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» Conditions » Personality Disorders » Histrionic Personality Disorder
What is Histronic Personality Disorder?
The word histrionic means "dramatic or theatrical". Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by a pervasive pattern of excessive emotionality and attempts to get attention in strange and unusual ways. Histrionic personality disorder is present in about 2% to 3% of the general population and is more common among women.
Those with severe cases of the disorder may have maladaptive behavioral patterns which cause significant difficulties in their lives. People with mild cases of this personality disorder can live pretty normally, however, during times of extreme stress or external pressure, the symptoms can gain strength and seriously interfere with their ability to function adequately.
Symptoms
Individuals with histrionic personality disorder exhibit five or more of the following symptoms:
- Attention-seeking, feel uncomfortable when they are not the center of attention.
- Inappropriate sexually seductive, or provocative behavior.
- Rapidly shifting and shallow expression of emotions.
- Consistently uses physical appearance to draw attention to self.
- Speech style is excessively impressionistic and lacking in detail.
- Exhibits self-dramatization, theatricality, and exaggerated expression of emotion.
- Impressionable; overly trusting; gullible; easily influenced by others; forms beliefs based on little or no evidence and defends those beliefs passionately.
- Considers relationships to be more intimate than they actually are.
Causes
Histrionic personality disorder has as many causes as there are people who suffer from it. The disorder may be caused by a combination of a person's parental upbringing, their personality and social development, as well as genetic and biological factors. While the exact cause is not yet known, it is understood that the disorder most often manifests during increased times of stress and interpersonal difficulties in the person's life. There is a common misconception that people with this disorder are weak or should be able to "snap out of it." It's important to understand that those who suffer from histrionic personality disorder are not consciously holding themselves back from correcting their behavior.
Treatment
Individual psychotherapy is the most effective treatment for this personality disorder. Treatment most often focuses on increasing the person's coping mechanisms and their interpersonal skills. The more severe the disorder, the longer the duration of therapy. Brief therapy can include a supportive, problem-solving approach, cognitive techniques to challenge distorted thinking, and interpersonal therapy to teach the person how to develop meaningful relationships. Brief therapy usually lasts four to twelve weeks. Medication may also be used.
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