Relatively recently, among young people, such an expression has become popular as ‘Drama queen’... I propose to "dissolve the clouds" over this phrase and understand its meaning.

‘ Drama queen’ (synonym for 'tragedy queen')

- this is a person who wants to attract attention to himself, often making scandals, quarrels, provoking others and, as usual, often overacting. ‘Drama queen’ can make a very big problem out of a small, or, as we say, make an elephant out of a fly, reacting too sharply and painfully to what is happening.

For instance,

in the restaurant(in the restaurant)

I have been waiting for my pizza for 30 minutes. It’s definitely the worst restaurant I have ever visited. I’m not trying to be a drama queen, but I just can’t understand what could be taking so long! - I've been waiting for pizza for 30 minutes. This is definitely the worst restaurant I've ever been to. I don’t want to create scandals, but I just cannot understand why they have been serving me for so long!)

Come down, Maryl Streep, it's lunchtime. The restaurant is always busy at lunch - Meryl Streep, calm down. It's lunchtime now. We have a lot of orders for lunch.

The term appeared in the 70s of the twentieth century, during the gaining popularity of serials and so-called "soap operas" at that time. The actresses who played in these epics often cried, threw tantrums, and generally replayed. The well-known TV series "Santa Barbara" has been home to sobbing and scandalous people for many years. ‘Drama queens’ .

This slang expression is rather rude, ironic and sometimes dismissive. It is even often used as an insult.

For instance,

My ex-girlfriend is such a drama queen! - My ex-girlfriend is constantly making scandals! or My ex-girlfriend is hysterical!

On a par with ‘Drama queen’, colloquially can occur ‘ drama ', which has the same meaning.

For instance:

This Maggy is all about drama, drama, drama! - This Maggie is constantly scandalous!

I'm tired of your drama.- I'm tired of your tantrums.

Let's dispel the myths about the opinion that the expression ‘Drama queen ' used exclusively to describe female behavior. Perhaps you will be confused by the feminine gender of the word ‘ queen ', but this turn is also suitable for characterizing young people, but at the same time gives them traits of effeminate behavior.

Although the expression appeared back in the 70s, the turnover entered the American slang dictionary relatively recently - in 1990.

In Somerset Maugham's novel Theater, the brilliant theatrical actress Julia Lambert increasingly blurs the lines between play and reality. She also "plays out" experiences in real life, including in relationships with the closest people, constantly thinking about how she looks from the outside. And she doesn’t even realize it until her grown-up son throws a bitter accusation in her face: “I would love you if I could find you. But where are you? If you rip off your exhibitionism, take away your skill, remove layer by layer of pretense, insincerity, hackneyed quotes from old roles and scraps of fake feelings, will you finally get to your soul? "

Hysterical personality disorder should not be confused with the outdated medical diagnosis of hysteria (it used to be used to describe a range of mood and behavior disorders, and then split into several modern diagnoses), especially since it carries pronounced negative connotations.

“The term 'hysteria' has been devalued,” explains psychotherapist Tatyana Salakhieva-Talal, “it arose in the late 18th and early 19th centuries within a rather chauvinistic paradigm: it was believed that only women suffered from hysteria. At that time, there were strict requirements for behavior in society, the direct expression of desires and emotions was considered incorrect and indecent. And this led to a "crooked" expression - for example, through affective breakdowns or various somatic symptoms. Most of Freud's researching clients were women, and he attributed these problems to repressed sexuality, but in fact the catch was the taboo on expressing genuine emotionality. Now demonstrative behavior is considered closer to the norm than before, because the entire postmodern society, which requires people to have an attractive image, in fact, in some sense, is hysterical, we are all often “in the image”. "

Recently, this disorder is preferred to be called histrionic (from the Latin histrio - "actor"). It's funny that in American psychiatry there is a mnemonic rule for remembering the symptoms of a disorder - the first letters of the symptoms add up to the acronym PRAISE ME - "praise me", which very accurately conveys the main motivation of hysterics. This phonetic game is, alas, untranslatable into Russian, so let's just name the main signs by which a person with such a disorder can be identified.

