Histrionic Vs. Narcissistic Personality Disorder

Hi, I'm Dr. Jameca Cooper Cooper, and today we're going to talk about the differences between histrionic personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder. In my other videos, I've talked before about exactly what histrionic personality disorder is, but today I want to clarify some of the differences between both histrionics and narcissistic. A lot of people get them confused. There's a lot of talk all over popular culture and media about narcissistic personality disorder because it is so widespread and because people think that everyone that they know suffers from narcissistic personality disorder. Um, so it's everywhere. You see the term all over. Everyone swears they know about what it is. But what I see is that people get it confused with the histrionic personality disorder. Because they can be very similar in some ways. Both histrionic personality disorder and narcissistic personality disorder involve regulating emotions and impulse control. So in other words, people who suffer from both histrionic and narcissistic personality disorder both suffer from those same types of issues— regulating their emotions, feeling good and bad, and seeing a shift in emotions sometimes quickly. So that's one of the things that would be similar for both. One of the other things to think about is that the prevalence of histrionic personality disorder is very different from narcissistic personality disorder. In other words, um, what people think is that narcissistic personality disorder occurs more often in the general population, to the extent that they would say 5% of people would suffer from narcissistic personality disorder, and maybe only 2% of the population suffers from histrionic personality disorder. But I want to stop here and say that I don't agree with that at all. When I look at those numbers, I, in my professional and personal opinion, think that it's at least equal. In other words, I think that at least 5% of the general population, if not 10 to 15 to 20% of the general population, suffer from histrionic personality disorder. And I know that because I'm constantly aware and observant of how much people demand and desire outside attention and approval. It's quite common. It's evident in a lot of people. And to some extent, I will say that it can be a generational issue. In other words, when I look at generations younger than the Generation X generation, in other words, Millennials, Generation Z, I see that phenomenon a lot more in that population, the whole desire and need for reassurance and approval. Um, one of the other things I need to talk about is that it can develop in childhood. It can develop over a lifetime based on how an individual is raised and how they're parented, but it can also be genetic. So in other words, if you see an individual who is quite dramatic in the way that they speak or act or dress, You can also see some remnants of that in their family members, such as their parents, their siblings, and maybe grandparents. Um, so in other words, it's not unusual to see it run in family. So you can have a genetic component, but you can also have an environmental component, meaning that your environment for a large part really determines how you behave and how you react to other people. So in other words, let's say we have a person that was born with maybe no genetic predisposition to histrionic personality disorder, their environment can really mold and shape them in such a way that they can develop it. So in other words, if their parents constantly tell them that they're great and tell them that things that are superficial matter to them, like, oh, you, you're wearing nice clothes, I like the name brand, you should always wear that, or you should always wear your hair like that, and, and constantly reinforcing those types of things That is one way that the environment can create a person who suffers from histrionic personality disorder. So in other words, it doesn't have to be a genetic component, a component, but it can be a genetic component of it in addition to an environmental component. So in other words, it can be one or the other or a little bit of both as far as what develops or what causes a person to have histrionic personality disorder. So when we look at some of the similarities between narcissistic personality disorder and histrionic, we can see some of the things like being able to recognize and identify emotion. So individuals who suffer from both narcissistic personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder both have that struggle and that challenge of being able to recognize emotion not only in themselves but in other people. So it's quite likely and possible that they're going to be surrounded by people that that may be annoyed or sad or agitated, and they could be totally oblivious to it because it is really difficult for them to be able to detect emotion in other people. And some people would say that that can be traced back to how they were raised and parented as well. So that's one of the similarities. Another similarity that you will find between narcissistic personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder is the strong need for attention. You will find that among both of them. So in that way, it could be very difficult to determine if a person is suffering from narcissism or narcissistic personality disorder versus histrionics, because you'll see that same need for attention. You'll see an individual go to extreme lengths to get attention. And some ways this shows up is that, um, that attention doesn't always have to be positive. It can be negative attention. So a person who really needs attention They will go out of their way to get attention, even if it's negative attention, even if it means that you're yelling at them or saying mean things to them, because to that person, some attention is better than no attention at all. So those are some of the similarities that you'll see between, um, Histrionic Personality Disorder and Narcissistic Personality Disorder. Now let's look at some of the things that would be considered differences. Um, one of the things is the gender variations of it. Estimates say that men are going to be more likely to be diagnosed with narcissistic personality disorder, and women are going to be more likely to be diagnosed with histrionic personality disorder. So you can just look at that and see, does this really fit with what you would see based on what you notice in the environment and those around you? So definitely for narcissism personality— narcissistic personality disorder, you can imagine or think about how many men really suffer from it, how many men display those traits. That are associated with narcissism, and that part could be true. But when I think about individuals who show symptoms and signs of this dramatic behavior and things to seek attention from other people, I don't really see only women who show this. I kind of— I might see more women who show some of these traits, but I still see pretty good numbers of men who show traits of desiring approval and seeking approval from the outside world. It's just that in this society, it's really not as accepted for men to do some of the, the behaviors that it takes to seek approval from the outside world. So in that case, you would see more women who suffer from it. So just wanted to make sure that we were on the same page for today and to make sure that you have a good understanding of the differences between narcissistic personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder. Make sure you tune into my channel for other videos that have to do with personality disorders, especially histrionic personality disorder. Disorder. And also tune in to my channel for more information on mental health as well as other things important. Please subscribe.