We all know someone whose attention seeking gets on our last nerve. Whether they're a friend or foe, attention hogs seem to always take things a step too far. Some are just dramatic while others are on the way to becoming pathological liars. Regardless, catching them in their lies is a relieving feeling. These are some of the craziest attention seekers people have come across.
Everything Is About Her, Right?
“A lady that I work with is the biggest one upper I have ever met. In April, I had major surgery to remove half of my digestive system and was given A LOT of attention from our concerned coworkers. She was not happy because she wasn’t the center of attention anymore. Well, she found out she needed to have a DNC (outpatient procedure to cauterize her uterus and you’re awake for the whole thing).
When she came back to work, she decided to milk it for all she could. And when she came into work the next day she was distraught over the fact no one came to check up on her the night before and wouldn’t talk about anything but her recovery. By the end of the week, she was telling people she was recovering from ‘cancer surgery.’
In fact, she still complains that she is recovering from it and this happened back in April. She also told me (unsolicited of course) that the reason she didn’t come see me while I was in the hospital was because her mom had died in a hospital 13 years ago, and she is still grieving and going to a hospital would make her grieving process start all over again. I actually feel bad for her.”
How Can She Live With Herself?
“My friend’s sister lied to her teacher one day about things their dad supposedly did to her. It all blew up immediately after with the police and CPS getting involved and him going to jail for several years with no actual evidence of anything happening…just word of mouth.
Both of their accounts of what allegedly happened are dramatically different with the dad’s being consistent and hers having tons of holes in it and changing every time she was asked about it. The whole situation made no sense because having known my friend’s family since I was little, I was over there all the time, and they never had a bad home life. The only thing to speak of was that the sister was always a habitual liar and tattle tale even when she was little. In fact, she never exhibited behavior that’s characteristic of a victim and seemed perfectly normal through the mess she made. Their dad never acted even remotely like what the sister described, and he never gave me the creeps. Last I knew, she was on anti-psychotic medication and in an unknown location.
This happened many years ago and my friend’s family was never the same after it happened. It still isn’t to this day. The dad has been out of jail for many years, but he has a felony on his record and is now on a registry. I think the mom got tired of the situation over time and having to maintain her own reputation around town, so they ended up being separated even after he got out of jail.
I never remember hearing her feel bad over it or admit that she was lying, she seemed normal but in a really creepy way. No worries, it’s an insane example of how life can change abruptly and what can be done to people if the right (wrong) people are in the justice system. So much for justice.”
A Step Too Far
“This girl in eighth grade claimed she was depressed and ‘suicidal.’ She was popular so everyone believed her and felt bad for her. She got all kinds of attention for it.
There was this kid in the same grade who was actually depressed, and he tried hanging himself on a doorknob in the back of our class when no one was looking one day and, in an odd way, he became popular because of it.
She decided to do the same one day in class except no one noticed her doing it until she was passed out and had to go to the emergency room.”
Yeah, Because That’s How Break-Ups Work
“My fiancé has been my best friend since we were kids. Once, in high school, he was dating a girl who decided that after scaring the crap out of him by trying to cuff him to the bed against his will, she was going to threaten to kill herself if he dumped her.
About ten years later I ran into her at a party. She was there with her husband and infant son (not the kind of party you take a baby to, but okay). She proceeded to tell me how they never technically broke up since, being 15 years old, his answer to ‘If you dump me I’ll kill myself’ was to just stop talking to her. And because of that, they were technically still together, and she was cheating on him with her husband.
She was 100% serious, and she also told me to tell him she wanted an apology. This was in front of a lot of very stunned people.”
The True Drama King
“In my sophomore year of high school I briefly dated, then had an on-again/off-again friendship with, this senior in my drama class. We’ll call him TI, as in ‘The Idiot.’
TI was awesome when we first met. He told a lot of cool stories and seemed to have an interesting life. He was a little weird, but the ‘fun’ kind of weird, and very socially savvy, so he was generally well-liked by a lot of the class.
