It took awhile for me to see if anyone else out there experienced this...maybe because I just didn't want to SEE it myself.

My father makes things up. He says he is married to a woman he works with and lives in a big house with..well, everything. Anything he sees on TV when he visits me, he tells me he has. And he says he makes tons of money...which he doesn't. He says he's been married for about 3 years now, though I've never met her, but he tells a close friend of our family (she's like a mother to me) that I know this woman, and she and I are inseparable. He lives in the same house I grew up in, because when I do go through that neighborhood, I see his vehicle. I also have step-brothers, step-sisters, step-neices and nephews apparently. I've never met them, but he tells me all about them... I live an hour away, but can't visit, because he wants me to think he lives somewhere else...if I show up at his door and he is there, he makes up an excuse of some kind, about having to fix up the house. And the people he rents the "old" house to, have the same vehicles he does...

Some background info...he had a dominant mother, and went from school straight to the Vietnam War...came out, met and married my mother, who was 10 years older...in 2000 she died in his arms from cardiac arrest...he had always been I suppose, a habitual liar I guess, making himself a lot bigger than what he was, but it got out of control after she died. He stayed in the Navy through Vietnam, then got out...but tells me and everyone that he made a career of it, and was in it 20 years...I was alive during those 20 years, and there was no military. He only talks about a couple of topics, and talks them to death, then gets quiet. He'll listen to me, but doesn't comment much...and he only likes to be around a couple of people, but not a lot, and not any he doesn't know. I let it go, smile and let him talk. I love my daddy...but this is killing me, but I'd much rather it hurt me than hurt my daddy.

Now he functions fine. Goes to work everyday, pays his bills, keeps up his cars...which is why I've probably never asked anyone about this...but there is something wrong. Very wrong, but I have no idea how to even broach the subject. It's not easy to tell your father, "Hey, I know you are lying about everything" and I don't know what it would do to him if I did...

Is there anyone out there who's experienced this? Who has had a loved one who did this? Is there a name to this disorder? Is it a disorder, or just a father trying to be a great man in his daughter's eyes? Any help would be appreciated, thanks.