The 21 Essential Ways to Know if Someone is Drama-Addicted

If you feel like you and your friends are living in a giant reality show with non-stop drama, it may be because of drama addiction.

As you detox from drama addiction yourself, you may need to pull away (temporarily or permanently) from people who feed into the addiction. This is similar to a newly recovering alcoholic distancing him- or herself from previous drinking buddies.

You can watch my FREE video series Breaking The Cycle Of Toxic Relationships, Drama and Stress here to learn more.

While you can have compassion for everyone struggling with addictions, you’ve got to take strong measures to heal yourself. Pray for your friends who are still addicted, send them helpful articles and books if they’re open to it . . . but don’t allow their influence to pull you off your healthy course.

Here are some characteristics to avoid, especially in the beginning of your recovery from drama addiction. Stay away from people who:

• 1. Obsessively and repeatedly talk about their problems, without any interest in solutions.
• 2. Break their promises
• 3. Act and speak dramatically, in an exaggerated, animated way
• 4. Treat others disrespectfully
• 5. Have one-sided conversations—always about being special, either especially wonderful or especially unlucky
• 6. Speak loudly and rapidly
• 7. Currently abuse drugs or alcohol
• 8. Frequently fish for compliments
• 9. Brag about breaking the law
• 10. Have “doomsday” fears about the end of the world
• 11. Constantly express anger about a wide variety of issues
• 12. Frequently use exaggeration words like always and never
• 13. Have unfocused eyes that aren’t looking at you
• 14. Talk at you or to you, not with you
• 15. Only contact you when they want something from you
• 16. Brag about how much stress they’re under, like it’s a badge of courage
• 17. Boast about being a victim, subject to other people’s will
• 18. Gossip negatively about others (they will do the same about you)
• 19. Can cite every detail about every celebrity’s life
• 20. Are incessantly complaining about how much they have to do
• 21. Are in the habit of telling wild stories about themselves or people they know
• As you get stronger in your recovery from stress and drama, you’ll be in a better position to help other drama-addicted people to recognize the stress cycle that they’re in. But in the beginning, it’s best to avoid their company as much as is practical. If they are family members who you feel you must spend time with, we'll discuss healthy ways to retain your mental and physical health in these settings in my book, Don't Let Anything Dull Your Sparkle.
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