Over time, however, I could tell TI was a little…off. His stories started to seem a little outlandish — for example, how Katy Perry and Ariana Grande kissed him on each cheek at the same time, how he survived a 30-foot fall from a treetop into a large hole after being unconscious for hours, how he had a girlfriend that he dumped just so he could date me, and other unbelievable stuff like that. Something just wasn’t right about this guy.
The worst thing TI ever did was to tell our entire class that he had some ‘fatal disease’ that required surgery, from which he was ‘probably going to die.’ He even went as far as saying goodbyes and offering to sell his stuff. Honestly, I could tell that this was probably a big lie; he didn’t know what this ‘disease’ was, except a tumor up near his, and I quote, ‘you know what’, and just because he was a compulsive liar in general — but those who didn’t know him as well as I did fell for it. One girl even had to go to counseling because she was so worried about him! He told us this the Thursday before a week-long Thanksgiving break, and that his surgery was the next Tuesday, and if we didn’t hear from him by then by that night, he’d be dead.
So I texted him Tuesday night…no response. I texted him on Thursday wishing him a happy Thanksgiving…nothing. At this point, I actually started to get a little worried — what if something DID happen to him?
But there he was on Monday, back at school, totally fine. Not in a wheelchair or crutches, or even limping.”
He Vanished With His Lies
“During middle school, I knew a guy who’s older brother passed away in the Virginia Tech massacre. Everyone felt awful for him.
Over the course of that year, he became incredibly popular. All the popular kids and girls were all over him. He got tons of attention, but the year after that the school basically forgot, and he was back to where he was.
Then he started lying and using his own brother’s death to try to regain attention. He was lying saying that the Jonas brothers were visiting him and giving him a guitar because he lost his brother in the massacre. Once people found out he was lying, he became one of the most hated people in school. He continued to lie in similar ways, but people stopped taking him seriously.
Fast forward to a couple years ago and it turns out he went missing and disappeared after he was super depressed. Rumor has it that he was seen on a security cam in a Florida airport but who knows.”
How Can He Be Okay With That?
“Some guy in high school faked his death to see how people would react. I don’t know all the details, because we weren’t on speaking terms, but I know he had his girlfriend tell everyone (parents included) that he had an accident, and he died. I remember seeing his parents at school the next day, and they were devastated. Then he showed up 2 days later or so, surprised people were not more excited to see him.”
She Was A Control Freak
“I was friends with this girl in middle school, and I decided to give her a chance despite what others were telling me about her. Shame on me.
When I was in the middle of high school I got into a really traumatic car accident. This girl attempted to cut my contact off with everyone but her because she told everyone that my phone broke in the accident (when in fact I was on social media every day for the two weeks I was in the hospital, and the three months I was out of school).
She made it her job to tell everyone what was going on with me, though she had no clue herself. She forced herself to be the communication between myself and my school, and I had to let the guidance counselor know that I did not want this girl relaying any work or information to me or the school anymore. I never even gave her permission to do that.
Found out about her little scheme a few months after she pulled it, as I was kinda wondering why everyone abandoned me after hearing about my accident. I did get an overwhelming amount of cards and gifts sent to my house that my teachers had compiled from all the students. People saying they missed me and to please contact them, so I wondered why they didn’t just reach out to me first?
A trusted friend ended up telling me what the girl had done. I decided to cut her off right then and there because I always knew about her menacing ways but tried to see the good in her.
She was that person in high school that would run to be the officer in various school elections, and would make sure everyone voted for her by forcing them to show her their slips, deliberately changing their votes, etc. Unfortunately this worked in her favor for two years before I became the class officer.
She began to hate me and spread rumors about me because I cut her off, but I found out she did this to many, many other people throughout the school. Had a little group of girl friends that she gossiped to with her petty drama. It’s a very typical tale really.
Besides causing trouble, her ways of attention-seeking are to steal people’s food, beg LOUDLY to eat anyone’s extra snacks, burp and pass gas in peoples faces, and make as many baby noises (like babbling) as possible. A high schooler. I don’t miss that one bit.”
