What are the signs of histrionic personality disorder?
A person with histrionic personality disorder is going to be attention seeking. That attention does not have to be good attention, it can be bad attention. Any attention at all is better than none. They need to be the center of attention. They will be constantly drawing attention to themselves. They will make scenes or create uproar. They are often quite suductive and co-quetish. They may control relationships by being very dramatic and theatrical. They can appeare very needy and dependant. These patients also play hunches, they are not very cognitive. That is not to say that they are not intelligent, but they often make their desicions based on how they feel about things. They do not like routine and they get bored easily. They will often start projects with an enormous amount of enthusiasim only to never finish it. They will start the relationships with people and then drop them. They will drop you like a hot rock if something more interesting comes up. In addition it is important to know that pateints with histrionic personality disorder, despite the fact that they are very emotional and incredibly dramatic, one of the things that is always a que for me as the interveiwer or the physciatrist, is that I'll have someone who is expressing a lot of intense emotion and I will find myself curiosly unmoved by that. So there is sort of a disgenous despite what appears to be an intensity of feeling involved, and I think that that should be a que. They appear somewhat insincere despite the fact that they're claiming to have a lot of intense feeling. That would apply to their relationships with people as well, they often will tell you that they characterize relationships as much more intimate than they actually are. In other words you'll be talking to some one and she'll be like oh she's my best friend and you just met her last week.
