Treatment of Histrionic Personality Disorder

Hysterical neurosis is a mental disorder, the development of which is accompanied by autonomic disorders and affective behavior. This problem is more often diagnosed in women. With hysteria, symptoms manifest themselves in the form of an individual’s desire to attract the attention of others. However, other disorders associated with the functioning of internal organs and the nervous system are also possible, incl. brain: paralysis, blindness and other diseases.

A person becomes hysterical under the influence of many factors. Among them, the greatest influence on the development of neurosis is exerted by the conditions in which a person is formed. Hysteria in women and men is treated through a set of measures aimed at strengthening the nervous and immune systems, as well as eliminating associated symptoms.

Hysteria in women and men

Symptoms of hysteria are mainly diagnosed in people with unstable mental health. For these individuals, any situations that do not correspond to internal attitudes and changes in the surrounding reality cause a violent reaction.

An unstable psyche makes people easily suggestible and impressionable. In addition, such violations provoke a tendency towards narcissism.

As a result, hysteria in patients, regardless of gender and age, manifests itself as an obsessive desire to attract attention to oneself. Because of this, narcissists often manipulate their own environment to achieve their desired goals. In addition, hysteria is characterized by:

• theatricality, demonstrative behavior;
• egocentrism;
• the desire to take leadership positions in any society;
• high self-esteem;
• excessive sociability;
• fantasizing, which is why a person often lies.

  

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This mental disorder also provokes the development of a disorder such as hysterical mutism. This condition is characterized by the absence of speech or the desire to utter words. More often, mutism is diagnosed in women due to special sensitivity and suspiciousness.

Hysteria develops as a hereditary form of mental disorder or under the influence of external or internal factors. Moreover, it is the latter that most often provokes the disorder.

The development of hysterical neurosis occurs under the influence of the following factors:

• physical stress;
• chronic stress;
• frequent injuries;
• depression;
• prolonged use of alcoholic beverages;
• uncontrolled use of sleeping pills and other psychotropic drugs.

  

In addition, the causes of hysterical neurosis are due to congenital or acquired pathologies of the nervous system. In this case, the surrounding environment plays a dominant role in the formation of a mental disorder. An important condition for the occurrence of hysteria is considered to be improper upbringing, when mannered, demonstrative behavior, and inflated self-esteem are cultivated and encouraged in the child.

In psychology

On the part of psychologists, there is a certain concept of hysterical neurosis, which is diagnosed with functional disorders of the nervous system as a result of severe psychological stress.
Psychologists define three types of neuroses: neurasthenia, hysterical neurosis and obsessive-compulsive neurosis. With such mental disorders, patients experience increased excitability, sleep disturbances, decreased concentration and a significantly increased reaction to any irritating factors. At the same time, the patient’s ability to work is almost completely preserved. But the development of the pathological process is accompanied by headaches, excessive emotional excitability, tearfulness, impatience and anxiety. Sometimes the process also affects some internal organs , significantly disrupting their normal functionality.

Important! In women, this psychological disorder is observed much more often than in men and has more specific symptoms: hysterical muteness and deafness, seizures and a significant decrease in libido.

Forms and symptoms in women

The diagnosis of “hysteria” is not made in modern medical practice. This term refers to several forms of mental disorder:

• anxious hysteria;
• conversion (dissociative) disorders;
• somatoform disorders;
• histrionic personality disorder (HPD).

Women are diagnosed mainly with the first two types of hysterical neurosis. Men are mainly characterized by hysterical personality disorder, which is usually classified as a separate disease.

Hysterical neurosis in women more often manifests itself in the form of seizures. The latter can be provoked by:

• refusal of surrounding people to fulfill the request;
• insufficient (according to the patient) attention from the environment;
• unpleasant words;
• prolonged lack of intimacy;
• hormonal imbalance;
• jealousy;
• severe fatigue.

Often the causes of mental disorder lie in a woman’s inability to realize herself professionally. Therefore, frequent hysterics occur among housewives.

General symptoms

A hysterical attack is characterized by the following symptoms:

1. Screams, accusations and threats.
2. Loud crying. There are no tears.
3. Repeating the same words or phrases.
4. Chaotic movement of limbs. Patients grind their teeth, wring their hands and perform other inappropriate actions. In this case, movements are accompanied by convulsions.
5. Falls. With this action, a woman manipulates her environment. The fall is performed consciously, so the impact on the floor does not injure the patient.

