limeskittles

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. I'm not really talking about lying about when/how much we drank but when we were drinking.... I know that when I drank at bars every single word that came out of my mouth was a lie, sometimes down to what my name is. There was no reason to lie, and they were all stupid lies. About what I did for a living, where I grew up, etc. I've been trying to understand why I did it and why it basically went hand in hand with drinking.

Dee74

I don't think drinking caused me to lie - I think my own insecurities and lack of self esteem contributed to that.

I think drinking just removed my inhibitions and gave rise to some ridiculous stories and lies.

D

Anna

I thought about that a lot too.

I learned how to lie at about age 4 in order to survive in my home. Lying about certain things became second nature to me and continued, but pretty much stopped in my teenage years. When I began drinking in my forties, the lying started again and took over so I lied about ridiculous things. Like you, I'm not sure why it happened, but I hated it. It was one more horrible aspect of drinking.

EndGameNYC

I think that sometimes we fabricate different personalities, histories, professional experience, education, interests, relationships...the lot of it, because we don't like who we are or what we've done, believing that other people will find us more interesting and appealing under a raft of camouflage. It's much easier to talk about all the good things in life, real or imagined, than it is to talk about our perceived faults and failures.

cardoon

Agree with Endgame. All part of that fantasy land.

susasober1

You said it perfectly! I told some fantastic lies when I was drinking (especially about the 3 years I spent in NYC in my early 20s)...yes, I really did live there at that age for 3 years...but I made up stories to a couple of people that made my life there soooo much more exciting than it was!!!

bigsombrero

I learned to lie and make up stories around 12 when I went through a real tough situation in the home. I became a master of disguise and projected a perfect image of myself on the outside. That game never stopped, and it's part of the reason I hid my alcoholism so well up until the very end. Until I got clean last year, I'd been lying in one shape or form my entire life. Worst of all, I was also lying to myself and didn't know what was true anymore. Throw in a massive drinking problem and it finally exploded in spectacular fashion.