Having watched both episodes of Dr. Phil with Ronaiah Tuioasosopo, I am just flabberghasted at this story. There are so many lies flying around that it is absurd, and keeping them all straight is a real challenge–even for someone like me.  Let me explain.

Some people are compulsive or pathological liars–that is when they talk they find it easier to lie than to tell the truth. It’s as if these people are compelled to lie, and that lying feels more natural to them than being honest.

If you’ve ever talked to a confessed compulsive liar, they will tell you that they don’t know why they do it. Even worse, they are often aware that they can tell the truth because there is no consequence for doing so, but they lie anyway– for no reason at all.  Read about compulsive liars here. 

I believe that Ronaiah is likely on of these people.  For him, I suspect, it is equally as easy to lie as it is to tell the truth.  Another person you may remember who clearly did this was Casey Anthony.  She could lie as easily as she could tell the truth.  There was no difference.  If anything, there is a comfort in being deceptive for these people, which drops their clues to deception at times.

It doesn’t mean they don’t leak clues–both Casey Anthony and Ronaiah Tuioasosopo leak clues, but they won’t leak clues in every lie they tell, if that makes sense, because there is little pressure on them like normal people.  It’s a completely different ball of wax, if you will.

With normal liars, its quite easy for me to pick out the truth and the lies and delineate them.  With a compulsive liar, I can pick out many of the lies, but when I see compulsiveness, I am hesitate to trust what comes across as believable.  Thankfully there are not a lot of compulsive liars.

Ronaiah is smooth as can be with Dr. Phil.  I was amazed at how he turned around his perpetrator confrontation and managed to make himself out the victim.  That’s quite an incredible feat, wouldn’t you say?   The twists and turns in this story just do not support reality, no matter how you slice it and he keeps coming up with story after story, if you want my opinion.

Worse, did you catch what he leaked with his words?   Dr. Phil asked if he had ever forgotten to use the Lennay voice with Manti? 

Ronaiah said, “I’m not trying to be funny, but that’s a rookie mistake.” 

Clearly, Ronaiah does not consider him to a be a rookie liar!  Wow.

I think that says it all.

Dr. Phil even calls Ronaiah out on the senseless lies he told to him in the video above–where it served absolutely no purpose for Ronaiah to lie to Dr. Phil– think compulsion! 

According to Dr. Phil, when Ronaiah met him, he told Dr. Phil that he had called him before and watched his show, which he later confessed was all nonsense. Dr. Phil has to remind him a second time!  Go to the time 34:10 in the video above.  Classic compulsion.

Even with all of this, I still do not trust Manti Te’o and his story. I do not believe Te’o is just a blind victim in this story. There is so much more that will hopefully come out in the coming months, if not years…

Last, while someone may be a compulsive liar, it by itself is not a diagnosis.  You can read more here.

I hope you enjoyed my thoughts and perspective. Please give me a + 1 on Google if you did!  Thanks!