How to Treat Histrionic Personality Disorder

A histrionic personality disorder is marked by behavior that is designed to draw attention to one's self. People who have this personality disorder need to be the center of attention at all times, and will often exhibit inappropriate and excessive emotional behavior when this does not happen. Read on to learn more about how to treat histrionic personality disorder, through individualized psychotherapy.

Instructions

• 1

  Identify the symptoms of a histrionic personality disorder. These may include a constant shifting of apparently shallow emotions, impressionistic speech patterns that are vague, a physical appearance designed to draw attention, an unrealistic perception of interpersonal relationships and even inappropriately provocative or sexually suggestive behavior.

• 2

  Consult with a mental health professional, such as a psychiatrist or psychologist, to obtain a diagnosis of a histrionic personality disorder. Such a diagnosis may be difficult to make, since the symptoms of a histrionic personality disorder may come and go according to the stress levels a person may be experiencing.

• 3

  Use individualized psychotherapy in order to treat a histrionic personality disorder, since this will be the most effective way to discover and isolate the causes of the disorder. Care must be taken, however, to encourage the sufferer of a histrionic personality disorder to make progress with the therapy, since they will enjoy that attention and be reluctant to terminate the sessions.

• 4

  Focus objectively on the feelings and emotions exhibited by the patient during psychotherapy sessions. By asking the patient to review each of their reactions to a particular situation they will be able to better understand how their behaviors might be deemed inappropriate by others.

• 5

  Avoid prescribing medication to treat a person with a histrionic personality disorder. Many anti-psychotic medications may actually enhance the disorder by drawing more attention to the physical reaction to the drug itself.

• 6

  Refrain from trying any type of group therapy or support groups to treat a histrionic personality disorder. The individual with the disorder will not focus on the therapeutic value of such sessions, and only be concerned with trying to be the center of attention within the group. Most mental health professionals balk at the very idea of a roomful of people with histrionic personality disorders.