This Cat Deserves an Oscar
“My friend had this cat who had gotten out and hit by a car. She survived, but was left with a permanent injury to her front paw.
Now, I was at his house and this cat comes ambling in, after jumping down from the first landing of their stair (about 4 feet). She’s walking mostly fine, with only a slight limp, until she notices me, a new human in her home.
Queue the drama. She meows loudly and pathetically, as if she was both starving and in the most excruciating pain. Then she limps over, but not a little limp, but this almost falling flat on her face with every step type limp.
Remember, I had just seen this cat parkour off the stairs and walk through the living room perfectly fine. So, obviously, I start to laugh. My friend said, ‘Yea, she does that to anyone she hasn’t met yet.'”
She’s A Different Kind Of Trip
“A few months ago, I went on a school trip to India with this girl ‘Jane.’
Jane made up a story that all the food was making her sick, and she hadn’t eaten anything for three days because of how sick she was getting because she wanted to go to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner. She had never been sick, and believe me if she was we would’ve all known about it. When she was told we couldn’t go there, she cried loudly on the back of the bus and wouldn’t tell anyone why.
At the beginning of the trip, Jane said she had no relationship with her father because he left her. She didn’t even know where he lived. By the end, her and her father were super close, and he was going to be picking her up from the airport!
She would have loud conversations with her friends in the early morning while everyone on the trip was on a small bus about how everyone was being mean to her, and she was having a horrible time. She would also write in her journal about how awful we all were then would pretend to fall asleep with her journal wide open facing out towards all of us.
She said that she had a child who died during childbirth and that the child’s birthday was during the time when we were on the trip, and she spent three days in a row crying nonstop. We also were talking about horoscopes, and she looked up what this child’s horoscope would be and was bawling.
One night we were having a dance party, and she came out of her room in complete hysterics because she ‘missed her period’ (she was one day late which is common when you’re on the meds needed to go abroad) and thought she was pregnant. While we were trying to calm her down, the waterworks stopped out of nowhere, and she started dancing and laughing like nothing was wrong.
At the end of the trip, we all had to do these big presentations in groups to the board of the nonprofit we were working with and Jane made such a fuss with her group members that she had to be removed from the group by the professors. So, she deleted her group’s presentation 20 minutes before they could present.
It was the most amazing and most miserable experience of my life.”
The Class Social Butterfly
“Two stories, same person. I knew my husband back in grade 8, and he loved Star Wars. This super boy-crazy girl in our class had a crush on him and knew he loved Star Wars, so one time she put on her status ‘Watching Star Wars right now!!!’ So he would see it and be impressed. Cringe.
The same school year, she made up a story that she had a boyfriend who lived near her cottage. Then all of a sudden he died, and coincidentally, he looked a lot like another guy in our class, so she ‘couldn’t even look’ at that guy because it was ‘too painful.’ So one day she missed an afternoon of school because she said she was going to his funeral. My friends and I went up to her little sister at recess and said wow, so the funeral is today eh? And she was like, ‘I have no idea what you’re talking about…she’s at the dentist.’ So we let her carry on with the whole spiel, secretly laughing our butts off behind her back.
Another time we had ice cream with all the toppings at school, and she ‘accidentally’ got the whipped cream all over just the tip of her nose and was all like ‘whoops! Clumsy me!’ While everyone assured her it actually looked super cute, so she left it for ten minutes.”
The Lies Keep Coming
“A friend of mine told everybody she had stage 3 cancer, and we all believed her. Eventually she was only caught because a friend of mine asked her sister how she was doing and things came to light after that. Since then, me and my group of friends completely cut off all connections w her and even removed her from our club board, even thought she had the most experience and skill, we felt that she betrayed our trust.
She also lied about being assaulted by a guy at an annual party. The kicker is that the first party, she didn’t go to, and the second annual party, he didn’t go to. And she also lied about how a friend of mine had a crush on her and kept saying he was going after her even tho she said no to make me dislike him. We ended up becoming best friends, and he later told me that he had no idea why she said that because he had a girlfriend by then (secret relationship).”
