Do you know a "story stealer"?

[trof]

This is weird.
A very close friend of ours, for almost 20 years, is now stealing our stories. She is highly intelligent and well educated. She's a retired physician and one of the kindest and most generous people I know.

For several years we've noticed that she exaggerates her participation in events that we've been witness to. OK, never let the facts get in the way of a good story. I'm guilty of "embellishment" too, to a degree.

We try not to tell the same stories over and over, as much as declining years permit. Once in a while, like last night, we are with "new" people and can happily drag our our best old tales.
(I really dislike being around boring people and try hard not to be one.)

So...last night Miz t. starts a very amusing (I think) story about one of our past dogs, and our friend jumps in and co-opts the whole scenario with herself as the participant. She was nowhere near when this happened. Has only heard about it from us. But she proceeded to tell it in the first person as if it had happened to her.

I was out of the room at the time. As soon as we left Miz t. told me about it.
"What did you say?"
"Nothing. I was so flabbergasted that I just sat back and let her run with it."

I'm kind of worried about our friend. Is this an indication of some sort of disorder?
DU shrinks check in here.
:shrug:
Do you know anybody like this?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

1. I once knew someone who was somewhat like that

He was a pathological liar (actually diagnosed as such).

[RagingInMiami]

2. I don't know anybody like that but that's an interesting story

I think I will use it some time.

[trof]

3. bastid

[DS1]

4. Yeah, I remember that

Some buddy of mine put him in the place of this woman who had an amusing experience with one of her dogs

[tjdee]

5. "That's nothin'. Back in '85, I had a friend who stole my LIFE!"

I had a friend once who, every time you told a story, would then say "That's nothin'!" and proceed to tell you a grander tale which we always suspected was false.

Sometimes, he would reference past dates (usually years) when we knew he was nowhere near that location at that time.

And then he'd end it with "It was ridiculous!"

It got to be a major inside joke with us, with everyone saying "It's ridiculous!" all the time. He started doing it, not realizing we were doing it because of him. Hilarious, to this day.

[Bunny]

6. If this is new behavior, it could be organic.

You say she's retired, I'm assuming she's older. Could be some lessening of her functions. Have you noticed any other recent changes in her behavior?

[MidwestMomma]

7. This happens to my sister and me sometimes

We are really close and have shared so many experiences and memories. And we have shared a lot of stories with new acquaintances along the way.

Sometimes my sister will be telling a story to someone new and I'll realize about halfway through that what's she's relating didn't really happen to her and in fact, she wasn't even there. But I guess because we are so close, she must have heard ME tell the story so many times that she now thinks it happened to her.

But because she's my sis, I can just call her out and be like "Hey, what are you talking about, you weren't even there!" and we have a laugh over it.

So maybe it's a testament to your long and rich friendship with this person. She really probably doesn't realize she's screwed it up. It's what happens when you've been friends for so long and have shared so many life experiences and memories.

That's my input anyway. :)

[Left Is Write]

8. Well...there was the time at a party when a friend of mine

started telling a story about one of her dogs, only it wasn't her dog, it was MY dog - so I had to jump in and take over the story from her.


:D


Actually, I've known people to take over the telling of stories, but not to the extent that they would pretend to BE the subject of someone else's story. It sounds pretty bizarre.

[HEyHEY]

9. I worked with a guy once

Who on TWO occasions told me stories that I had told him.. only they happend to him. Fucking idit forgot where he heard them.

[rug]

10. Too badseinfeld was cancelled