   

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Autonomic disorders occur against the background of a hysterical attack. This condition manifests itself in the form of the following symptoms:

• increased blood pressure, headache;
• cardiopalmus;
• nausea, abdominal pain;
• urge to vomit;
• refusal to eat;
• spasm of the larynx (suffocation);
• the appearance of a “lump” in the throat (the condition is called globus hystericus).

  

Hysterical seizures do not actually cause dysfunction of internal organs and do not provoke pathological changes in their functioning. However, the patient “convinces” his own body that such violations have occurred. Therefore, the sensations that a woman experiences during a hysterical attack are real for her.

Severe forms of the disorder

Conversion disorders are more severe. With this type of disorder, patients often experience partial and complete paralysis of the limbs and tongue muscles. A hysterical attack is accompanied by:

• inability to pronounce words;
• fainting;
• hand-wringing;
• out of breath.

Moreover, these actions are demonstrative in nature. Thus, the patient seeks to attract attention to himself.

If the environment manages to distract the hysterical person to a third-party object, then these symptoms will weaken or disappear.

During seizures, a person complains of decreased or increased sensory sensations. During this period, numbness of individual parts of the body and local pain are characteristic.

Hysteria often causes sudden deafness or blindness. It is also possible to develop temporary color blindness. However, the ability to navigate in space is retained.

Hysterical seizures are sometimes accompanied by exacerbations of various pathologies. Patients complain of aggravated appendicitis, bronchial asthma, itchy skin, and brain diseases (manifested in the form of attacks of dizziness).

Differences from an epileptic seizure

In extreme cases, hysteria occurs like an epileptic seizure, which is caused by the negative influence of the external environment: quarrels, bad news, and so on. This condition is preceded by dizziness and other symptoms indicating a mental disorder.

The seizure begins with the patient falling to the floor, bending the body into an arc. At the same time, he violently shows emotions: crying, screaming, laughing. At the same time, the state of the pupils remains normal, consciousness is preserved. During hysteria, the complexion becomes red or pale.

An epileptic seizure has the following symptoms:

• foam at mouth;
• the face is purple and bluish;
• fainting;
• tongue biting;
• hitting your head on the floor;
• involuntary loss of urine or bowel movements;
• no reaction of pupils to light;
• deep sleep immediately after the seizure ends.

With hysteria, the condition returns to normal after a slap. The condition is also restored if the woman notices that no one is paying attention to her. This type of seizure never occurs during sleep. In some cases, a hysterical attack is accompanied by short-term amnesia. But after a few minutes the memory is restored.

Description and mechanism of development of hysterical personality disorder

Hysterical personalities, as a variant of the norm, are found as accentuations according to Leonhard. Such people are prone to demonstrative behavior and try to be the center of attention. Their distinguishing features are mental changes on the verge of pathology, stability and quality of life. If manifestations of hysteria create difficulties in everyday life and prevent a person from fulfilling and fulfilling his needs, this is most likely psychopathy.

Psychopaths can have a full-fledged family, a good job, but at the same time their character can be called specific. Histrionic personality disorder is most often observed in women, but can sometimes be found in men. Such people very often choose professions related to demonstrating their merits, and are very critical of comments. These could be actresses, models, presenters and even teachers who are eager to talk about their main achievements.

This disease can manifest itself not only with mental symptoms, but also with a number of motor and autonomic reactions. A person instills in himself certain principles and tries to adhere to them carefully. These are ideas of one's own superiority and perfection. Moreover, he feels the need to constantly demonstrate his qualities and always needs positive assessments from the outside.

Hysteria most often develops in emotional people who tend to react more sensitively to external stimuli. They interpret their vision of the world around them a little differently and put themselves at the center of their perception of the world, constantly need attention and use all means for this. Demonstrative behavior is often pretentious and capricious.

The heredity of hysterical personality disorder plays an important role. If family and friends have similar symptoms, the likelihood of developing it increases significantly. This does not mean that the disorder is transmitted in all cases, but at least there is a genetic tendency.

Since childhood, psychopathy develops in the form of character traits. The child is mischievous and prone to inventions and fantasies, which often replace the real world for him. With age, egocentrism, imitation, and rash actions become more and more common. Teenagers look for their idols among the stars and focus on their “idolization.” In fact, hysterics very rarely take any decisive action to achieve their own goals.

With the onset of adulthood, most teenage fantasies remain as primitive, superficial thinking, frivolity in actions and behavior. Hysterics are focused on the outside world and its reflection in their person, on how others react to them. Often internal experiences contain only fantasy elements that are associated with the person himself.

What is hysteria in men?