He is uncomfortable in situations where he is not the center of attention. It is important to emphasize here that, unlike the narcissist, being visible to the hysteroid is much more important than being the best. Let them adore, or hate, or be perplexed, if only they thought and talked about him.
Interaction with others is often characterized by inappropriate seduction or provocative behavior. That is, almost any act of communication is a reason to conquer, hook, or at least annoy the interlocutor, squeeze out of him some emotions in relation to himself.
To attract attention, the hysteroid also often uses his appearance, he knows how and loves it. If he is handsome, he will polish and emphasize his merits; if not, he will come up with an eccentric image.
Such a person behaves very dramatically and exhibits exaggerated emotions. If love, then to the grave, if disappointment, then fatal, if unwell, then go to bed with fever. No restraint and half-tones - everything should be for aortic rupture.
This may sound paradoxical, but the emotions of the hysteroid are not so deep. He is very lively, bright and quivering, and next to him it may seem to people that they have never met a more sensitive person, but here you always have to make allowances for artistic exaggeration.
For the hysteroid, reality is, in fact, raw material. He catches out of it subjectively significant events from which one can make a "drama", while others may simply not notice or not attach particular importance to them. This perception also affects speech: it is characterized by colorful descriptions that omit details that would be quite significant for another person. In general, such an eyewitness is a nightmare for any investigator, and in personal relationships this feature creates a variety of "translation difficulties".
People with histrionic disorder are easily suggestible and can act impulsively under the influence of a belief or situation. This again stems from a lack of deep inner content.
Hysteroids often find relationships with other people more intimate than they really are. They tend to invent fiery love for themselves where so far there is only sympathy.

Of course, without hysterics, the world would be much more boring, because they provide others with a continuous stream of fresh impressions and vivid emotions. But at the same time, people with a pronounced histrionic disorder are little capable of systematic and purposeful activity, they do not like to work, are restless, their knowledge is shallow (although sometimes for the sake of a beautiful image they can show themselves off, here and there dropping relevant remarks about art and philosophy, but if you dig deeper, it turns out that they are poorly versed in the topic), and desires and goals are changeable. Ideally, they would like to lead a "relaxed" lifestyle, have prestigious acquaintances and move in society, show off and have fun. But this is not laziness (in professional psychology, the concept of "laziness" does not exist at all), but excessive sensitivity to failure.

“Such people have a low tolerance to stress,” explains Tatyana Salakhieva-Talal. - They avoid frustration, although it is learning from mistakes and failures that forms a healthy personality. Therefore, it is difficult for them to maintain long distances without receiving immediate rewards - they immediately need to find an excuse for the fact that something did not work out for them. In addition, people with a demonstrative personality type often have narcissistic traits. Therefore, no matter how much attention they receive, they always remain dissatisfied. "

Personal relationships with hysterics can also be difficult: despite the external warmth and ardor, they are rather egocentric, and it is not so easy to achieve real emotional intimacy with them. They often make their partners jealous, unwittingly, because they are used to using their sexuality as a tool to attract attention. Still, such people are impulsive and often commit rash acts, and then blame others and circumstances for everything.

But, as in the case of other disorders, it all depends on the abilities of each individual and on the severity of his "bugs". Indeed, between the norm and a serious illness there is a whole range of intermediate options. If a person with a hysterical personality is talented and able to work on himself, and his specificity does not go to extremes (remains at the accentuation level, that is, character traits that are within the clinical norm), his “imbalances” are compensated, and his strengths allow him to achieve social success, especially in art, media and show business. You can also build happy family relationships if your partner is patient and helps their dramatic partners to take things more calmly and do less impulsive acts. In more severe cases, the help of a psychotherapist is needed.

How to treat

As with other personality disorders, medication only works for coexisting problems like depression, but does not treat the disorder itself. Therefore, the best option is to work with a psychotherapist, during which the patient will be able to form a more stable self-esteem, cope with excessive impulsivity and solve other problems.

“Such a“ bias ”in the personality arises if at an early age a person did not feel that he was noticed and accepted, says Tatyana Salakhieva-Talal. - The parents were busy with shock work and paid attention to the child only when he was sick with something. He felt lonely, unnecessary, felt that his true desires were not heeded. Therefore, such people can sometimes report that they are not feeling well just in order to attract attention to themselves (but do not think that they are pretenders, this is an unconscious manipulation). Even if an adult hysteroid manages to attract a lot of attention and positive evaluations, he still remains “hungry”, because he knows that it is not his true “I” that gets attention, but the stage image. And when the experience of unsatisfactory emotional contacts accumulates, the hysteroid begins to accuse loved ones of disrespect and constantly demand from them proof of love. Psychotherapists teach such patients to gradually become aware of their real feelings and needs and to speak directly about them, rather than stage scenes for minor reasons. To speak openly about what does not suit you, and not to fall into tacit resentment according to the principle “guess yourself what is wrong”. And to form greater independence from other people's attention and assessments. "

> drama queen

2 DRAMA QUEEN

hysterical (psychopath), a person who reacts violently to everything, often with ostentatious acuteness.

Drama queen translation of the idiom. The expression is ‘Drama queen’. See also in other dictionaries

‘ Drama queen’ (synonym for 'tragedy queen')

in the restaurant(in the restaurant)

How to treat

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