We all know someone who spends way too much time bragging about their successes or their physical appearance, provoking a reaction in another person by making calculated comments that are inappropriate, and/or catastrophizing the details of their own lives or the lives of others. People that engage in this type of attention seeking behavior have their behavior reinforced whenever they are given attention, whether positive or negative. In extreme cases, psychiatric conditions or mental illness serves as the driver of attention seeking behavior and these cases should be referred to a mental health professional. Aside from mental illness, there are ways to cope with this and to help attention seekers pursue alternative courses of action that bring about what they claim they want in the first place: attention. Thank you for joining the conversation!