[Moiraine]

Hello. I am new to psych central. I joined here because I have a problem on my own board and I need help. I am a non professional who runs a small board for depression. I am stable with my own illness and generally do well with my board. A few months back I had a woman in her 30s join my board that I suspect is histrionic. I have dealt with people who have borderline personality disorder who are easier to cope with than this woman. She is the most self centered person I have met other than an aunt who is histrionic. This woman mimics other's problems. She is offensive to those on the board who have PTSD and other hardcore mental health problems. I really do not know what to do with her. I am her latest victim, and I am ashamed of my own behavior. I know she has a mental illness and she needs help but I don't know what to do. Her own therapist it seems goes along with her bull***t and agrees with her when she gets it in her head that she has x,y or z. She claims to have been the victim of domestic violence, child abuse, has PTSD, and was thinking she had OCD until we shot that one down. I tried having her write her story down and all of these claims seem false...only she believes them...and the therapist goes along with her. Then she comes on my board and causes chaos. How are we supposed to help her? What am I supposed to do? Her therapist tells her she'll get well if she'll journal (CBT)..or so she claims. I'd like to give her a link to an article on HPD and ask her to join an online group for that, and to get an ethical therapist...but I think that would fly about like a whale would fly.

[madisgram]

this article may help

Histrionic personality disorder is characterized by a long-standing pattern of attention seeking behavior and extreme emotionality. Someone with histrionic personality disorder wants to be the center of attention in any group of people, and feel uncomfortable when they are not. While often lively, interesting and sometimes dramatic, they have difficulty ....

http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sx17.htm

[missbelle]

Did you set up a list of rules on your board and have people accept them before they joined? If this person is not following the rules, you can tell them they are no longer able to continue. You can then give them some other options for assistance.

If you had no rules, you can still let them know that you cannot help them etc etc...and that they would be more comfortable in another group and that the welfare of your group is of the upmost importance. You can say then that you feel that they would indeed be better somewhere else. Give them another list of places to go and tell them you are removing them from membership/block.

I hope this helps

[honeybee777]

I have HPD she sound more like having factitious Disorder check this link out

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Factitious_disorder

see what you think

Can you put her in time out?

Seriously ... Let her know that when her behavior is unacceptable she will get two warnings ... say 15 minutes the first time / 30 minutes the second time ... Before being totally removed from the board for the remainder of the day ...

I suspect that when she sees that she's not going to be allowed to run amok and disrupt the board without serious repercussions that she'll either change her behavior or go elsewhere to wreak fresh havoc ...

Sincerely,
BrokenCloud

[honeybee777]

well time out never worked for me...but then again my parents sucked! get her to a therapist...it will !help, it has helped me