Histrionic Personality Disorder (More Than Just a Drama Queen)

Ever get bugged by a “drama queen”, an “attention seeker”?  You’ve given her (can also be a “he” but rarely) a clue to stop the delusion that the entire world needs her presence but never gets it? Instead, she continued her act.

Stop giving her attention or give her few, she’ll act violently, create a dramatic story and tag you on Facebook.  Just about anything to make sure you'll get her message “I badly need attention”. And, while she thinks it’s cute, for the fact that she satisfies her hunger for attention, you think otherwise and wonder “why she keeps on doing this?” Here’s the news, you might be suffering from her Personality Disorder.  She might be a Histrionic. 

There's difference between being dramatic and being histrionic.  You can tell a drama queen to cut the dramatics, but a person with HPD, will take it as an offense (more than actually) and won't snap out of it as easily.  Being dramatic makes you think of someone who overreacts to trivial situations and obsesses over little details, someone who makes themselves center of attention, someone who is high-maintenance and has to make everything into a big deal.  Histrionic personality disorder (HDP) consists of these elements exhibited to a pathological degree.  Here's a mnemonic that can be use to remember the criteria for histrionic personality disorder.  PRAISE ME:

• P - provocative behavior
• R - relationships, considered more intimate than they actually are
• A - attention, must be at center of
• I - influenced easily
• S - speech (style) - wants to impress, lacks detail
• E - emotional lability, shallowness

• M - make-up- physical appearance used to draw attention to self
• E - exaggerated emotions - theatrical

Now you're thinking,”I know someone perfectly falls to the HPD category”.  Chances are, you’re right because HPD affects an estimate of 2-3 percent of the world population.

Let's have a more  closer look:

What is Histrionic Personality Disorder?

The word histrionic means "dramatic or theatrical." Histrionic Personality Disorder is one of a group of conditions called dramatic personality disorder.  People with these disorder have intense, unstable emotions and a distorted self-images. Their self-esteem depends on the approval of others and does not arise from a true feelings of self-worth.  They have an overwhelming desire to be noticed, and often behave dramatically or inappropriately to get attention.

This disorder is more common in women than in men and usually evident by early adulthood.

Symptoms of Histrionic Personality disorder
In many cases, people with histrionic personality disorder have good social skills; however they tend to use these skills to manipulate others so that they can be the center of attention. 
A pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attention seeking begins in early childhood and present a variety of context, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

• Is uncomfortable in situations in which he or she is not the center of attention
• can be excessively sensitive to criticism and disapproval
• Dress provocatively or exhibit inappropriately seductive and flirtatious behavior.
• Displays rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions
• Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self
• Has a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail
• Act very dramatically as though performing before an audience with exaggerated emotions and expressions, yet appears to lack sincerity
• Is highly suggestible, i.e., easily influenced by others or circumstances
• Considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are

What causes histrionic disorder?
There has been evidence and research clearly indicating past history of sexual abuse and/or being alienated by parents as a child.  This form of alienation usually takes the form of emotional alienation, and that love is really not there for them.  These children grow up seeking and desperately needing attention at all costs.  


Treatment:
As with the rest of personality disorders, treatment of Histrionic Personality disorder remains very difficult. People with the condition do not generally appear for treatment unless their behavior is severely limiting their ability to operate in a self-supporting way.   A group therapy can assist a histrionic to learn decrease the display of excessively dramatic behavior but needs to be closely monitored because it may provide the person with audience to perform for, thus giving opportunity to display erratic behaviors.  Medication is generally not prescribed and is of minimal benefit.