10 Signs of Histrionic Personality Disorder
Do you know someone who craves attention is overly friendly and enthusiastic a drama queen someone who blatantly acts and seductive flirtatious and provocative ways has a theatrical flair that always makes her the life of the party
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is she prone to emotional tantrums or meltdowns when she’s not getting all the attention and do all of her romantic relationships start with major fireworks but never really lost more than a year if so she may have histrionic personality disorder or HPD for short
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I’m Lise Leblanc, therapist author and life coach and in this video I will cover the diagnostic criteria for histrionic personality disorder and talk about 10 ways that these symptoms play out in real life if you like this video please subscribe to my channel comment or share it as it lets
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YouTube know that it is valuable content so unless you’ve been hiding under a rock all year you’ve heard of the very public and very controversial trial of Johnny Depp and Amber Heard during this trial a psychologist testified that Amber Heard has borderline personality disorder and histrionic
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personality disorder and this is one of the first times that histrionic personality disorder has sparked so much public interest putting HPD under a very bad light making it almost synonymous with psychological abuse as well as with borderline personality disorder and although there is a
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lot of overlap between the cluster B personality disorders which include borderline narcissistic and antisocial personality disorder the symptoms and motivations of these disorders are very different okay so let’s Jump Right In first off women are three to four times more likely to be
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diagnosed with HPD but men can also suffer from this disorder because of this as well as the fact that there are so few resources for men I will use the she pronoun throughout the whole video so in order to qualify for a diagnosis of HPD there must be a long-standing pattern
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of exaggerated emotionality and attention seeking Behavior across a variety of contexts and it must start by early adulthood and the person with HPD must also meet five of the eight following criteria so the first diagnostic criteria is that she is uncomfortable in situations where she is
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not the center of attention someone suffering from HPD has an addiction to attention meaning they have the urge to seek attention despite any negative consequences or suffering that it causes they associate attention with their self-worth with their existence and they feel
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very uncomfortable and emotionally distressed when they are not the center of attention so they will go to Great length to be noticed they will not hesitate to create a scene fake an injury or act in dramatic and inappropriate ways they’re insatiable need for attention and constant drama
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can be very frustrating annoying offensive and too much for most people to handle so as much as they make fast friends because of their charm and they can find mates because they are so flirtatious and energetic their attention-seeking behavior becomes the downfall of most of their relationships
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the person with HPD is never satisfied with the attention they are getting from one person when it comes to romantic relationships the person with HPD initially makes you feel like her everything her hero her protector and she will show you a sweet sensitive innocent vulnerable side and
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quickly make you feel like you are responsible for taking care of her but she will also get quickly bored with your attention and start vying for the attention of others this puts strain on the relationship usually leading you to set boundaries or make ultimatums and this signals the beginning
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of the end because the person with HPD will not be capable of stopping their attention-seeking behavior no matter what the cost they may discard you soon after as they often prefer to withdraw rather than to face the issue but even if she discards you she still wants your attention
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she still wants you in her fan club so she will keep you hanging on as long as possible she might do this by sending subliminal messages to you through her social media accounts bread-crumbing you implying that she still cares and that you still have a chance but the truth is she doesn’t
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want you she doesn’t want you to move on either and it will kill her if she thinks that you’re happy and moving on with someone else especially if that person is more attractive or more popular if you keep trying to get her back she will be probably nice to your face but then tell
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everyone that you’re a creepy stalker who just won’t leave her alone so if you’re wondering why she doesn’t block you after the breakup why is she still talking about you two mutual friends or why she posts photos of herself with a special gift you gave her or maybe post the you know lyrics of
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your favorite song it’s because she still wants you to be addicted to her even though she is done with you and it is highly likely that she is sending the same subliminal messages to her other loyal fans the second diagnostic criteria for HPD is that her interactions with others are often
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characterized by inappropriate sexually seductive or provocative Behavior as much as the person with HPD can initially charm people with her energy and her enthusiasm she can really turn people off just as quickly with her constant use of her sex appeal her sexuality and even exhibitionistic
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Behavior her current NC is her sexuality and she loves to seduce to tease to create sexual tension to get you and everyone else to chase her she will compromise her own romantic relationship to get the attention of another man Even if she doesn’t even care about him or want him
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she won’t care if that man is married or how much she is hurting or humiliating you or someone else she continues to command attention in pretty much any situation using seductive Behavior which causes a lot of drama and Discord leaving Partners feeling you know confused betrayed and often
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embarrassed number three she displays rapidly shifting and shallow expressions of emotions those with HPD typically lock emotional depth and have rapidly shifting and shallow emotions for example they may go from happy to sad to angry too excited all in a matter of minutes
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these rapid emotional shifts often don’t appear sincere or authentic unlike with BPD where the emotional intensity is very real and very intense those with hbd appear to have emotional reactions that are dramatized overblown and exaggerated and they tend to move on from these emotional displays
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quickly unlike BPD where they can stay stuck in an emotional reaction for hours days or even weeks so the person with HPD can seemingly turn their emotions on and off sometimes even weaponizing their emotions along with their sexuality to manipulate others
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number four they consistently use physical appearance to draw attention to themselves so the person with HPD works very very hard to draw attention to her body to her appearance often spending an excessive amount of time and money on things like makeup cosmetic surgeries
