Yes - once you start a lie, you have to smooth it over with more lies & then try to remember them all. It takes tremendous effort to maintain a lie.

There's also the problem of judgement being a double edged sword (it cuts both ways). Most people hate liars & consequently deceptive people end up hating themselves.

To add to this further, your external reality is a reflection of your own internal state. People lie because of fear or greed (their own internal traumas). You can tell a lot about someone by how they perceive the world.

Lauren posted about this a couple of days ago.

The last thing I'd add is that I found this stuff out the hard way. I was a bit of an insecure scumbag kid & it all came crumbling down in my late 20s.