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I live with my nan and just recently I've noticed she's started lying. A lot. Most recently she's lied about booking me an appointment to have my hair cut and then when I was ill, she lied and said that a lot of people she knew had had the same 'virus'. She's lied about having spent money and when she's been sleeping/been awake. It's irritating not being able to trust her, especially since she thinks herself very independent and I'm quickly tiring of having to re-do things she's said she's done and check on even the most tiny of details. I've also noticed her lying to her friends,when they're ridiculously easy lies to be caught out on, saying that I've gotten jobs or interviews when I haven't. I've only called her out on her lying once and she got very defensive and annoyed.

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Ah, this is dementia, and she does not know she is lying. Sometimes they mix up dreams and reality and even things they saw on TV. They can no longer sort out what is real and what is not. You should alert her MD to her faulty memory at her next office visit.
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Confabulation
People say things containing information that is blatantly false, tell of actions that inaccurately describe history, background and present situations. They are coherent, internally consistent, and appear relatively normal. This despite contradicting evidence.

Professionals recognize the person is Confabulating. This is distinct from lying because there is typically no intent to deceive and the person is unaware that the information is false. Life is fraught with confabulation speak.

we all Confabulate wikipedia]. We make..verbal statements and/or actions that inaccurately describe history, background and present situations
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Confabulating is distinct from lying because first there is no intent to deceive, second the person being unaware that the information is blatantly false. Confabulating can be coherent, internally consistent, and reasonable...despite clearly contradicting evidence. Your challenge: is what they say true?

"... similarities between confabulation and delusions; e.g., both involve the production of unintentional false statements, both are resistant to contradictory evidence..." ~ Alzcarer

"delusions that are frequently observed in Alzheimer's patients include beliefs about theft, the patient's house not being his home, a spouse, is an impostor, belief an intruder is in the house, abandonment, spousal infidelity, and paranoia." ~
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confabulations are a major annoyance - when friends, family, and the medical community take everything our loved ones say at face value, no matter how false we know their statements to be
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Thank you!
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FandF, if it's come on suddenly it's a marked behavioural change and it warrants reporting to her doctor. I wouldn't hang about, if I were you. Give them a call.
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Sadly, its dementia. My mom is the same. Part of it is that they know they are losing control, slipping, so they try to stay in control by saying what they want to be true. Part of it just that a cog slips in their minds and they imagine things.
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I agree with the others. It is a normal stage of dementia known as "confabulation." The more the person's mental faculties are compromised, the more they will confabulate. It may be the mind's way of "coping with" the loss of control. But as others have said, it's not really intentional on the part of the client; it's part of the disease process of dementia. It was confabulation that first made me aware that my father definitely had dementia. I noticed a stack of unpaid bills on the dining room table - unusual for a man who had been meticulous about money! When I said, "dad, why are you not paying your bills? This is unlike you." His response was, "because I did not feel like it." When I told him they would cut off his electricity, his response was, "No, they won't do that to somebody who is a good customer." I told him good customer or not, if you don't pay your electric bill they WILL pull the plug. He seemed unfazed by this and just shrugged his shoulders.
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