Hysteria in men is rare. This is partly explained by the fact that representatives of the stronger half of humanity try not to show their weaknesses in front of strangers. Therefore, the first signs of hysteria in men are usually detected by their wives. Husbands project their condition onto the latter, “venting” their anger.

In hysterical neurosis, the symptoms of the disorder manifest themselves in the same way as in the case of a seizure in women. A man is not able to control his own emotions. During a seizure, the face becomes red and shortness of breath occurs. In sentimental men, hysteria is accompanied by loud crying.

Mental disorder in this group of patients develops under the influence of similar factors. An increased tendency to hysterical attacks is observed in men who grew up with frequently quarreling parents. Being formed in such conditions, a person begins to perceive such behavior as the norm.

Both physical (emotional) fatigue and jealousy can provoke a hysterical attack. At the same time, if you do not react to the man’s actions, then his condition will normalize relatively quickly.

It is important for loved ones not to focus on the presence of hysteria. Otherwise, the man, conflicting both with himself and with his own environment due to non-acceptance of such an attitude, will again begin to behave inappropriately.

Main causes of histrionic personality disorder

There is a multifactorial theory of the origin of hysterical psychopathies.
That is, the disease can be caused by both internal and external factors. Internal tendencies most often include the specific inclinations of each individual, which together form character. Psychopathy often develops from accentuation, but not always. A person’s emotional sensitivity also plays an important role. Such people react painfully to any negative external factors, even of slight intensity. Because of this, a little stress can cause a real psycho-emotional shock.

External causes of hysterical personality disorder can be stress. Shocking news, life circumstances, accidents with the person himself or with loved ones can provoke the development of mental illnesses, including psychopathy.

The family microclimate and the relationship between spouses are of great importance. Constant domestic conflicts have a detrimental effect on the formation of the child’s psyche. Similarly, an adult after mental stress may be prone to psychopathic manifestations.

Personal relationships both at work and in other areas of activity can develop into conflicts. Constant dissatisfaction at work is manifested by the consequences of chronic stress and even symptoms of the neurotic register. If relationships with colleagues slowly heat up and a person practically forces himself to literally endure work every day, there is a huge chance of psychopathy developing.

Dissatisfaction with professional activity is manifested by a lack of recognition. A person tries to prove his qualities, show how good he is, and slowly slides into the abyss of psychopathy.

Alcohol abuse and prolonged uncontrolled use of psychotropic substances such as tranquilizers, antidepressants, and sleeping pills also play a huge role.

Diagnostics

The diagnosis of hysterical neurosis (dissociative conversion disorder) is carried out by a therapist and a neurologist. Mental disorder is identified based on complaints from both the patient and the environment. As already mentioned, a hysterical person does not actually suffer from pathologies of internal organs. In this case, to exclude concomitant diseases and to confirm the preliminary diagnosis, the following are prescribed:

• CT scan of the spine and MRI of the spinal cord (for dysfunction of the musculoskeletal system);
• CT and MRI of the brain (for neurological disorders);
• Ultrasound examination and angiography of cerebral vessels, rheoencephalography (if vascular pathologies are suspected).

When symptoms of hysteria appear in women, electroencephalography and electromyography are additionally prescribed.

general information

Hysteria as a phenomenon has attracted people's attention for a long time. Hysterical neurosis, dissociative disorders, often combined by ordinary people into one phenomenon of hysteria, were in former times associated with gender and dysfunction of the reproductive system.

This is clear from the name itself: the Greek root of the word “hysteria” means womb. Doctors in former times believed that when this organ malfunctions, a person suffers from neuroses. Scientific research began only in the nineteenth century. The famous figure of that era, Charcot, believed that neurosis was associated with heredity and the human constitution.

At the beginning of the next century, hysteria became the object of active medical attention.

Symptoms of hysterical neurosis, indicating the need to see a doctor, are varied, but are not always recognized by the patient as a deviation from the norm. Patients are characterized by seizures, accompanied by convulsions, and a headache. The sensation is described as squeezing. Certain areas of the skin lose sensitivity, and the throat feels constricted.

The factor that provokes such an attack is an emotional experience that disrupts the mechanisms of higher nervous activity. External conditions can initiate the phenomenon, but in some cases the cause is an internal conflict of the individual. In some cases, hysteria develops suddenly, against the background of severe mental trauma.

An unfavorable environment affecting a person for a long time can lead to a similar outcome.

Hysteria as a phenomenon has attracted people's attention for a long time. Hysterical neurosis, dissociative disorders, often combined by ordinary people into one phenomenon of hysteria, were in former times associated with gender and dysfunction of the reproductive system. This is clear from the name itself: the Greek root of the word “hysteria” means womb.

