Is it compulsive lying if lying to to protect themself?

I am a 25 year old male. I have found I often lie and exxagerate, and have worried, it is one of my many psychological problems. However, the lies always seem to be exagerations of what I do, or total lies, aimed at a simple goal. Making people think better of me than I think of myself.

For instance, I think I am a loser for my job. I feel it is not important and I should be doing more at my age. The job I actually do, is work as a teaching assistant for a couple of professors at my school. I tell my family, I work as a teacher, and teach the classes.

I do seem to have control over my lying, in that, if somebody is going to know I am lying, I wont lie. IE: I won't tell one of the students of the class, I am the teacher. I may lie about other things though. Again, just to try and make myself look a little better. Maybe not even look better, but make it look like I am not how I feel (pathetic).

Now, I have so many psychological disfunctions, and have posted on some of them, but because of that, I have very few relationships. I have a few people I can interact with, no friends, and havn't had an intimate relationship in years. The only person I talk to regularlaly is my father. Who I lie to all the time.

Anyway, long story short. I lie all the time, but I beleive they are all aimed at protecting myself from looking like a loser. I hope in the future I will be in a position where I do not look like a loser for telling the truth, but I worry this my be a mental illness.

Yet, I do have a BS in psychology (not a lie) and I realize I am the kind of guy who reads symptoms of something and instantly thinks "disfunctional". I have really bad history of maladaptive cognitions (IE: people laughing about something on the treadmill behind me, I think they are laughing at me EVERYTIME).

I don't know how to guage my lies on a scale. For example, one lie I have told, is that I got a 33 or some other number on my MCAT when I actually got a 30. I infact feel shame about my score, and wanted it to be higher.

Obviously I am not happy with who I am. I am not confident at all. Are these symptoms of compulsive lying, or perhaps just another defense mechanism I have developed to avoid rejection from other people (also a HUGE part of my life and a documented psychological problem I have). I am really shy and nervous around others almost entirelly stemming from a fear of being rejected by my peers. Ironic becuase, my nervousness and awkwardness causes people around me to reject me.

...not only do you lie to others but you lie to yourself about lying in that you think you are protecting yourself. So the answer to your question as it pertains to your situation...yes. Someone like you really turned my life into a nightmare...however, I give you credit for even taking the first step and admitting you have a problem and talking about it on here. I hope you find peace in your life.