Can MS cause a person to be dishonest?

Question:

One of my co-workers is super sweet, but she has gained a reputation as a compulsive liar around the office. Her lies are pretty harmless. She says that her house is bigger than it is, boast about spending large sums of money, but nothing that really matters (at least I hope not). She recently confided in me that she suffers from Multiple Sclerosis (MS). I know this is a neurological disease, so I wonder if the disease or her treatments could cause her to be out of touch with reality.

Answers:
MS is a devastating illness which is certain to cause enormous emotional and psychological stress. The possible emotional reactions will be as varied as the people themselves, so it is impossible to state categorically that MS would NOT cause someone to undergo a personality change that could entail some mild form of antisocial behavior such as "white lies" - however this is not a typically oberved or well-documented reaction to the disease. More typical emotional reactions are depression, anxiety and anger. Some sufferers will also experience mild cognitive problems such as impairment of short term memory, difficulty concentrating, trouble with problem-solving or planning.

With this in mind, I would pose a few questions for you ponder:

Are you sure the person really has MS ? If she frequently lies, this could be just another one.

Did you know this person before she got MS ? (assuming she even has it ?). She may be someone who has always been a frequent liar who just happened to get MS. There is certainly no correlation between a person's integrity and their likelihood of developing the disease.

Be careful of getting too involved in a co-worker's problems and personality issues unless they happen to be a close friend outside of the workplace. You are there afterall to get work done. That doesn't mean you can't be a human being, but work is challenging enough on its own without getting dragged into the personal problems of everyone you work with. If you try to be the good Samaritan all the time on top of your job, you are certain to become overwhelmed. If the person is frequently dishonest, that certainly suggests this might be a good person NOT to befriend or take into your confidence - they may be unreliable as a friend, and may even use things you tell them to lie about you behind your back and hurt your reputation.

You might want to keep you eye out for other related symptoms - unreliability, manipulativeness, chaotic interpersonal relationships, deceit, shallow personality with charm, inability to follow a life plan such as maintaining steady employment or personal relationships. If the person consistently demonstrates this behavior pattern, she might be a psychopath - in which case - keep a safe interpersonal distance from this person.

Other Answers:
i dont know

I have a friend like that, she lies about stuff that don't even matter.

no she is probably lying about that too

I wouldn't think that MS would cause her to lie. Some people are compulsive liars and they have lied so much they wouldn't know the truth if it bit them in the face. I, personally, believe that it is a type of mental illness for them to feel as if they have to make things up to look "big" or "important" to others. But as for MS causing them to lie, I don't believe that is correct.

Lying is a behavior pattern.one might say a character defect. It has nothing to do with MS, a neurological disorder that affects the nervous system, not the cerebral cortex, where behavior patterns are stored. Interesting theory, though.
Source(s):
20 years of study in neuropsychology

I don't think it is the MS itself (my mom has it and isn't like that) its probably more of an "I want to overcompensate for my disease" sort of thing, based on the kind of things she is lying about.

I've never heard lying to be a symptom of MS. However, there could be memory problems and other congitive disfunctions.

Not trying to be funny at all: Could it be that she's doesn't have MS, but rather she is a compulsive liar and lied about having MS?

There is no research at this time that states having MS will cause you to lie. Maybe she is lying about having MS. Here are some websites to find out more about MS. My father had and die of MS and he was not a liar.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/multiplesclerosis.html
http://medstat.med.utah.edu/kw/ms/
http://www.mult-sclerosis.org/

Hope this information helps.

Well my aunt has a bad case of MS i've never known her to lie. But she tends to foget alot of things and sometimes she'll be stuck in the past gettin on kicks about wanting to find things that she hasnt even seen in years but htinks she just had it. MS mostly messes with your memory and gives nerve pains. Her leg is always bothering her so she cant walk by herself. all becuz of ms

Your work mate is a liar and you probably shouldn't believe anything she says. I recommend you play it a little, have some fun. If her house is big, tell her you live in a cardboard box. If she goes to the opera, tell her you love bingo. Whatever she does, has, loves, etc., find an opposite and tell her that's what you love, have, etc. I've done it numerous times with liars - it's fun.

Her dad is a surgeon - your dad is in jail.
Her kids are all straight A students, yours is into Goth.

You only live once.

WOW! This person must REALLY bother you, ya know? In order for you to create a youqa.com account just to ask about her. This IS your only question. Have ya been to her house? Have you seen pictures? How do you know that she's lying about it? How is "boasting" lying? It sounds to me, based on the facts that you provided, you may be jealous. It also sounds to me that you don't know much about the human brain.

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Can MS cause a person to be dishonest?

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