Doctors call it differently delirium of jealousy "Othello syndrome" How dangerous is pathology and how should people who are forced to be near a sick person behave? What should be done so that the raging “Othello” comes to his senses and does not harm the object of his passion? Doctors at the Leto mental health center know the correct answers to these and many other questions.
If there is a person next to you who suffers from abnormal jealousy, be sure to enlist the support of experienced specialists. Please understand that we are talking about a serious mental illness that needs to be properly treated. If therapy is not carried out, the situation will worsen. You can make an appointment with Leto doctors by phone.
Gender nuances of the problem
Men are more often diagnosed with paranoid delusions of jealousy. The chances of encountering the disease increase sharply when a person reaches the age of forty. The likelihood of becoming delusional is especially high if you have a history of:
- alcoholism;
- addiction;
- sexual dysfunctions;
- mental illness.
If, due to mental disorders, delusion develops quickly, then in alcohol addicts it develops gradually . So, first the drinker makes claims to his wife after he gets drunk. Later, he begins to give out delusional speculation even in a sober state. Then the patient begins to check literally every step of his wife, making her life unbearable. It comes to domestic scandals and fights. It is clear that their initiator is “Othello”.
In women, the disease develops in parallel with aggression, periodically alternating with depression .
When conducting diagnostics at the time of diagnosis, the doctor discovers that the patient’s blood levels of serotonin (known as the happy hormone) are low. Therefore, she often shouts at her family, looking for reasons to quarrel with them. After such squabbles, the concentration of dopamine (the pleasure hormone) in the body temporarily increases. The patient becomes very vindictive, embittered towards the whole world. Suspecting a spouse of infidelity creates conditions leading to divorce.
What happens next?
Of course, women feel humiliated and insulted: after all, they are suspected of sexual infidelity or, at least, of striving for this infidelity, while they do not even think about cheating. Constant persecution “all over the field” quickly exhausts the psyche, and a year or two after the start of their life together they fall into real depression. The depressive state of a woman, tormented by suspicions of infidelity, is unusually insidious: it creeps up slowly and unnoticed - after all, the jealous person “rolls over” his victim gradually, his suspicions unfold week after week, month after month. And the victim, gradually falling into depression, firstly, does not clearly connect her condition with her husband’s behavior, and secondly, forgets how cheerful she was before she fell under the skating rink of suspicion.
It is the depressive state that prevents the victim from escaping from her partner - she does not believe in herself, does not believe that she can live independently, can provide for herself, raise a child, start a new family, or at least find a permanent friend. She believes that - with all his shortcomings - this and only this man loves her, and he “must be held on to,” and his suspicions and reproaches “must be endured.” “Who needs me like that?” – the patients say in one voice, completely forgetting that just a few years ago they had many contenders for their hand and heart. Trying to escape depression and decreased self-esteem, a significant portion of these women actually start an affair or at least a short-term (one or two) sexual relationship. They have been humiliated so many times that they rightly believe that they have the right to some kind of moral compensation. This is the main paradox of jealousy: the goal of the jealous person is to prevent potential betrayal, but, as a rule, he achieves the completely opposite situation.
Jealousy always looks through a telescope that makes small objects big, dwarfs into giants, suspicions into truths.
Miguel Cervantes de Saavedra
Why does the disorder develop?
Scientists are still debating why symptoms of delusions of jealousy occur. Today there are several theories of its development. Researchers say with confidence that poor heredity plays an important role in the appearance and progression of pathology.
Pathology can also form due to abnormal functioning of any part of the brain . Thus, with a deficiency of any neurotransmitter, normal processes of brain activity are disrupted, and negative reactions such as aggression, depression, and delirium are activated.
Often, delusions of jealousy occur after a stressful situation, alcohol binge, or drug overdose . If the patient has reduced vision, poor hearing, or has a disability, then delusional disorders will become even more colorful and vivid - he will invent something that he actually did not see or hear.
Is pathological jealousy in men curable or not?
Treatment of jealousy begins with a person’s awareness that he has this problem and a firm intention to eliminate it. Since the cause of unconstructive feelings is often childhood trauma, it is advisable to take a course of psychological help from a specialist.
He will help identify the root of jealousy, triggers, and teach the necessary techniques to reduce anxiety, fear, and anger. You should work on your self-esteem and increase it. With a psychologist or on your own - in any case, this is serious work that requires time, labor and desire of the jealous person himself; forcing him to stop being jealous is as impossible as forcibly curing a drug addict or alcoholic.
With normal manifestations of “possessiveness,” the partner can help improve communication, try to understand the motives of the jealous person, minimize moments that create conflict situations (be more frank, avoid certain situations, review the wardrobe for defiant, provocative things in it).
