If there’s some emotional breakdown or mental illness going on, wouldn’t the friends want to try to help?
She claims that she’s seeing a therapist. She won’t take pills, ever, so medication for any underlying condition isn’t going to happen. I’m not sure what we could do.
I’m currently crafting an email to her. I can’t not say how I feel or what I think…I’m focusing on her need for help.
I pretty much know what to expect - meaning she will probably block me, make a bunch of cryptic , ‘I’m better than them’ posts on fb and bitch about me behind my back - but seriously the only change I will notice is I won’t have overly precious dog pics popping up in my feed.
She already talks shtuff about me behind my back (as she does about most of her friends it seems) and anyone who disagrees with her or has questioned the fictions she spews to the masses is 86’d from her fantasy world.
I do feel badly for her and would probably be more willing to try to stick around if I thought it would help her but as Grumpy noted her claims of being in therapy are nebulous at best and she refuses to take any medication. She also has an extremely annoying habit of pretending to the manor born and is completely incapable of receiving constructive criticism.
Maybe my exit will affect her and give her pause for self-reflection but I seriously doubt it. Some people need to hit rock bottom before they will get help. I hope she isn’t one of em but it doesn’t look good.
She’ll be jealous because you are after her boyfriend.
…which could be interpreted to mean, ‘she wants for nothing’?
nice compliment…! 
First of all, excellent detective work doing the Google image search on the photo! She’s totally busted now. Yes, a lot of funny comments could be made, but I will do my best to be helpful.
I know of a couple of people who are pathological liars. They have no trouble lying and put these stories together you know while they are telling them to you are complete and utter BS. But you wait until they are done and end the phone call. These people I don’t encourage communications with. When I see their name on the caller ID, I never pick up and let it go to voice mail.
I’m an honest person and tell the truth. I’m not talking about saying I think someone looks fat in a dress to their face, but ethical in my dealings as much as I can be while protecting my own privacy. I can’t stand people who lie and do the kinds of things you mentioned.
It has taken me a while to sort this out, but I don’t think they are primarily lying to make others happy, they are truly lying to themselves. Pretending to have a boy friend she doesn’t have is like actually having one in her mind. So she continues to project this story to others. Finally she decided that she couldn’t keep up the facade any longer, and decided to kill him off like he was a character in a story that served it’s purpose.
As for you, I know this is going to sound harsh but I would disengage from a friendship and contact from this person. Because if they would lie about something huge like this and entirely invent a person, and pretend kill them off, it is very hard to believe that all other areas of their life they are normal. I don’t see how you can have a meaningful relationship with someone who is going to lie like this and any other times she is having moments of stress or boredom, she goes ahead and invents someone else.
I don’t see any point in confronting someone like this. It won’t end well for you and she will continue to lie and get upset. For example, if you showed her all this proof and asked to know where he died, doctor’s name, etc. She is just going to lie more and not admit she made this whole thing up. Even if she did, you aren’t going to have the same relationship you did in the past, because you know she has a serious problem here. You were her friend, not her social worker. Don’t take her on as a project to fix her. It can’t be done and she will just consume more of your time and create dramas to get you involved in that.
Hah! The first claim of a pathological liar! 
As funny as that sounds, I think it would just further validate her big lie. It might even give her cause to drag out this fake grieving process.
There is a problem with this. It will go something like this:
OP: Hi, I would like you to meet a good friend of mine. You two should hit it off.
Guy: Sounds wonderful. Tell me about her. Has she been in a long-term relationship?
OP: Yes, well, kind of.
Guy: I don’t follow you.
OP: She was dating this guy, but he died of a heart attack.
Guy: Oh, gosh. I’m sorry to hear that.
OP: Well, yeah, it is, but it turned out he wasn’t actually real.
Guy: So she’s freaking insane, is what you are telling me?
OP: Ah, now that you mention it, yup, I guess she is.
Guy: Doesn’t sound like…my type.
OP: Yeah, I wouldn’t think so.
Thanks for posting the Dr. Phil link. I don’t watch his show, but that was pretty interesting. Never heard the term catfish used for this either.
It’s still pretty hard to imagine people would carry on a relationship with someone like this they never met for so long too. In the video from the show, these look like attractive,young and intelligent women, so I don’t know why they would be using online to find guys. I really feel sorry for them for a number of reasons. The biggest is that they have trouble apparently meeting a good guy in real life, and that they were strung along and lied to like this. If someone had stolen their bike and was caught, they could take them to court, but I don’t know what can be done here. If nothing else, a lawsuit to help deter others from doing this same thing.
And if she has a melt down right there in front of everyone and needs to be put in a psychiatric hospital…seems like it would be cheaper entertainment to just watch TV.
Well, you did for me, because I didn’t see the other posting. Better? 
The problem here is that you don’t know to what extend she could be lying about others things and would continue to do so. After all, she is a friend and not her social worker to try to sort out her life and fix it for her. Friendship has to be a two-way street. It can’t be all about one always helping the other and the other one gives nothing back in return except for lies and drama.
Hey, hey, hey…I had my toes crossed when I typed that, so I’m in the clear. 
If you don’t see her that much, maybe she thought she could get away with creating a BF to make you stop worrying about her. Perhaps, after all the funerals and Thanksgivings things got too weird for her, so she decided to cull him off. I wonder why she didn’t just ‘dump him’ - would have been far less crazy dramatic.
Or it’s the truth. Perhaps the bloke was just a bit of a hermit.
Or maybe it’s something weirder…
Emo Philips once claimed: I was the kid next door’s imaginary friend.