Last update: April 18, 2015
Jealousy. We have all experienced it sometimes with greater or lesser intensity and, in the same way, we have been victims of those people who focus their eyes on us full of envy or excessive protection in the case of couples. Sometimes their excessive behaviors can become a real threat to us, sometimes they do us falling into an abyss of control and negative emotions that can damage our psychological and personal integrity. Experts usually distinguish jealous people from those suffering from obsessive jealousy, in which they insert those personalities who are already approaching the plane of the disease where other types of problems are hiding.
Childhood jealousy
Sibling jealousy is very common in families; although there are usually individual differences, it is common for many children to feel emotionally frustrated at the thought that their parents are offering more attention and affection to their siblings, it is a situation that can sometimes cause discomfort and disturbances in the family as a result of possible under-adaptive or aggressive behaviors that must be treated in time.
In these cases, parents need to know how to solve such situations, which is why it is advisable for example to establish a balance in treating children, without preferences, to praise the positive aspects of children whenever possible, increase the activities in common, do not pay attention to the manifestations of tantrums or negativity, respond calmly to episodes of jealousy avoiding screams and so on.
Job jealousy
According to various studies, almost 40% of people suffered from jealousy of their co-workers. In addition, recent analyzes support that it is women with a very high level of competitiveness who are most jealous and have defiant behavior towards other women. If these are also attractive, the feeling of envy is greater. These people place responsibility for their failures in others, are unable to maintain internal control over their own performance, and see in others the skills they lack. They don't know how to manage emotions, colleagues are rivals with qualities and skills they would like to have and do not even try to develop.
Their conceptions are usually formed by a disordered puzzle of shortcomings, insecurities and weaknesses that hide with challenge and rivalry, a characteristic that, as we have said, seems to be more present in women in work contexts, other women being the source. of their jealousy.
Couple jealousy
Jealousy is common in couples and is considered normal until neither of them is coerced or attacked by excessive or pathological behavior. However, sometimes there can be complex situations in which distrust begins to be the fundamental pillar of the relationship, in which suffering and the first fractures appear within the couple.
People suffering from pathological jealousy usually repeatedly imagine that their partners will cheat on them, they look for continuous signals of these unfounded ideas, they watch, follow and control, they have an obsessive fear of being abandoned.
What is behind these personalities? They are clearly insecure, have little self-confidence and very low self-esteem that makes them believe they will be abandoned, and faced with this feeling of inner fragility they sometimes react with pathological control, discharging fear and anxiety on their partner. They pretend to be everything to the other person, thus demonstrating a lack of understanding by confusing love with possessiveness. It is a different type of jealousy from the previous ones, but equally harmful to the people involved in it.