Totally Believable!
“In high school, my buddy was banging this girl who told everyone she got shot. I asked her to see the bullet wound, and she pulled her shirt down a little, so I could see her shoulder. You know what was covering her wound?
One single ace band aid.”
911 Had Enough Of Her
“There was a girl in my college that constantly would constantly lie. During orientation, she told people she was recovering from brain cancer (didn’t happen) and was partially deaf (she wasn’t). She then found out my friend had epilepsy, so she started doing these exaggerated tremors. She then would fake seizures all the time for all the years she was there, which was a pain in the butt because I would have to treat them like real ones.
She did it once during a power outage for the most attention possible. She did it so often that once a 911 dispatcher hung up on someone calling it in because they knew it was her.”
Something About Her Is Off
“This was back in high school in my senior year. In a creative writing class I was taking, a student announced that he sang and had a group or something. I think later in the period, our class and a few other classes went out to a courtyard to listen to him and his friend play. They were very good.
When we came back to our classroom, a girl I had become acquainted with stated to the class that she had her own music, too. We kind of thought she was trying to one-up the guy but were still interested. Now here’s the thing, she was in another class of mine where we sat next to each other, and she mentioned that she wrote her own music and showed me some songs. I remembered telling her they were great.
In the creative writing class that day, she happened to have a CD of her most recent song and asked our teacher to play it. A friend of mine in the class whispered (but loudly enough for others near her to hear) that the song wasn’t this girl’s. It was an instrumental of a song by a group called R5. I’m pretty sure the girl heard her, but she was just smiling proudly and looking at our teacher. Some people giggled. It finally clicked in my head that she was probably a fan of the group and tried to pass on their music as hers. It was a major cringe but my friend and some others just dropped it.”
This Guy Is A Complete Mess
“There’s this one boy I have had to deal with most of my life, who I’ll call Larry. Now Larry had a bad home life (parents split up young then dumped him on his grandparents) that probably gave him some attention seeking issues later in life, but my god that boy could not stop making trying to make everyone focus on him. He:
Told lies about how his grandma died (she was very much alive).
Said he was going to be homeless because his grandpa was injured and out of work (he was fine) or because he was getting kicked out (He still lives with them).
Constantly did whatever he could to get called on in class one way or another to get attention (Once in high school we had to stand in corners of the room to show where we stood on an issue, and he always chose the one no one else did, so he would be called on more, all his responses related back to his daddy issues).
Constantly put himself in situations where he could be ‘the victim’ (in middle school there was this game called Larry ball where it was just monkey in the middle but with him as the monkey, because he would always try to take one of the few inflated balls at recess all to himself, knowing this would happen every time since he never shares).
He would always do grossly inappropriate things for no reason to cause trouble (he ‘accidentally’ sent a private pic to a girl while in high school which got sent around the school. He sent it over messages, not Snapchat, so you know he intended it to get sent around).
He’d say things to get a reaction out of people, good or bad (When we entered college he told a girl sitting across from him, whose boyfriend was right there next to her, that he wanted to finger her).
He crossed boundaries all the time making people really uncomfortable (He came out as bi in high school in the gym locker room and tried to come onto a very hetero dude)
I feel bad for Larry on one hand because he got a bad life and that never helps, he didn’t deserve to feel so unloved as a child. On the other hand, however, people, including me in the early years, have done everything we could to support him and help him to no avail. He’s a compulsive liar, so I don’t believe anything he says about himself, like if he got someone pregnant, got a job, is going to American Idol (he’s talked about that more times than I can count, god I didn’t even talk about all the singing stories), or if he’s bi or gay or ambidextrous, I don’t care either way which gender he likes or which hand he uses, he can’t be trusted on basic information. He’s currently going to the same college as me, luckily we’ve had no classes together, thank God. I’ve managed to only have to speak to him once post-graduation, and that was to tell him to not speak to me after nearly a full year of classes. He’s done nothing good for himself his whole life and I have no sympathy for him now.”