Dr. Jameca CooperForensic Psychology Consultant, Emergence Psychological Services · Board Certified Counseling Psychologist and Forensic Psychology Consultant

Is it Borderline Personality Disorder or Histrionic Personality Disorder?

27 Jul 2021 · 3 min

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2:46

In this educational video, Dr. Jameca Cooper explains how borderline personality disorder (BPD) and histrionic personality disorder (HPD) share several traits—such as attention‑seeking, manipulative behavior, and rapid emotional shifts—but differ fundamentally in the presence of self‑destructive actions. She outlines that individuals with BPD often engage in self‑harm, exhibit fragile, chaotic relationships, and experience intense emotional dysregulation. In contrast, people with HPD typically do not display self‑destructive behavior, even though they also seek attention and can be emotionally volatile. Dr. Cooper emphasizes these distinctions to help viewers correctly identify each disorder and encourages subscription for further mental‑health content.

Chapters

Hi, this is Dr. Jameca Cooper, and today we're going to talk more about histrionic personality disorder. But first, make sure you subscribe to this channel. So today I want to make sure you understand the differences between borderline personality disorder and histrionic personality disorder. I'm sure you've already heard lots and lots of information about borderline personality disorder. If not, stay tuned for more videos on this channel about that particular disorder. But for now, I want to make sure you understand the difference between both of these different personality disorders. So both of them are very similar in that a person with borderline personality disorder or a person with histrionic personality disorder are both attention-seeking. In other words, they're going to go through extreme lengths to make sure that they get attention. Another way that they are very similar is that they are both manipulative. So an individual with histrionic personality disorder or a person with borderline personality disorder use manipulation as a means to get what they want. Both of them share both of these traits. So if you know someone with these, I'm sure you can attest to seeing these traits a great deal of the time. The one thing that I would say that is also similar about both of these disorders is that emotions tend to fluctuate with both. A person with borderline, because you might notice that they're angry or in a rage one day, or 15 minutes later they, they love you and they're your best friend. The same thing you would see with a person with histrionic personality disorder. But I want to make sure that you understand how they are both different. The one way that they are different is that an individual with borderline personality disorder is usually going to engage in self-destructive behaviors. They are usually also going to have fragile relationships because of this chaos that they bring to the relationships and the emotional dysregulation. Um, so I want to make sure you get the differences. The differences are basically rooted in the fact that an individual with borderline personality disorder is going to engage in self-destructive behavior. And a person with histrionic personality disorder would not typically be engaging in self-destructive behavior. So there are a few things that are very similar, but of course, this is the main difference between both of them. Make sure you subscribe to this channel for more information on personality disorders and the differences between lots of these personality disorders. So thanks for tuning in. It's Dr. Jameca Cooper.