Theatrical personality disorders
A theatrical personality disorder is an attention disorder. The problem is thus immediately apparent. Someone who suffers from this is always short of attention and likes to be the centre of attention all the time. Stories are whipped up enormously and they show intense emotions of happiness or gloom. This is what is meant by theatricality. It is all just a bit over the top.
What are theatrical personality disorder characteristics?
Someone with this attention disorder will often appear friendly and sociable at a first meeting. At a certain point, he or she will try to get more attention, especially if there is company and other people also get the necessary attention. He or she will also be very disappointed if no attention is paid and will come up with theatrical stories to attract attention. People will soon realise that the person with the disorder is exaggerating and putting on a play. It is precisely because of this exaggerated behaviour that such a person will not always be taken seriously.
Theatrical personality disorder examples
Examples of how a person with attention deficit reacts can be seen, first of all, in the rather exuberant reactions. For example, people he/she barely knows are greeted with an embrace or a kiss. Normally you would not do this to people you do not know very well. The person wants to come across as ‘family-like’ in this way. If it turns out that the attention is not for him or her, the tone will change. There is genuine disappointment that one does not get the attention and things are changed. The stories then become dramatic and compelling, and this again is very much about the theatrical. People who have a theatrical personality are more likely to flirt or engage in sexual behaviour. It does not even matter who they are in front of, even with a total stranger. This is downright inappropriate and embarrassing behaviour, but it is not noticed by the person themselves.
Stress-related disorder
Having a theatrical personality is very stressful. You have to make sure time and again that you are the centre of attention, and that takes time and energy. Because everything revolves around you, there is no energy left to spend on others. In this respect, people with a theatrical personality are very lonely, because they cannot enter into a good relationship. These people often suffer from unexplained physical complaints. These are usually stress symptoms and can only stop if they want to make the world a little less about them. That is why a diagnosis that you have an attention disorder helps. This makes it easier to start treatment.
Which theatrical personality disorder treatment?
What treatment should be given to people with attention deficit depends mainly on what is causing it. This is not always easy to find out. Sometimes it can be hereditary and sometimes it is a matter of upbringing, for example because you did not receive any attention as a child. This is how you developed an attention disorder. Traumatic experiences can also cause you to develop an attention disorder. It is the excessive attention that is supposed to distract from the trauma. That is why it is wise to do some trauma treatment. This can be done with EMDR.
How does an EMDR treatment go?
An EMDR treatment is based on the processing of the trauma. The treatment does not specifically target the disorder. After all, if the trauma is processed, the disorder will disappear or the symptoms will diminish. During an EMDR session, you are given the task of bringing the event to the fore again. This can be difficult, because if you have an unprocessed trauma, you don’t want to think about it. This is exactly what is meant to happen. During the reliving, the therapist distracts you with a hand gesture or a sound signal. During the distraction you let go of the memory of the trauma and this is what you want to achieve. After several sessions, this will become easier and less emotional and the event will have its place.
EMDR with Psylaris
Psylaris uses modern tools to make mental health care more accessible to the client and to make treatment more flexible for the practitioner. For example, Psylaris has developed EMDR-VR, a virtual reality module. This allows the client to find himself in the middle of the distraction initiated by the therapist. The therapist also has more opportunities to design distraction tasks using photos or videos.
Psylaris has also developed an online platform called EMDR-Remote. This allows the practitioner to video call the client via a stable connection. This makes an EMDR treatment at a distance possible. Also through the platform, the practitioner can use different types of distraction tasks, so the client is just as well distracted at home as in the treatment room.
EMDR therapy with modern methods
As a developer of modern methods and tools in mental healthcare, Psylaris has also made EMDR easy with modern techniques. Virtual reality, for example, plays an increasingly important role in the mental healthcare sector. With EMDR-VR and EMDR-plus, Psylaris has developed a VR-module. The module can easily be used by the practitioner and has many distraction possibilities. The client gets a more intense distraction than during a regular treatment. The VR glasses can be used both at home and in the treatment room. This makes both the practitioner and the client more flexible.
If the client is unable to come to the practitioner, Psylaris will make it possible for him/her to visit the practitioner. With EMDR-remote it is possible to receive an EMDR treatment at home. EMDR-remote is the online EMDR platform of Psylaris, where the practitioner and the client can conduct an EMDR session via image calling. Once again, the practitioner has many possibilities to distract and the client, who is chained to the house, can still receive treatment.