Dr. Scott Lyons is a holistic psychologist and author of Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others. 

He chats with Dr. Anthony Gustin about why we shouldn’t dismiss the behavior of those who seem to thrive on drama as attention-seeking. Like any addiction, engaging in conflict may be a way of coping with deeper psychological issues and trauma.

As he explains, we all develop survival patterns during infancy in response to emotional or psychological wounding. We may become hypervigilant and chronically anxious about our external world, yet numb or unable to process what we feel internally.

So you’ll hear why becoming a “drama queen” may be the body’s way of seeking extreme experiences just to feel *something* again. To metabolize emotions stuck deep in our core identities.

But we can unlearn these behavior patterns, and Dr. Lyons shares a few helpful tips on how to do so. 

In this episode, you’ll discover more about:

• What it means to be addicted to drama

• How pain and trauma manifest as chaos and chronic stress in our lives

• How our caregivers during infancy influence how we regulate our emotions throughout life

• Shifting patterns from our stress response cycle to truly satisfy our underlying emotional needs 

• Why understanding our identity formation may be the key to healing

• The benefits of being in resonance with our emotions and how it improves our relationships with ourselves and others

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Dr. Scott Lyons’ website

• Dr. Lyons’ book: Addicted to Drama: Healing Dependency on Crisis and Chaos in Yourself and Others

• Dr. Lyons’ Instagram

• Dr. Lyons’ TikTok

• The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, M.D

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