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revealing flamboyant over-the-top outfits they are always wanting to dress to impress to stand out in the crowd and to be noticed it doesn’t matter if she’s out of professional function or even at a funeral while everyone is you know judging her inappropriate appearance she
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she is thinking that everyone is admiring her or jealous of her and she’s happy because she has captivated the audience’s attention number five is a style of speech that is excessively impressionistic and locking in detail so those with HPD tend to speak in superficial ways they
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keep things vague and stay on the fence while they read the room and then adapt themselves based on the person that they’re trying to impress or attract attention from they may be very intelligent but are often locking depth so trying to Converse at
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levels that are more sophisticated and above their knowledge level in that particular area so for example they may Express a strong opinion about something but then they’re not able to support their opinion with any examples facts or supporting details another thing is that their
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impressive talk doesn’t match their behavior over time they may speak of things like trust Integrity values and their spirituality but then act in ways that are completely contradictory number six is that she shows self-dramatization theatricality and exaggerated expressions of emotion so a person
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with HPD expresses thoughts and emotions in overly dramatic ways often embellishing fabricating or exaggerating stories to seem more impressive than they really are they tend to amp up their dramatic efforts whenever attention is not on them because when they’re not getting the attention it makes
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them feel insecure threatened insignificant and inferior so let’s say she’s playing a sport and someone else is playing really well and everybody’s cheering for that particular player the person with HPD May fake an injury starts sobbing uncontrollably in the middle of the game
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needs to be taken out on a stretcher they have to steal the show using whatever means possible another example let’s say you’re having an interesting conversation with your boss’s wife at the office Christmas party she may throw a tantrum right there in front of everyone or she may act
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super drunk and start hanging all over your boss whatever it takes to get the attention back on her number seven she is suggestible those with HPD are like chameleons constantly shifting themselves based on who they’re trying to impress and get attention from their opinions and feelings
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are easily influenced by anyone they want to get close to or view as Superior or even by current fads and Trends they tend to be overly trusting naive and Flaky changing their mind and adopting new beliefs and strong convictions based on whoever is influencing them that day and they
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genuinely do not seem to notice or recall that their opinions were completely contradictory just yesterday or last week number eight the person with HPD considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are here’s an example let’s say they meet with a psychologist
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called Dr John well within 15 minutes of meeting him she’s already calling him Johnny boy or you introduce her to your boss and his wife and she’s quickly acting like they are her best friends the person with HPD easily forms superficial relationships and has very poor boundaries
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so those are the eight diagnostic criteria from the DSM and here are two other things that are important to know about HPD especially if you’re in a romantic relationship so number nine as much as those with HPD are extroverted and may come across as confident assertive and prideful they
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typically have very low self-esteem their worth depends on the attention and approval of others not just you everyone and the truth is they do not have any idea who they are they create a fictional character often a sweet naive princess that needs rescuing and unlike the cold arrogant
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Superior narcissist she is warm fun exciting and like no one you’ve ever met before you want to take care of her please her and protect her and at first things are amazing she wants to please you she wants everything you want but over time you become more like a pair parent
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to a self-centered attention-seeking tantruming child while sacrificing many of your wants and needs as she continues to breach boundaries and you know her promises to you as she passionately pursues her next big opportunity for attention and adoration so you end up on the sidelines watching
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her bat her eyelashes and stick out her chest flirt hard in her skimpy attire with whatever flavor of the moment is passing by and you might think that if you just work a little harder you can win her attention back and you may want to just try to give her more and more and forgive
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and try to accept the outrageous attention-seeking behavior but in time it will become too painful number 10 although someone with HPD can use abuse and exploit others this is not a key feature of this disorder and it’s usually seen more in combination with narcissistic or anti-social
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personality so when HPD and anti-social or narcissistic are combined then you’ll often see someone who is a gold digger always looking for a bigger better fish to hook and it is not unusual for them to have you know several x’s on the hook helping them financially funding their lifestyle
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long after the relationship is over so by playing The Princess and stringing you along she ensures that she is always taken care of rent is paid she has free trips shopping sprees cosmetic surgeries or whatever she wants and if you catch on or you know get demanding wanting more attention she will
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either discard you uh if she already has enough Supply from others or she will give you some extra crumbs maybe let you take her on a vacation uh give you some attention but more importantly she will make you feel like you are making progress with her like you are almost at the summit
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so close to reaching the top of the mountain and getting her back then she will provoke you probably by seducing someone in front of you and then when you react it will be her reason for pulling away again you will feel like you failed the mission but then
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she’ll remind you that you’re almost there and make you believe that with just a little more energy and effort maybe you can succeed in getting her back the fact is those with HPD rarely see their behaviors or ways of thinking as a problem and they rarely seek treatment if they
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do seek Mental Health Services it is usually for something else during the treatment process the therapist might recognize some histrionic traits and conduct further assessment but even in therapy their need for attention may be dramatic so they’re you know psychological
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symptoms and physical ailments are constantly changing week to week they may bring gifts for the therapists or even be flirtatious with the therapist and often testing the boundaries so a quote that encapsulates histrionic personality disorder is you only exist by your