Risk group for the development of pathology
Doctors were able to establish that more often people experience delusions of jealousy who:
- abuse alcohol;
- take psychoactive substances;
- suffer from hallucinosis, paranoid personality disorder;
- have been abused in the past;
- experience difficulties interacting with members of the opposite sex;
- have pronounced sadistic tendencies.
Causes
Modern research in the field of psychiatry does not identify specific factors that may contribute to the development of such pathology. Nevertheless, there are a number of the most common reasons, the presence of which can naturally lead people to disorders.
In psychiatric practice, it is customary to separate the factors causing the syndrome based on gender.
Common reasons that can have a direct impact on development:
- chronic alcoholism;
- heredity;
- stressful conditions;
- depression;
- mental illness;
- pathology of cerebral vessels.
A special role in the development of the syndrome is assigned to chronic alcoholism. The disease begins to develop in a state of intoxication, then attacks of pathological jealousy move to a sober consciousness, but with a distorted reality.
It is also customary to include the following for men:
- problems with potency;
- physical disabilities (height, obesity, etc.);
- small size of the genital organ;
- financial insolvency;
- low social status.
Causes of the disease in women:
- hormonal disorders;
- diffidence;
- fullness, age.
According to Freud's theory, a man is a potential jealous person due to latent homosexuality.
The opponent evokes strong negative emotions in him, which are explained by unconscious attraction. This version has not been proven by scientific research.
There is also Bowlby's theory, according to which people acquire Othello syndrome if there was psychological trauma in childhood. The basis is the relationship with parents. For example, the mother had to fight for a long time for the attention, or upbringing was often based on the expressions “here’s another boy/another girl.” From childhood, such an attitude forms rivalry in a person, the feeling that at any moment someone can become better, steal and take away what you love. In the future, if there is a predisposition to disturbances of consciousness, such a state may become fertile ground for the development of delusions of jealousy.
Cost of services
| CONSULTATIONS OF SPECIALISTS | |
| Initial consultation with a psychiatrist (60 min.) | 6,000 rub. |
| Repeated consultation | 5,000 rub. |
| Consultation with a psychiatrist-narcologist (60 min.) | 5,000 rub. |
| Consultation with a psychologist | 3,500 rub. |
| Consultation with Gromova E.V. (50 minutes) | 12,000 rub. |
| PSYCHOTHERAPY | |
| Psychotherapy (session) | 7,000 rub. |
| Psychotherapy (5 sessions) | 30,000 rub. |
| Psychotherapy (10 sessions) | 60,000 rub. |
| Group psychotherapy (3-7 people) | 3,500 rub. |
| Psychotherapy session with E.V. Gromova (50 minutes) | 12,000 rub. |
This list does not contain all prices for services provided by our clinic. The full price list can be found on the “Prices” , or by calling: 8(969)060-93-93. Initial consultation is FREE!
Features of treatment and expert forecasts
If alcoholic delirium of jealousy is confirmed, the specialists of the medical institution will tell you what to do directly. The disease is characterized by long-term treatment. Therapy is carried out only in inpatient settings in psychological or narcological departments. During treatment, it is possible to use different techniques:
- detoxification of the body to remove toxic substances;
- intravenous administration of vitamins and neuroleptics;
- if persistent and deep delirium is noted, the patient may be put into an insulin coma;
- drug therapy and psychiatrist consultations.
Among the main areas of activity of medical specialists, it is worth highlighting getting rid of alcohol addiction . Discharge is possible only after a reduction in pathological delirium and loss of aggression is noted. However, there are often cases when patients mislead not only their relatives, but also medical workers. They actively demand discharge, claiming that they have completely recovered. At the same time, in order to eliminate danger to the patient’s loved ones, discharge is possible only in accordance with the decision of the medical commission. For three years after treatment, patients will be monitored by psychiatrists and narcologists. In case of exacerbation of delirium, immediate hospitalization is required, including compulsory hospitalization if the patient completely refuses to go to the clinic.
It should be pointed out that the forecasts are rather doubtful, because paranoia can persist even after giving up alcoholic beverages. But thanks to proper therapy and cessation of alcohol consumption, delirium gradually begins to weaken, but rarely disappears completely. Only in 30% of cases after a couple of years is it possible to completely eliminate symptoms (based on statistical data). As you continue to drink alcohol, the symptoms remain fully intact.
How to treat
After diagnosis, the doctor talks with the couple and tells them about the specifics of the diagnosis. For treatment to be effective, it is important to understand what triggered the pathological mechanism for the progression of delusions of jealousy.
