I have a lying addiction.
The last eight years
I have gone on all kinds of extreme measures
to make my life seem more exciting.
Growing up, you always wanna have that perfect life.
All my friends were getting married,
and it made me feel left out.
Probably around 25, 26, is when I told my first big lie.
That I had cancer.
I first joined the online support group and met people
and that's when I started living that lie.
I would post pictures (mumbles),
can I have extra prayers and support?
The things that I would do to change my look
to make my lie believable was buying wigs,
I bought a wheelchair.
By lying I was getting attention.
Another lie was that I was married.
I started off with a husband and two kids,
that was my first husband story lie.
I would tell people that my husband's name was James.
I would post pictures of me and my ex or me and my cousin,
and then I would also post pictures
of my friend's children with me.
I've also lied about having muscular dystrophy.
I worked at a muscular dystrophy camp in the past,
so I'm familiar with the people
and what their struggles are.
It took a lot of mental brain power to keep up the charade.
If you're playing hockey and you wanna hold the stick
and hit the puck, you can't do that.
I'd go into a relationship with a friend
on the basis of lies every single time.
Talking to Liz online was very personal.
I told her I had stage four breast cancer.
She was genuinely interested in me.
I just had a really strong connection with her.
Liz and Brian have the perfect life.
They own their own company with a boat, ride on the ocean.
So they kept trying to get James to come down to Florida,
but obviously he couldn't do it because he didn't exist.
I thought I could deter them from the James situation
by creating a stalker,
maybe that would get them off that tangent.
The lie definitely got out of control.
I can't remember the last time that I've met someone
and told them my real truth.
This is ultimately do or die for me,
if I can't stop it's gonna wreck my life.
Brian and Liz, you've only ever seen Sarah
wearing a wig and a head scarf.
You've never actually seen her real hair.
Bethany, you've never seen her
actually walk or be able bodied.
Are you guys ready to see the real Sarah?
(sighs) I don't even know who the real Sarah is.
Well, let's find out.
Let's bring Sarah out now.
Sarah, Dr. Phil, have a seat.
You know these three, very well actually.
I do.
You've been listening
to everything we've been talkin' about.
I have.
What do you have to say to these folks?
That I am extremely sorry for what I did,
I didn't mean to hurt you guys the way that I did.
Just such a compulsion that I couldn't control.
Sarah, it's way more than a compulsion,
I mean, even just on that video,
you're saying it's just an addiction to lying,
this is way bigger and much more sick
than just an addiction to lying.
I don't even believe a word you're saying, I don't.
(mumbles)
(audience applauds)
So I lied about the cancer,
but the love that I had for you guys was not--
It was always like that.
Not at all.
You ruined our life.
You took my away from my life, my family,
my other friends, hours, hours every day.
You gave me these crocodile tears of
I've never been able to do this before,
I've never been able to cook my own meal,
I've never been able to ride a horse,
I've never been able to sit in a hammock
or be on a swing or do a zip line,
and we wanted to give you 500% of that experience.
And you took that away from all those other campers as well,
it's not even just about us.
And Sarah, how dare you?
Our young friend on the west coast
that is battling stage four breast cancer,
how dare you trivialize her disease and her illness,
as she struggles for her life every day.
How dare you do that to her?
How dare you?
I'm just absolutely disgusted.