Doctors in former times believed that when this organ malfunctions, a person suffers from neuroses. Scientific research began only in the nineteenth century. The famous figure of that era, Charcot, believed that neurosis was associated with heredity and the human constitution. At the beginning of the next century, hysteria became the object of active medical attention.

Symptoms of hysterical neurosis, indicating the need to see a doctor, are varied, but are not always recognized by the patient as a deviation from the norm. Patients are characterized by seizures, accompanied by convulsions, and a headache. The sensation is described as squeezing. Certain areas of the skin lose sensitivity, and the throat feels constricted.

The factor that provokes such an attack is an emotional experience that disrupts the mechanisms of higher nervous activity. External conditions can initiate the phenomenon, but in some cases the cause is an internal conflict of the individual. In some cases, hysteria develops suddenly, against the background of severe mental trauma. An unfavorable environment affecting a person for a long time can lead to a similar outcome.

Treatment of hysterical neurosis

Hysteria must be treated comprehensively. For this purpose, psychotherapeutic techniques and appropriate medications are used. Patients should also be protected from conflicts and other situations that cause stress.

During treatment, it is important not to focus on hysterical attacks. Otherwise, the patient's condition will deteriorate sharply. Hysterical seizures are treated mainly using self-hypnosis methods. At the same time, the doctor must identify the true causes of the development of a psychological disorder at the initial stage of therapy.

Therapeutic treatment

The success of treating hysteria in women directly depends on the psychological state of the patient. Therefore, at the initial stage, sedatives are prescribed:

• tincture of valerian or motherwort;
• "Afobazole";
• "Persen";
• "Novo-Passit".

  

Treatment of hysteria with psychotropic substances (tranquilizers, bromine-based drugs) is carried out in extreme cases. The type and dosage of such drugs is determined by the doctor, taking into account the individual characteristics of the patient. Self-treatment of severe forms of neuroses is not recommended. Long-term use of psychotropic drugs causes addiction to them.

A hysterical person should also take vitamin complexes, which eliminate the symptoms of neuroses. If the patient has problems falling asleep, sleeping pills are prescribed.

What else to do when hysterical?

Occupational therapy is often used in the treatment of hysterical neurosis. This method allows you to switch the patient's attention from problems to solving certain problems. As a result, the person has fewer reasons for a hysterical attack.

Physiotherapeutic procedures help relax the body. Massage and soothing baths eliminate the symptoms of the disease, and the nervous system is restored.

The effectiveness of treating neurosis also depends on first aid for a hysterical attack. In the event of an attack, you must:

• protect the patient from the attention of strangers;
• hit on the cheek, pour water on it, or perform another unexpected action that will distract the patient’s attention;
• place the patient in a calm environment;
• seek help from a doctor.

During a hysterical attack, the patient’s wishes cannot be satisfied. If the patient actively moves his limbs and bends his body, his legs and arms should not be fixed so that at this moment the person does not injure himself.

Prevention and prognosis

The prognosis for hysteria is favorable for most people. The danger is the combination of this type of mental disorder with organic lesions of the nervous system.

Prevention of hysteria involves regular activities aimed at strengthening the nervous and immune systems. Automotive training, yoga, and sports help prevent a hysterical attack. Hysterical neuroses develop against the background of hormonal imbalance and irregular sex life. Therefore, in order to avoid another attack, it is necessary to normalize both areas. In addition, people prone to hysteria are advised to take sedatives.

Pain and sensitivity

Patients with hysterical neurosis often experience a decrease or increase in pain sensitivity. The localization of areas with impaired sensitivity is contrary to physiological norms, that is, it does not correspond to the characteristic innervation. The location of these areas depends on subjective perception and is not based on the anatomical and physiological characteristics of the body. Sensitivity is often impaired in a “stockings”, “jackets”, “gloves” manner.

Painful sensations during hysteria have a huge range of shades and have quite diverse localizations. As an example, a point with limited edges located on the head, which the patient associates with a driven nail. Pain during hysteria is quite difficult to differentiate from pain of a physical nature.

Possible complications

Frequent manifestations of hysterical attacks cause:

• social maladaptation, due to which a person loses the ability to conduct work and other activities;
• depression.

In the absence of treatment, the hysterical state provokes anorexia and somnambulism. Advanced forms of the disorder, complicated by depression, can lead to suicide.

Hysteria develops mainly under the influence of external factors. The symptoms of this form of neurosis come down to several characteristic manifestations: globus hystericus (“lump” in the throat), inappropriate behavior, narcissism.