My friend (25M) lied about having a girlfriend and his career about 4 years now and I just found out. I don’t know whats real and whats fake anymore.

I have known him (Jed) for 2 years. We are close friends and shared few mutual friends too. Jed background: parents divorce when he was 7. It was a messy breakup. Although he lives in a pretty comfortable life, kinda wealthy, but I think it effected him alot mentally. Jed has bad anxiety and will constantly ask his friends if they are okay. Because he has a fear of losing his friends. He can get jealous and distant when he feels like his friends is ignoring him. Therefore, I tried my best to be with him and always ask him if he is doing alright. He is also kinda clingy. He wants to keep his friends updated and vice versa. Some people leave because it gets too overwhelming.

He stayed with his dad ever since the separation. But his dad doesnt seems to do very well. His dad got anger issue and will always be mad at everything. So Jed moved out when he was 18.

I have only met Jed once but we continue being friends and we always hangout on a discord call with other friends (We met each other in game). Ever since the first day knowing each other, I know that he has a girlfriend named Gia. Gia sounds like a perfect human being. She could speak 5 languages fluently, she could sing, she could play music instruments and she is a good cook too. From the picture that Jed showed us, Gia is a very very pretty girl. Jed is also very good looking himself. Looks like a perfect couple . (The picture he showed us isn’t a picture of them standing next to each other. It is just Gia alone).

Jed and Gia lives together. Only Jed uses other social media like Instagram and Facebook. He didnt post anything on Facebook. On Instagram it is full of food pictures and photos of places they have travelled together. Not a surprise because Jed is a photographer and Gia is a translator. and Gia seems to be a very busy woman since Jed is always on a discord call with us.

But nobody suspect anything since Jed will always excuse himself to check on his gf while in the call. His daily lifes he will mention Gia. Like “I went to the store with Gia just now”, “I’m going check on Gia real quick”, “Gia is sick I will be taking care of her”, etc. We all know who is Gia. Sometimes Jed will laugh and when we asked why, he told us Gia was disturbing him. Gia seems legit. Its been like this for the past 4 years.

Just a few days ago, I received a phone call from our mutual friend. Telling me that Gia might not be a real person. Gia doesn’t exist. Jed isn’t a photographer. He isn’t living on his own. He is still living with his dad. Our other friends google search every photos from Jeds instagram and any photos he has ever sent to us, everything could be find on google and Pinterest. Everything is fake. The only real thing about him right now is his face and his wealthy life. Because we have met him and mutual friends went to high school with him.

Jed is a real person, just not his life. Even friends who have known him for more than 4 years has never seen or heard of Gia. Not her face or her voice. These people who told me this has been noticing all these stuff for such a long time already. Thats the reason why they got distant with him.

Right now Jed only has me as his close friend. our discord call started with 8-10 people in the call to only me and him. I still care about Jed. But I started to feel different and weird when I know everything might be not real. This is confusing for me. I listened to him talking about Gia and it feels so... odd. But I have to stay with him since everyone has left him. I dont know what is happening to Jed for real. What is his life? Why is he doing this? I dont know how to feel anymore.

I did some research and it is potentially a FPP (fantasy prone personality)???? Basically people who have this, couldn’t differentiate between whats real and whats fantasy. Because fantasy is already feels so real to them. they will also be experiencing hallucinations ALSO pure satisfaction just from overactive imagination.

I am sad and scared and I dont know what to do. Jed is very normal to me but after knowing all these stuff, it is very concerning. How do I show support? How do i face this? I dont even know if this is the right subreddit to talk about this.

TL;DR: Jed make-believe to have a perfect girlfriend and career for 4 years now. I don’t know how to face this.

Submitted August 30, 2021 at 01:30AM by heyhellogoodbai https://ift.tt/3Bt2Xzn