If the patient is inadequate and is ready to use force against his victim, he is hospitalized in a psychiatric hospital. Such a person should not be left at home, as the consequences for his family could be very sad.
Therapy is carried out at two levels:
- reducing the risk of domestic violence;
- relief of symptoms of mental disorder.
The patient is prescribed medications (antidepressants, antipsychotics, sedatives) , and is prescribed effective psychosocial programs. Group and individual therapy sessions and cognitive behavioral adjustment can achieve excellent results.
It is very important not to delay treatment of delusions of jealousy until later, since this pathology tends to rapidly progress and worsen. So call the clinic right now - 8(969)060-93-93
When the soul hurts
Mental illnesses worsen in the fall. And along with them - the interest of journalists in the luminaries of psychiatry. The same thing happens in the spring. So at least twice a year, a line of interviewers lines up to see the director of the Scientific Center for Mental Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Alexander Tiganov.
“We must distinguish a bad mood from pathology”
— Change of seasons, meteorological conditions - do they have a direct impact on mental health?
— Seasonal exacerbations of mental illnesses do exist. Not necessarily spring and autumn, there are also summer ones. But we must clearly distinguish a bad mood from pathology. If depression goes beyond a bad mood and is accompanied by loss of performance, motor retardation, ideas of self-blame, sleep disturbance, etc., then you need to consult a specialist. But just a bad mood is not so scary, because there are many ways to lift it.
— What are the causes of seasonal exacerbations? Why spring and autumn? Does the weather affect it?
“It’s difficult to give such a clear explanation.” Mental illnesses, like many others, have their own cycles. For some, it does not coincide with meteorological conditions, and for others, these conditions aggravate the disease. I myself am a spring person - I was born in the spring, spring is always very pleasant for me. I can’t say that I get depressed in the fall, but spring is my season. Which, however, does not mean at all that in the spring I am absolutely guaranteed from mood swings. Office troubles, various kinds of problems in a huge enterprise, which is our scientific center - all this, of course, has an impact. I wake up at three in the morning, don’t sleep, thinking about how to get out of a difficult situation, how to solve this or that issue. When conflicts happen at home and at work, my mood drops, but so far, thank God, it hasn’t reached the point of clinical depression. In general, if a person has been in a joyful mood for decades, then, as a rule, he suffers the first depression at a later age. We say half-jokingly that this is retribution for a carefree life.
— What are the clinical symptoms of depression? How is it different from ordinary mood swings?
— There are very specific instructions from the World Health Organization (WHO) on this matter. The clinical picture has its own characteristics - reduced mood, most often daily fluctuations with improvement in the evening. These are symptoms of so-called vital depression, when melancholy is accompanied by heaviness in the chest and heart area. This is intellectual and motor retardation when it is difficult to work. This is self-flagellation when a person begins to remember how badly he behaved. This includes sweating, palpitations, in men - lack of interest in the opposite sex, in women - cycle disruption. In such cases, we are talking not just about a purely mental disorder, but about a disorder of the whole organism.
— How many people on Earth suffer from depression today?
— According to WHO, more than 350 million people.
- Why has this disease become so widespread?
“I don’t think it has spread that much.” Rather, we have learned to recognize it better. The fact is that depression is expressed not only by the signs that I spoke about. Today there are more and more larvated (hidden) depressions.
- What it is?
— The outstanding Russian doctor Dmitry Dmitrievich Pletnev was the first to draw attention to these depressions. In 1935, he discovered that depression may be manifested not so much by low mood, but by various somatic equivalents. A person has a heartache, insomnia, impotence, he goes to doctors, but they shrug their shoulders. But it turns out that this person has deep depression. One of its main criteria is the abundance of complaints in the absence of objective signs of somatic disease. Larved depressions also manifest themselves in various drives. For example, a person suddenly goes on a drinking binge. And then he also suddenly stops drinking and cannot understand what happened to him.
- What about self-deprecation? “Who am I, and who needs me…” Is deliberate, ostentatious mockery of oneself also a sign of mental illness?
- This is the so-called ironic (smiling) depression. It is expressed in the fact that the patient seems to be ironic about what is happening to him. Sometimes he doesn't even give the impression of being depressed. But this is an extremely dangerous type of depression. Among such patients the risk of suicide is very high. And there are anxious, dysphoric depressions, when a person is in an extremely irritated state. There are also apathetic ones, which are accompanied not so much by depression as such, but by complete apathy and lack of interest in life. Adynamic depression also occurs, where patient immobility predominates. More complex depressions are also observed, in which delusions and hallucinations develop.
A psychiatrist is a friend, comrade and brother
— Why, even with obvious signs of mental illness, our people, unlike Europeans and Americans, rarely turn to a psychiatrist?
