Mental Illness

I am considering how to broach the subject of deception as a mental illness. Do you consider it so, dear reader? Are liars insane, and are some liars, criminally crazy?

I'm not talking about run of the mill liars like you and me; people like us injure ourselves when we fib, and we dent and damage relationship too, but we don't lie to the extend of doing psychological harm that leads to life destruction, as some do. We, you and boring me, are not pathological in our lies, and so convinced that our egregious ways are well founded, that we do not feel the pinch when we practice deception. In other words, conscience screams LIAR, LIAR, when we misspeak and mislead; in contrast, a person accustomed to their own deceiving ways, really enjoys indulging their inclinations toward the misguiding of others, and that is hard to believe for most of us. It is difficult to grasp, why people perpetually pretend, and want others to believe their blatant blathering of bold-faced lying. 

Make no mistake, dear one. Manipulators feel no shame and can lie as easily as they breathe. In fact, they breathe in facts, misconstrue them in their brains, and then speak out foul misleading methodology, crafted to drag you and I by invisible nose rings, inserted when we weren't paying attention. Have you ever believed a sincere person that turned out to be a con man or woman? Have you lost money, and then sleep, because you foolishly fell for a scam or someone's trickery? 

Soul regulator

People Of The Lie: The Hope for Healing Human Evil, a book written long ago by M. Scott Peck, M.D. fine-lined for me that evil does indeed exist. The father of lies is known as the Devil, and to deny him his rightful place in the minds and hearts of liars, is foolish and naive. If you are a liar, you deceive yourself if you think you can get away with your wayward ways, and if you actually believe that you are not influenced by the wicked one. This is why God installed in each human being, a conscience, the sheriff of the soul (Matthew Henry calls it this). If you can lie and feel no guilt, no remorse, then you are mentally, emotionally, spiritually, ill and retarded in your psychological maturity. You have tuned out and turned off your soul regulator, your conscience. To lie with the believe that you are immune; to lie with impunity ... is indeed, crazy making in your mind. 

Poisoning the mind

Lies poison the mind and shade reason. Lies help us do what we want to do to get the results we want to garner in the form of information or approval. Lies buy us time and have us believing we can win while cheating others out of what is rightfully theirs. If you have to lie to get what you want, you are stealing, plain and simple. 

Are you on an anti-depressant? If not, how many of your friends and acquaintances are taking something to settle their nerves? This is not a question out of left field, dear reader, this is a leading inquiry. I am pointing to the predominant tendency people suffer, of subterfuge, the deceit used in order to achieve a goal. For the cause and in the case of emotional management, the goal of smoothed out agitation is supposedly met and handled with drugs, anti-depressants. I offer an alternative to this pharmaceutical band-aid in the form of understanding what is really happening, and working through the pain to the freedom offered on the other side. 

If a person is anxious, it means they are emotionally disturbed. Anxiety is sharp and painful, and when dealt with appropriately, a person can think clearly and make decisions that are wholesome, but in order to do this, they may have to suffer truth. You read that last line correctly, they, meaning people like you and me, may have to suffer truth in order to be free from anxiety. 

Self-deception

People avoid suffering at all costs: there is a sense that if one goes down the dark and dusty road that leads to understanding of what taunts and haunts them, the truth may murder them. Why o why, would I want to kill myself? says the psyche. Is it not far better to ignore what might kill me, in favour of putting up and shutting up, so that I can carry on with life? What, pray tell, is the point, of dealing with my past, when it does nothing to move me forward into my future? Let sleeping dogs lie ... I will sneak away so as not to disturb them. 

I outlined for you in the above paragraph, what the unspoken contract is when a person denies their own pain, and believes they can silence it, keeping it from rearing its ugly and noisy head. Alas, this never works, or at least, not long term; thus a person that cannot, will not, refuses to, deal with their own hurt, will turn to work, drugs, alcohol, sex, TV, social media, anything to distract them from their suffering and numb the sorrow of the soul. And so ...

Oh what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive, Sir Walter Scott.  

Escapism

Listen: If you self-deceive, know that this makes you susceptible to the lies of manipulators. If you believe your own nonsense and assimilate and then integrate, duplicity into your soul, then be sure it is not a stretch that you are more than capable of soaking up other people's chicanery; in fairness, when you excuse yourself, you will excuse others. No one wants to be judgemental; we have a tendency to give others a pass on what we ourselves have done. Isn't that what we all want, mercy for being flawed, and to not have to pay the price of punishment for our not so great choices? 

This form of escapism, the dodging of responsibility for our lousy sinful choices, dear reader, is exactly the cause of much anxiety. Next, the choices other people have made that caused us pain, suffering, and all manner of injury, is yet another major source of anxiety and soulful agony. Deal with it, all of it, and I tell you now, that while the process may be painful, and you may feel as though it will be the end of you, it will not be, in fact, it will be your new beginning. Slowly take steps in truth telling, and feel weight drop from your shoulders, one laden lie at a time. 

Discernment is dull

Sin is insidious. When we don't come clean regarding our own sin, pleading for forgiveness from God, begging for him to make honest men and women of us, and pledging to sin no more when he gives us the strength for this resolve, then how in God's Mighty name, can we fearlessly point out deception in others? I tell you, dear reader, that discernment is dull when we self-deceive, but sharpened when we go before our Maker and beseech, Lord, cleanse me of my sick iniquity, make me more like you. It is never a vain and useless endeavour to go to God and ask for what we desperately need most. He always hears, and always answers, then provides, when it is his perfect will we want enlivened in us. 

This is my challenge to you dear reader. Catch people in lies. 

Here is how:

1. If a person says one thing and does another, that is a lie; behaviour never lies

2. If the person is speaking to someone and you happen to be listening, and you hear them telling the other person a story that does not match what actually happened, that is a lie

3. If a person has information that aids in clearing up a misunderstanding, but withholds, that is a lie of omission

4. If you discover someone has spoken about you behind your back, blaming you for something they have done, that is a lie

5. If a person commits to a cause, telling you that they are with you but in short order, they speak the opposite within your sight or hearing, that is a lie designed to deceive and mislead

6. If you are warned about someone being tricky, self-serving, dishonest, untrustworthy, sneaky ... rather than giving them your helping hand, perhaps take some time to watch and assess them. Chances are very good, that the reports you have heard are accurate, and you have a deceiver in your midst

7. If a person feeds you information that leads you in a direction that may be harmful to your well-being, or will cause injury to another, they are telling you lies to get you to do things you ought not do 

• What telltale signs can you add to this list? 
• What kind of liar have you been? And what kind of liars have you dealt with?
• How did the liar "get you", and what did you lose by engaging with them? 
• How have you caused injury to yourself and others, via your own lies? 

Are you, dear one. mentally ill? 

Lies are like a ball of yarn ... in fact, there is an old expression, spinning a yarn: to tell a story; to make up or relate a series of excuses. A long sting of yarn can be rolled into a massive ball, making up the fabric of someone's life; with this imagery, we have tightly wound lies with the centre hidden from perceiving eyes. Take the strand that sticks out and pull, allowing the ball to roll away from you, and the yarn unravels, revealing the excuses, the stories, the lies hidden within. Truth is the most powerful weapon against deception, and lies have no chance of survival: Truth always prevails, even when it seems the liars have gained ground and it has been lost forever. 

There is One known as The Truth. He doesn't take kindly to lies or liars ... do you, dear one, know him?