I thought of histrionic personality disorder too, which I suspect my mother has. She refuses to see a therapist and believes she is perfectly normal though, I highly doubt she’ll ever get some kind of diagnosis.
When your friend’s friend is confronted about the lies, how does he or she react? My mother will become defiant, never admit to lying (because she truly believes the story, even if it changes from day to day), become emotional and dramatic or very angry, cry, and hang up on me. The lies and strange behavior are a defense mechanism used to combat severe fear of abandonment or rejection, or to seek approval at any cost. I stopped trying to confront or argue with my mother years ago because it did nothing but emotionally drain me. When I first read about histrionic personality disorder (and borderline personality disorder), it was like being hit by lightning. Suddenly a lot of things started to make sense!
This is probably not very nice of me, but I keep a running list of the more entertaining stories my mother has told. One of my favorites is that she, along with a friend, were blindfolded as teens and taken to a secret Black Panthers meeting. At the meeting, my mom convinced the Black Panthers to become a nonviolent group and support Sesame Street. WTF? Another favorite is that Tom Petty’s song “Last Dance with Mary Jane” was written about her because Tom Petty saw her dancing around a hotel room in Indianapolis wearing only her underwear. He was in the hotel across the street, looking out of his window and into hers. The fact that the song was written years before this supposedly happened and is most likely really about marijuana is irrelevant to her. :)