What Is Histrionic Personality Disorder?

April 29, 2022 – Amid all the eye this month to actor Johnny Depp’s $50 million lawsuit towards ex-wife Amber Heard, a psychological time period has entered the general public’s lexicon: histrionic character dysfunction.

Depp says that an op-ed Heard wrote in 2018 damage his profession, and he’s suing for defamation.

The time period was utilized in courtroom throughout the testimony of Shannon Curry, PsyD, a medical and forensic psychologist in California and Hawaii, who carried out a psychological analysis of Heard and stated that she met with Heard for 12 hours.

Curry testified that Heard has each borderline character dysfunction and histrionic character dysfunction. Heard has stated she has posttraumatic stress dysfunction.

Due to her situation, Heard may be very involved with picture, vulnerable to cruelty and blaming others, and unable to confess accountability for doing one thing mistaken, Curry testified, as reported in Newsweek.

So what precisely is histrionic character dysfunction, and the way does it differ from the opposite, better-known character problems, corresponding to paranoid, narcissistic, or obsessive-compulsive?

Histrionic character dysfunction – histrionic means overly theatrical or melodramatic – tends to be extra frequent in girls, will be discovered or inherited, and comes with “intense, unstable emotions and distorted self-images,” in line with the Cleveland Clinic.

And these with the dysfunction are likely to behave dramatically, depend on different folks’s approval to bolster their shallowness, and have an “overwhelming desire to be noticed.”

Histrionic character dysfunction is much much less generally recognized than narcissistic or borderline character dysfunction, says Jessica January Behr, PsyD, a licensed psychologist in New York City.

“The criteria for the disorder is probably much more commonly seen than diagnosed,” she says. “To diagnose someone with histrionic personality disorder, a person has to meet five out of nine very specific criteria.”

These 9 standards embody being uncomfortable except you’re the focal point, your feelings shifting quickly, performing very dramatically – as if performing earlier than an viewers – with exaggerated feelings and expressions but showing to lack sincerity, and consistently in search of reassurance or approval, in line with the Cleveland Clinic.

Ultimately, this dysfunction is a critical one, and the label shouldn’t be used except a psychological well being skilled who has evaluated you and carried out sure diagnostic exams confirms it.

For therapy, folks with the dysfunction will typically search counseling to uncover the motivations and fears related to their ideas and conduct, and the counselor will assist the individual be taught to narrate to others in a extra optimistic manner.

A well being care skilled may additionally prescribe medicine to deal with the melancholy and anxiousness that always include this dysfunction, in line with the Cleveland Clinic.

“It’s good that people are learning about this psychological term, but it’s important to avoid making an armchair diagnosis,” Behr says. “We also have to be careful not to conflate ‘dramatic’ and ‘histrionic.’ To have histrionic personality disorder requires certain criteria to be met, and this isn’t a term to be used lightly.”