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      • Is cognitive therapy effective for bipolar disorder?
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      • Munchausen Syndrome
      • How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers’ Mental Health?
      • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
      • Spotting Types of Depression in Children
      • Teen Suicide
      • Top Tips For Parents
      • Video Game Therapy for ADHD
      • What is a Residential Mental Health Facility for Teenagers Like
      • Why Is Mental Health on the Rise Amongst Teenagers?
    • Is Social Media Ruining Our Self-Esteem? 
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      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Guide to Anxiety Medication
      • Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
      • High Functioning Depression | Signs | Symptoms
      • How Can We Prevent Mental Illness in Youth?
      • How Do You Help Someone with Avoidant Personality?
      • How Does Online Counseling Work for Mental Health?
      • How Can a Mental Health Counselor Help
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      • Schizoid Personality Disorder
      • Postpartum Depression
      • Types of Mood Disorders
      • The Toll of Grief and How to Cope with It
      • What are The Major Affective Disorders?
      • What Cognitive Psychology Teaches Us About How We Think
      • What Is Clinical Mental Health Counseling
      • What are mental health symptoms you should never ignore?
      • What is Bipolar II Disorder? Symptoms and Treatment
      • What is the Difference Between Manic and Hypomanic?
      • What is schizoaffective disorder?
      • Is seasonal affective disorder (SAD) a mental illness?
      • What is substance induced mood disorder?
      • Is Depression a Permanent Mental Disorder?
      • What is the prognosis for Major Depressive Disorder?
    • Marriage Counseling | Benefits
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      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Work Stress Post-Pandemic
      • Shocking Growth of Anxiety During the Pandemic
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      • How to deal with toxic relationship?
      • How does a toxic relationship affect your mental health?
      • What is gaslighting in a relationship?
      • What is the best way to help a partner who has trust issues?
      • What’s the best way to work out relationship problems?
      • 10 ways to improve communication in relationships
    • Spirituality in Addiction Treatment  
    • Therapy
      • Can I See a Psychiatrist Without a Referral?
      • DBT Therapy for Adolescents
      • DCBT- Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
      • Deep Brain Stimulation to Treat OCD
      • Do I Need a Referral to See a Therapist?
      • Family Therapy: Definition, Types, Techniques, and Efficacy
      • How Can Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Help Mental Disorders?
      • EMDR Therapy for Mental Health Conditions
      • Psychiatrist vs. Psychologist
      • Is Therapy Covered by Health Insurance?
      • Psychodynamic Therapy vs CBT
      • Psychotherapy
      • SMART Recovery
      • What Can Psychologists Treat
      • What is Group Therapy
      • What is Internal Family Systems Therapy
      • What Is the Role of the Counselor in Family Therapy
      • What Is Psychoanalysis
    • Trauma Bonding With Intimate Partner Violence
    • Teen Mental Health
      • Can a Minor Go to Therapy Without Parents Permission?
      • Teen Co-Occurring Disorders
      • What are the signs of depression in adolescents?
      • warning signs of suicide in adolescents
      • Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Teens
      • How is the pandemic affecting mental health in teenagers?
    • Types of Disorder
      • Anti-Social Personality Disorder
      • Autism Spectrum Disorder
      • Avoidant Personality Disorder
      • Bipolar Disorder Symptoms | Causes | Diagnosis
      • Diagnosing and Treating an Adjustment Disorder
      • Histrionic Personality Disorder
      • Intermittent Explosive Disorder
      • Paranoid Personality Disorder
    • Veterans Guide
      • Functional Medicine for Military
      • Service Dogs Help Veterans with PTSD
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      • Gambling addiction
      • How do you know if you have an addictive personality?
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Histrionic Personality Disorder

What You Must Know About Histrionic Personality Disorder

Histrionic personality disorder is a common mental disorder that can affect how a person perceives their surroundings, typically their relationships and interactions with others.

What is Histrionic Personality Disorder?

Histrionic personality disorder is a mental disorder that affects how a person perceives the world around them, specifically their interactions with other people.1 It can dictate behavior as well as their perception of relationships. 

Seeking Attention

One of the most common histrionic personality disorder symptoms is attention-seeking. Those with this disorder may find themselves with a desire to be noticed, which can be achieved through a variety of positive and negative behaviors. 

Dramatic Personality Disorder

Histrionic personality disorder is a cluster B type dramatic personality disorder, which means that it can often be difficult to regulate emotions.2

There are other forms of personality and behavioral disorders, which may present in different ways and are often researched alongside HPD during diagnosis. They can include the following examples as well as many more:

  • Anxious personality disorders
  • Paranoid personality disorders
  • Avoidant personality disorders 

What are the Symptoms of Histrionic Personality Disorder?

The symptoms of histrionic personality disorder can vary between individuals. However, there are histrionic personality disorder symptoms that are most looked for during diagnosis. 

Demand Center of Attention

Because histrionic personality disorder is most often associated with a desire to be noticed, it often results in individuals demanding the attention, whether of a single person or a group. It can occur during inappropriate times as well, such as an individual demanding attention at someone else’s significant event. 

Try to Impress

Most symptoms occur as a result of the central symptoms of seeking attention. Trying to impress those around can be one way it is done, whether through boasting or completing different acts. 

Making Rash Decisions

Those with HPD may lack impulse control, which can lead to rash – and possibly dangerous – decisions. They can be as a result of the increased suggestibility, which is discussed further below, or a result of the desire for attention. 

