The British royal family are newsmakers. Royal watchers are currently obsessed with Megan, Harry, Kate and William.
I am not a royal watcher, except for the PBS television drama series, Victoria. However, I’ve known many queens and kings in my day. Drama kings and queens, that is.
Ah, yes! You’ve met them. What’s up with these folks? They turn simplicities into a real-life soap opera that would rival “Days of our Lives.”
Drama kings and queens thrive on drama and are always involved in one crisis or another. They may go out of their way to conjure up a crisis that requires us to stop everything and pay attention. Surprise! Surprise! You have unwittingly become a co-star in their current drama.
When I was gainfully employed in the health care field, I ran across many drama kings and queens. They may present at the clinic with abdominal pain. These folks will exaggerate their symptoms with words like unbearable, distressing, or torturing pain. This gives the physician no other choice than to pull out the big guns and order expensive tests—and most times all for naught.
This personality type aka sh*t-stirrers love to stir the pot. You know exactly what I mean. They thrive on gossip, manipulation, arguments and cause trouble between other people.
There is usually a drama queen or king in every family. They tend to overreact over minor incidents or petty infractions and try to sweep us into their personal melodrama.
If he isn’t chosen to be the baby’s godfather, it becomes an epic event. Those addicted to drama have no sense of proportion, so the “he said, she said, they said” stuff takes on enormous proportions.
Aunt Botchagaloop gets her apron in an uproar. She claims to get no respect. At every family gathering she retells how she slaved over the stove making meatballs and sauce. Each retelling becomes more long-winded. She has been cooking for 50 years and should be able to make a meal in her sleep.
At a birthday party I attended, someone inadvertently spilled wine on a gal’s top. This spillage was viewed as an ultimate disaster. Instead of going quietly into the rest room and tending to it, she made the party about her.
While waiting on a checkout line, I heard a gal cry out in horror. My nurse’s antenna went up. Geez! She had caught her nail on the basket and chipped her manicure.
Everyone has disagreements or slam down fights with their spouses, significant other or family member. If you are involved with a drama king or queen, hold tight, it’s gonna get bumpy! Because they overreact to minor events, they are hypersensitive, highly emotional and angry. Instead of taking responsibility for their mistakes or heaven forbid apologize, they will turn things around and try to pin the blame on us.
Drama kings and queens in the workplace are like hurricanes. They whirl through, sucking the oxygen out of the air. They will regale us with woe-is-me crisis’s and exaggerated talks about their heartless boss.
Television has garnered the drama market. The news stories speak for themselves. The weather forecaster no longer informs us of the weather, they dramatize it with words that can scare the bejeebers out of us: Bomb cyclone, weather bomb, polar vortex and explosive cyclogenesis.
Drama kings and queens share dramatically the highs and lows of their lives, absolutely convinced that every detail is of great interest to their audience. A word of caution: If you don’t ohh and ahh over their endless narratives, more drama will follow.
Have you ever been ambushed by a drama queen or king? Oblivious to the hour, they may call at dinner time or 3 a.m. They need to get a minor incident off their chest. They may flatter with: “You are the only one that understands!” I guess everyone else hit the road.
You see the pattern—urgent demands, incessant complaints, boundary violations and sometimes flattery. These folks may seem weak and helpless, but they are master manipulators.
In literature, Scarlett O’Hara from Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone with the Wind” would be considered a drama queen by today’s standards. This type of person is notoriously self-centered and self-absorbed. Prone to sudden outbursts they can leave us feeling that we are walking on eggshells.
I have found myself in the unenviable position of dealing with a few drama kings and queens. When the time comes that they have exhausted us—and it will, the best advice is that of Rhett Butler.
In the last line of “Gone with the Wind,” Rhett turns to Scarlett and says: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Can’t wait to use that line!
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