Is chronic jealousy a serious co-morbid condition?
I have suffered from severe jealousy ever since I was about 11 or 12. I get extremely jealous of other people's social lives, and it causes me intense feelings of stress, isolation and depression, and then it makes me feel like everyone else are superior to me and I'm just a social failure in whatever I try to do.
I don't show jealous feelings, but inwardly I feel bitter. Like if somebody announces they have a partner, I get all knots in my tummy from jealousy and then I have panic attacks and feel I should find myself a partner too, so I become desperate and try out all different dating sites, which never work out because I'm not very good with meeting people online.
Is this just a habit I should get myself out of, or is it some sort of psychotic disorder I may be suffering with? It seems like I care too much of what others are doing because I think I have a phobia of feeling isolated and left behind, also I think I fear failure. I have had CBT before but that was just reading books, which I didn't get on too well with because (call me an unusual Aspie) I have a hard time focusing on books. So I have signed up for one-to-one CBT, where I can discuss it with someone as I go through, and see if that might work a little bit better for me. I did have counseling but it didn't really help, and if this CBT doesn't help then I am thinking about going to the doctors to see if anti-depressants might help with all these nasty feelings of bitterness and jealousy.
Any thoughts?
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Female
I did a lot of internet searching just now. A few things.
1. What you're actually feeling is envy. It is related to jealousy, but jealousy comes from within a relationship, that is, a wife can be jealous of the girl next door who her husband is paying attention to.
2. Envy is when you see people with beauty, talent, success or nice things and wish to possess them because you're unhappy.
3. The reason I brought up the difference is because you wanted to know if their was some personality disorder attached to it.
4. Narcissistic Personality Disorder is the only condition to which envy is attached to in the DSM-IV. That's a strongly contested point amongst psychologists, however. A recent, and popular, opinion from an Iowa study suggests it's not and may therefore not even show up in DSM-V.
5. Since psychologists are reticent about attaching envy to any particular personality disorder, they simply suggest counseling (coping skills, anger management, etc) as a way to minimize those feelings which they consider harmful and destructive.
Here are some thoughts from Psychology Today
A significant way in which you define yourself has to do with your ideals, ambitions, and what you value. Your ideal self is what you aspire to be; the best that you think you could or should be, and often this ideal comes from social comparisons. Your sense of self is constantly measuring itself against your ideals and coming to various conclusions. If you measure up, you feel good, excited, and even elated. If you don't measure up you may feel depressed, or ashamed. Self-esteem is determined to a great degree by your own comparison of your sense of self to your ideal self. However, it is sometimes easier to project that ideal onto someone else in the form of envy.
The values against which your self is measured are likely to change as you mature and as you learn to evaluate your potentialities and accept your limitations. If you have realistic ideals and can generally live up to them, your self-esteem will not be threatened. If your ideals are exaggerated and you cannot reach them, your good feelings from successes may be short lived and you may feel that you are never good enough and will envy others. The continued hope for the impossible, the expectation that you will or can be unconditionally loved and adored, is not facing reality but rather holding on to an idealized image of yourself and an idealized version of what others can provide. If this is the case, you will need to protect your sense of self from experiencing shame, depression, disappointment, and envy.
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Hi. What you are experiencing is obviously some kind of psychological disorder because it is not making you happy. I think a lot of young people have these competitive feelings. Sometimes it is not that easy to work through them, but it is possible. I suggest to try to simply feel the feeling no matter how painful, even if you can only do it for a few seconds) when it comes up without fueling it with thoughts (such as comparing yourself to the other person). Do not stuff the feeling or try not to feel it. I hope you do not end up taking anti depressants, as I do not think that is the solution.When you consciously work through this problem,and I think you can even though it may be difficult, then you will have earned something that is more valuable then a lot of money. I also suggest you go to a (not fundamentalist) church, synagogue, temple or mosque, whatever your religious belief, if any, to get the sense of a loving community and/or join a humanistic agency and do volunteer work, such as go to an old folks home.and visit the people, some of whom are very lonely and will be SO glad to see you, and I bet you will not be jealous of them:-) Much love to you, and if you ever need to vent about a situation you can write to me privately anytime, or we can continue the discussion here.. (I am an a grandmother of a boy about your age). Love, littlebee p.s. You are not a typical young person in that you are aware of your responses and trying to do something about them and not just completely lost in a dream, so you have a better possibility to develop. You are beginning to be more conscious of yourself and that is a good.
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