Seeking Reassurance

For those with HPD, it is a common occurrence to seek reassurance and approval from those around them often. 

Suggestibility

Due to the intense desire for attention and to impress, individuals with histrionic personality disorder are often easily subject to suggestions and influence. It can trigger many of the symptoms above, especially rash decisions. 

Threatening Suicide for Attention

Threatening suicide is one form of manipulative behavior that those with HPD may utilize to receive the attention they desire as a result of their disorder. 

Extremely Sensitive

As characteristic with many behavioral disorders, especially those that are typically a subject of comorbidity with other disorders or tend to result in antisocial practices, HPD can result in extreme sensitivity. It occurs most often as a result of failed attention-seeking behaviors, which can translate as rejection. 

Excessive Emotions

HPD can cause excessive and often exaggerated emotions. They can lead to theatrical displays, both as a result of the inability to express emotions as well as a method for garnering attention. Excessive emotions may be caused by levels of different neurochemicals in the brain. 

Rapidly Shifting Behavior

Outside of attention-seeking behavior, patients with HPD may also experience rapidly shifting behavior. 

What causes Histrionic Personality Disorder?

Histrionic Personality Disorder - PacificBeachHealth - Call us now

Due to its various forms and types of manifestations, the exact cause of histrionic personality disorder is still not explicitly known. However, scientists have discovered several possible sources of development.3  

Role Models

One possible suggestion for the cause of HPD is role models, or the lack thereof. An absence of positive role models can lead to a variety of mental developmental disorders, including histrionic personality disorder. 

Genetics

While the science on this disorder is still underdeveloped, it has been hypothesized that genetics may play a role in the development of HPD.4 

Environmental Factors

Coexisting alongside the possible factor of the availability of role models, it is believed that environmental factors may increase the likelihood of HPD developing. This aspect includes childhood trauma, which can also increase the risk of other mental disorders. 

Diagnosis Histrionic Personality Disorder?

While the causes of HPD have not yet been fully discovered, there are several methods for diagnosing the disorders. There is no single test proven most effective for a diagnosis, and, as a result, a medical professional may utilize several of the below options. 

Medical History

When first addressing whether a patient may have HPD, the doctor will check the patient’s medical history. Not only does it allow for the medical professional to determine whether any medications or illnesses could be causing symptoms to occur, but it also allows for them to view whether the patient has been diagnosed with a personality disorder in the past. 

Physical Illness

When attempting to diagnose HPD, a medical provider may try to climate the possibility of a different illness, such as a physical illness, that may be resulting in similar symptoms to HPD. 

Interview

Since HPD impacts how an individual acts and reacts to situations, professionals may wish to speak to close family members and friends. Doing so allows for them to fully understand the behavior that the patient is exhibiting from a third-party perspective. 

Family History

Because HPD is hypothesized to occur as a result of role models, environmental factors, and genetics, doctors may look into a patient’s family history. It can demonstrate any other occurrences of personality disorders, especially HPD, as well as possible trauma or events that could have influenced the disorder’s development. 

Differential Diagnosis

A differential diagnosis is a process of deciding between two similar disorders. HPD often shares many overlapping symptoms with several other personality disorders. 

Narcissistic Personality Disorder

A narcissistic personality disorder is a personality disorder most often seen in male patients and is characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance, a desire for positive attention, and a lack of empathy. 

Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline personality disorder is one of the more common personality disorders and is characterized by internal and external instability regarding emotions and interactions. 

Dependent Personality Disorder

A dependent personality disorder is an anxious personality disorder. Like all personality disorders, DPD impacts how an individual perceives themselves and their relationships with others. However, unique to DPD, this disorder is characterized by a feeling of helplessness and a lack of self-confidence. 

Treatment for HPD

Histrionic personality disorder cannot be cured, but treatment can aid in managing symptoms. 

Psychotherapy

Psychotherapy is the umbrella term for a variety of different therapies utilized in treating HPD. One of the most common is cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT).

CBT

CBT is a form of psychotherapy that is focused on creating a positive relationship between thoughts and actions. This therapy utilizes positive reinforcement to promote healthy thought processes and behaviors, which can help reduce the severity of HPD symptoms. 

Behavioral Therapy

Behavioral therapy can aid in treating HPD by helping a patient to understand the consequences of behaviors and help to develop positive behaviors through sessions. 

Counseling

Counseling is a collaborative form of treatment that focuses on the professional connection between counselor and patient. Patients and their counselors will talk through common occurrences and circumstances, either that have happened or have a high potential for happening, and discuss different approaches and outcomes.

It helps foster a healthy connection between thoughts and actions while also building an increased sense of accountability. 

Talk Therapy

Talk therapy is one of the most common forms of therapy utilized for treating HPD. It involves patient and therapist sessions where both parties talk and discuss different circumstances and outcomes, allowing for the promotion of a better understanding of behaviors and thoughts. 

Medication-Assisted treatment

Medication is not often prescribed for the treatment of HPD. However, it may be prescribed to treat co-occurring conditions that may impede the efficacy of treatments used for HPD. It can include other personality disorders as well as mental health disorders like anxiety or depression that may occur alongside HPD. 

Resources

  1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK542325/ 
  2. https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10.1521/pedi.15.4.319.19182 
  3. https://medlineplus.gov/ency/article/001531.htm 
  4. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0193953X08000348 

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