Histrionic Personality Disorder
Published on 6 August 2008 by Dorothy McCoy
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If you have been following our Personality Disorder series of articles and quizzes you are familiar with psychopaths, and the Borderline, Paranoid, and Schizoid Personality Disorders.
Now you have the opportunity to meet the Histrionic Personality Disorder. Histrionic persons crave attention just as I crave great coffee, fabulous sales and chocolate. They appear especially entertaining and attractive early in relationships, yet friendships with these individuals can become a burden very quickly.
They can be demanding, emotional, shallow and smothering. Their interpretation of relationships is frequently flawed by a myopic view of themselves and how they relate to others. Histrionic individuals are frequently manipulative and seductiveness and can become exasperatingly dependent on friends and lovers. Do you know someone who may be Histrionic? Tell us about your experience. We are listening.
Take our free personality quiz – ‘Do You Stand Out in a Crowd?’ and learn more about Histrionic Personality Disorder (HPD).
15 Comments | Categories: Personality Disorders, Quizzes & Tests •
October 5th, 2011 at 5:30 pm
Thank you.
April 7th, 2011 at 7:06 pm
I am glad some of you could relate to my story. I must tell you I reunited with this man over the course of 5 yrs. Most recently – 3 mos ago. When I met him 5 yrs ago, he was hiding a woman and lying about it. 5 yrs later – he was still hiding women and lying about it. He made the mistake of leaving his cellphone at my house one morning – and I found numerous phone numbers of his ” backups/fan club”.. I was irate. I couldn’t believe I’d been duped AGAIN when he SEEMED so sincere!!! They are the most fantastic liars — and so good that they believe their OWN. They lie as they go — Yes, they are needy, dependent, exhausting, and selfish. They are also exciting – energetic – sexual and make you feel like the MOST important person on the face of the Earth. LIttle do we know – they are using the SAME lines and using the same tactics to land all the others in their ” fan club”.. They recycle people. Their goal is to WIN. They want to try to get back the former lovers/fools/targets who left them.. and then .. when they know they have you – they revert back to their “old selves”.. The cycle repeats itself. Sometimes they will just detach and dump you. Other times – they will string you along because there is something in it for them. For my guy? 59 yrs old – and experienced with the charm… LOTS of charm – flattery – etc. etc. He wanted my money. Now he is in bankruptcy. Thought he was getting mine. Hm. Don’t think so. I did spend thousands of dollars on this lazy man — always crying ” got no money”.. wah wah. But ALWAYS enough money for himself!! For his toys. ( He is an alcoholic and always had beer).. When I found out he was taking OTHER women out… and making ME pay for our dinners out – I was LIVID. He was quite the smooth operator. As far as the sex?? They only want the attention. The sex may NOT be that good with them.. They don’t care.. The more they give to you, sexually.. the MORE you will give back to THEM. They are not making love. They are having sex. YOU are an object.. Well — it’s been 5 yrs now. A fitting ending to a wild roller coaster ride. Please – all of you – remember.. HPD is a personality disorder. IT is not YOU. You were only loving, giving, and trusting. THEY are the predators. If a rattlesnake bit you – would you ask them WHY they did it? Do not try to reason – do not try logic.. You can’t.. YOu cannot be logical and make sense of a DISORDERED mind. Be thankful you survived.. and understand… YOU are the winner here.. You learned – you moved on…. leave those memories of the person you THOUGHT they were WAY behind you — and make better choices for YOU. They will be forever damaged – seeking that “perfect love” that will reflect back to them as they believe THEY are perfect.. and be constantly disappointed.. Over and Over again.. They are broken people. AND if they don’t want to change — believe them. Few can. They are predators. Looking for targets. THey will NEVER view a “partner” as a person.. They only want something. Remember that…
March 23rd, 2011 at 10:17 am
What the first post, Michelle Nicodemus, wrote resonated with me to the point of sending a cold up my spine. I relate to it word for word. Except replace ‘he’ with ‘she’. I fell deeply in love with the exact same sort of person when I was very young, naive, shy and impressionable. This was over 25 years ago and it was something I never got over and something that crippled me emotionally and romantically my whole life. Two years ago by chance I reunited with the ‘Love of my Life’ and it was uncanny how things unfolded almost EXACTLY the same way again. A brief and intense period of bliss in an exotic locale, and then … ending in me being used, crushed and heartbroken all over again. I would have thought that being older and (so I thought) wiser I would have found it easier to get over it and move on from this most cruel of betrayals, but it hasn’t been any easier. In some ways it has been even harder. The experience has damaged me both emotionally and physically. But I am doing my best to move forward and repair my heart – literally and metaphorically. I have no other choice really.
It is true the eyes are the windows to the soul. Especially in the case of narcissists, histrionics and borderlines. I use to think that the Love of my Life had the most beautiful big brown eyes. Now when I think of her and those eyes, I am more reminded of the eyes of a shark. Cold and soulless. A true maneater.
February 27th, 2011 at 7:30 am
I am not so creative to be brainy to create first-rate stuff like you do but I am trying to pay it back so hoepfully this will provide you a ear-to-ear grin or make you laugh or at the very least give you a thought for the day? : Vidi, vici, veni. I saw, I conquered, I came.
January 26th, 2011 at 7:20 pm
I am a 56 year old man (had to say that because of my name) and was dating a 49 year old. She was the most draining person I ever met. Has a great job but in her personal life always needs drama, obsessed with her looks, like talking to a child at times, very sexually provocative and only her world is important. There is the lying which maked it hard to get a handle on her, but after about 4 or 5 months my gut was telling me there was something wrong. To make a long story short Rodger came along. I feel I should send him a thank you card or a sympathy card or both. It took me a bit to put it all together and it did hurt at times and thank god I have great family and friends. Something that hit me was her family I felt really sorry for them . They are caught in her world of drama and do not know what is going on. It is so very draining. Thanks and take care.