Remember: Jealousy can affect your health
PSYCHOLOGISTS say there are two types of jealousy — healthy and unhealthy.
It is believed that healthy jealousy is a means to guard one’s territory and comes from a sincere care and commitment to a relationship; while unhealthy jealousy manifests itself in an abusive way, whether emotional or physical.
Jealousy can rear its ugly head if you lack self-confidence, if you have a poor image of what you look like, if you are fearful, and if you are insecure.
Unhealthy jealousy comes about when you compare yourself to others and end up on the losing side. Some people may have gone through divorce, death or abandonment as children and may bring unresolved issues into their relationships in the form of jealousy.
Jealousy can become so chronic that a spouse will try to control a relationship through exaggeration, self-pity, lies, threats and/or manipulation. When the other partner resists, the jealous person reacts by becoming even more controlling and abusive. This has been known to be the cause of a number of deaths and suicides in Jamaica.
Some illnesses that are caused as a result of extreme jealousy are chronic depression, personality disorder, morbid jealousy — a condition in which a person holds a strong delusional belief that their spouse or sexual partner is being unfaithful without having any significant proof; and mental illness.
