The cruelest thing anyone has ever said to me. Unintential though it was.
I was given this advice by a colleague when leaving my job at a mental hospital. In a rather conspiritorial way he simply said ‘good luck, and don’t live a lie.’
So ever since, whatever I’ve been doing with my life, I’ve wondered ‘am I living a lie?’
Did he just mean don’t get fooled by religion or always follow your dream, don’t get caught in the rat-race or never pretend to be something you are not. Can you be happy if you are living a lie? Makes you wonder doesn’t it.
Give me wisdom 
It depends on if you see the lie or not. For some, we construct the lie so well around us, that the lie becomes truth and reality. In which case, is it truely a lie anymore?
More importent is to be truely honest with yourself about your motivations and reasons. Do you drink because it tastes good? Or are you looking for someway to cope with what is around you? As long as you are willing to admit to yourself it is a coping method, then is it really that bad? After all, the pharmaceutical industries make billions off of artifical methods of coping.
So the true test is not if you can be happy living a lie, but instead why is your lie not more realistic.
simpler: don’t lie
(if you’re filled with the truth)