Beligerent

Hi all,

I am celebrating just over six months sober. I come from a family of alcoholics. I have a question.. I have a brother that 54 years old, Im 38. He's been a heavy alcoholic since I was like 6. I've never seen him without a can of Old Milwaukee in his hand. All his life he could never maintain friendships and even his children never speak to him. He has diabetes now and just keeps on drinking.

In the last year or so he has become incapable of telling the truth. He lies about everything that comes out of his mouth. This week he lied about the circumstances surrounding his late wifes death. In the next breath he tells people he was in Vietnam. 5 minutes later he's telling the story that he's a volunteer policeman. On and on the stories go. Sometimes the stories are hurtful. Like when he told me that my biological father calls him every weekend ( I havent heard from my dad in 20 years)

My question is: Are any of you familiar with this type of behavior? Is there a clinical name for it?

Dee74

I think that type of behaviour is pretty common amongst alcoholics actually beligerent.

I know I used to make up stuff for no reason really, even in the years before I drank, but especially at the end of my drinking career...

not even lies so much as 'alternative histories' for myself...I think I felt ashamed at what my life had become and I needed to feel more exciting...and I think I felt I deserved more attention too.

I dunno about a clinical name, but 'BS artist' fits
D

CarolD

Gee....that's hard to figure.
Wonder if he actually bleives his own lies
when he says them?

Just guessing here....but he could be having brain damage from
either his unchecked chronic diseases.... diabetes and alcoholism.

Sorry to know of this situation....prayers for yall going out.

Taking5

There is actually a medical condition called Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome, better known as wet brain. One of the symptoms is telling lies, called "confabulation" by doctors. This may be his problem, and it gets a lot worse with time. Here is a link.

Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lenina

I was thinking along the lines of confabulation myself. My understanding is that it happens in the later stages of alcoholism. He may very well believe his own stories. It's not an uncommon thing.

If he's not interested in getting help, there's not much to be done.

I'll keep him and you in my thoughts.

Love,

Lenina

vegibean

Sounds like he has issues more than just the alcohol. He's deluded, for sure. I'd be curious to look into what dgillz said. Your brother has been drinking for a long time, I'm sure he's done some damage to himself.

Saphie

I think we all lie during our active drinking career. I know I did, whether it was to get out of trouble, make myself look better than I was and at some point I actually did believe what I was telling people.
I think your brother's symptoms are going further than this though.
My manager's wife is an alcoholic and was diagnosed with alcohol dementia and she has changed dramatically. She is telling stories about how her gall bladder has been flipped upside down, how she has a smoking stall on her hospital floor etc.
Again this is just an example of someone else. Your brother needs to get medical help in order to get diagnosed correctly and of course that is entirely his decision. He probably doesn't even realize he is doing it.
Don't let this affect your sobriety.

loveon2legs

I guess during my drinking days I lied as well.. I pretended during the day I was a happy go lucky person, who portrayed herself as a person who had it all together.....at night I was a drunk who,depending on my mood would either cry or start yelling.....I was miserable...and didn't know how miserable until I had a few months of sobriety...
I think at least for me..I wanted to believe I was just a "normal" person....but I was living a lie....so sad...

Ronan

I agree with everything said in the posts above. We've all lied to make our drunken lives seem less awful to other people, and of course even began believing the lies ourselves.

I think your brother is just at a very advanced stage where his memory is so messed up he can't remember what lies he told who or why.