. First of all, you should tell someone about your lying problem, like a friend or a parent. They can help you and keep you accountable for what you say.

The thing that you are saying might be controversial. If you can, give evidence to why you are true. It might also be due to the fact that you've lied so much in the past that you haven't yet built sufficient trust up to have people think that you're now being honest.

Start concerning yourself with the repercussions of lying and understand that it affects more people than just yourself when you do it. Make a decision to tell the truth, see how that works out for you, and repeat it constantly. Ask yourself: "What is the worst that could happen?" and redesign your actions around good outcomes.

Meet them with the truth. Realize that you need to face the consequences for whatever lies you've told. You'll feel much better.

Try to tell the truth and tell yourself that if you get caught lying, it will be embarrassing. Think about why you were lying, was it to get what you want? Was it to make people feel bad for you? Try to think about what you were doing, and think before you speak.

Come clean each time you lie. Going through this process will help you be aware of your bad habit.

First, be honest with yourself. Why do you feel the need to impress others? Do you feel everyone else is better than you? They're not. They're just like you, with their own fears and insecurities. Just be yourself, genuinely care about others and try to help them, and you will find you have no need to lie about anything.

Get to the heart of the reason you feel compelled to lie about school. Do you feel your parent's expectations of you are too high? Are your parents hard to talk to when it comes to school? Are you trying to paint a rosier picture than the reality? When you've nutted out the reason for lying, then you can address it by talking to your parents about it and suggesting that you all take a different approach to what schooling means for you and where you're eventually headed in this big, wide world.

Lying may put you in a better position for a while, but won't truth put you in a much better position overall? Try to experience a much better position by beginning to tell the truth, and you will see the beauty and importance of being truthful.

Have a serious talk with him about lying, tell him that it hurts you when be lies and it hurts himself. Grounding him won't get you any results (most of the time) but if you get to the root of his lying and work with that, then you might get better results and a better response from him. Don't freak out when he lies, think about taking a retreat together or maybe a family therapist to get through this lying problem.

Just stop. Tell the truth. If you have been lying and you tell the truth before it gets even worse, that's better than continuing with a lie.

If your past lies aren't hurting anyone, feel free to keep them to yourself, but you may feel better if you unburden yourself and tell the truth so you can start fresh with your commitment to honesty.

If you're not being honest with her about the bad things in your life, you're not allowing her to love you fully. You're not giving her a chance to get to know you, the real you, for who you are. If she's important to you, you should open up to her. If you don't, and she finds out you lied to her, she will be hurt.

Think about what would happen if the truth came out, and what a horrible situation you would be in.

Be honest, first of all with yourself. And when you start doing that it will be easy to be honest with other people. Talk to someone, and just vent. Everyone needs to do that every once in a while. Also, tell them the truth even if it hurts or causes more pain -- coming clean will sort things out at last.

Why do you lie about your family or yourself? Are they so awful or dull that you feel you need to cover up? Do you feel so worthless you need to embellish your life? You probably would benefit a great deal from seeing a counselor or a therapist for some help.

Get to the reason why you want to make people feel sorry for you -- this is a form of manipulation and reflects a self belief that you're not good enough unless you make people feel pity toward you. You could choose to tell the truth instead. If it is a bad habit, it may be hard to break, but it's not impossible. You could also think about why you want people to feel bad for you. Is it because you don't get enough attention? If it is, try and talk to people saying that you feel like nobody talks to you. If people talk to you more, you don't have to lie anymore.

When you think you are going to lie to her think about everything she has done for you and how much she loves you. And lying to her would ruin your trust and maybe even your bond with each other. Also get to the heart of why you feel you need to lie to her and resolve the problems underlying that reason.

The first lie in theft is assuming ownership of something that's not yours. Once the theft has been carried out, you deny the owner the right of enjoying ownership of what's stolen. More lies result in an attempt to vindicate yourself from the implications of being exposed for the theft. On the flip side, lying itself can be considered a form of theft. When you lie about anything to anyone, you deny them the truth, as well as deny yourself personal integrity.

It might be because you might want something that she is telling you isn't possible. For example, you might be seeking more time to play on an iPad or computer, so you say that you started using it at 7:30 instead of 7:00, so that you get half an hour more. Or, you might have taken sweets or a slice of cake and you don't want your mother to know. Convince yourself that being honest is the right thing to do and far less difficult to keep track of.

You can tell them, but they won't know until enough time has passed. If you say, "I will not lie for the next three years", then on day 0 they'll say, "Yeah, sure, good luck". After one day, you haven't really proven anything yet, but assuming you actually do indeed not lie, after a while they'll start to trust that you might indeed be serious. They'll only be sure of the truth of your statement exactly three years later (if you didn't lie). However, a key important factor here is this: do they want to spend three years with you, risking they'll just be lied to again? That's why you shouldn't have lied in the first place. If they turn their backs on you, there's nothing you can do.

Tell your friend that it is unacceptable to ask you to lie all the time. Tell her with conviction that you won't keep lying for her. If she gets upset, or more importantly, keeps asking you to lie even after you tell her not to, you may have to consider taking a break from her or dumping her entirely.

It really depends on the situation. If telling the truth now isn't going to do anybody any good, only cause you to lose your job, etc., then you should probably not come clean (assuming you're not hurting anyone). However, if you must tell the truth, you're just going to have to accept the consequences of your actions.

God knows you're lying. And you know it. That makes two. You will stop lying when you realize that doing so hurts YOU, even if you don't see exactly how.

It is said many times that trust is "hard to learn and even harder to repair when someone's trust has been broken." Even though you may have only told one lie, you have already broken someone's trust. That psychologically makes it so that every time you say something, they already question whether or not you are telling the truth. Depending on the severity of the lie and the outcome of the lie, it may be impossible to ever gain someone's trust again. That's why it is important to be honest; because you might just make someone question everything you say for the rest of their life.

Trust needs time. If you say "I will not tell another lie to you for three years," the person will be unsure until that three years has passed whether you'll be true to your word or lie again. So it takes weeks, months even. More importantly, the person has to be willing to spend those months with you. If the person says, "Enough is enough, I've had it, we're through," then even if you don't lie for decades upon decades, the person won't care, the friendship is still over. That's why you should never violate trust in the first place.

The stomachache you get is probably from your guilt. Lying is bad and can get people into trouble and it also creates trust issues. If you stop lying, most likely you will stop getting stomachaches.

If your potential partner is someone new entirely, you really don't have to say much about all that at all. Let it be in the past. If they were involved or are aware, then it's a different thing. The best way is to just be honest about what happened, but be short. Show that you've learned from this. It's about the two of you now in the present, and hopefully in the future, too.

In a relationship, we are not supposed to be teaching each other anything. Both partners are equal, mature, and independent. You can't tell her, teach her or demand her to do anything. If she doesn't want to learn this, then you have to decide what you can and cannot live with. You can, however, voice your frustration. "Look, you're always lying to me, I think it is very disrespectful and hurtful." She must show that she understands, and then make an effort to change that herself. If she doesn't, find someone who does respect you.

Not necessarily. A good rule of thumb is that if you still realize you're in trouble, you can still get out of it yourself. Take small steps. Think of something true and talk about that to one person today. The article really does list a lot of good information on how to do this.