— Previously, we were afraid that this would affect our career. If you turn to a psychiatrist, you will never go abroad again, you will not be hired for this or that job. My foreign colleagues, especially Americans, assured me that a psychiatrist is a friend, comrade and brother in any family. This is not entirely true. In the USA, for example, the work of rescuers eliminating the consequences of disasters is highly valued and paid. But to see a fragment of a body, to hear screams when it is impossible to help... This is unbearable. And some rescuers experience severe depression. In such cases, who do they turn to? To a psychiatrist? Never! To a psychologist? Also no. Who is treating? The priest who works with the rescuers treats. “How do you treat if you don’t know either psychiatry or drugs?” - “Yes, I’m coping somehow. You see, if a rescuer goes to a psychiatrist, he will be immediately expelled from the squad. Or if a rescuer turns to a psychologist, he will prove to himself and others that he is a weakling and cannot do his job.” Many people here are also afraid that a visit to a psychiatrist could seriously harm their career. A person suffering from a mental disorder often thinks: nothing, I can handle it myself.
— Is this a dangerous delusion?
- Without a doubt.
“It happens that jealousy is the first stage of delusional schizophrenia”
- Alcoholism, drug addiction - mental illnesses?
- No, they belong to the field of drug addiction. But an interesting study was done. It was carried out on the basis of the psychiatric hospital named after. Alekseev, in a regular department where various patients are kept, including people with alcoholic psychoses. When they began to study these patients, it turned out that alcoholism often begins with the appearance of mental disorders. A person becomes depressed and starts drinking, today - a glass, tomorrow two, then three... There are patients who drink for delusional reasons. A person, for example, claims that he was accommodated in an apartment where the wallpaper was glued with toxic glue. He claims that if he drinks, the poison will be neutralized. This is how alcoholism, associated with psychosis, develops.
— Is pathological jealousy a mental disorder?
— In some patients, one of the first stages of delusional schizophrenia is precisely the presence of jealousy. Sometimes they say about someone: “He is jealous of his wife. Well, of course, she’s so beautiful!” It does not matter. She can be both beautiful and absolutely unattractive - nothing depends on her appearance. Delusional jealousy has its own laws and its own stages of development. It begins, for example, with the fact that there are guests in the family, among them one is timid and shy. The mistress of the house, naturally, begins to look after him. Time passes, and suddenly the husband is struck by a thought: why did she look after him? Then he begins to take a closer look at his wife: she bought a dress, began to go to the hairdresser more often, stays late at work... All this happened before, but now one thing begins to become attached to the other and what the German psychiatrist Birnbaum described as overvalued delirium arises. But jealousy can also be a character trait, a personality trait.
- What about delusions of grandeur? Is it true that it arises from an inferiority complex?
- In psychiatry there is no such term - “delusions of grandeur”. We can talk about ideas of greatness, about overestimating one’s own personality. There is a condition called paraphrenia. This is delirium of grandeur. I am a great scientist, I am an outstanding inventor, I am the most handsome man... And on this basis a pathological disorder begins. As for the inferiority complex... It can arise in people who are shy and lack self-confidence. Sometimes the cause of an inferiority complex is one or another physical defect.
“Better in a special hospital than in a logging camp”
— In Brezhnev’s times, dissidents were declared insane and placed in a mental hospital. Among human rights activists, the term used was “punitive psychiatry.” Have you ever examined such “patients” and given expert opinions on their state of health?
- I had to. I twice participated in the work of the expert commission. And it's not that simple. My teacher, the great doctor academician Andrei Vladimirovich Snezhnevsky, believed that nothing happens by chance in psychiatry. In it, as in mathematics and other sciences, everything is subject to clear laws. So, at one time, Snezhnevsky was reproached for having invented “sluggish schizophrenia” in order to diagnose healthy people who did not agree with the authorities and put them in a “psychiatric hospital” (by the way, I hate this word; a psychiatric hospital is it is the same as any other, and no one is safe from getting there). Sluggish schizophrenia was studied by the prominent German psychiatrist E. Bleuler and a number of American psychiatrists. Director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Washington, Professor Goodwin, during a visit to our.
- I'll ask directly. Those whom you examined because of their, let's say, disagreements with the authorities - were they really sick? Or are you healthy?
— These people suffered from sluggish schizophrenia and were registered. But the whole point is that such a patient absolutely did not need compulsory treatment.
— Were they sent to special hospitals by court order?
- Yes. We wrote in our conclusion that a person needs psychiatric correction in a regular hospital. But the court did not agree with this formulation and rendered its verdict: to a special hospital, for compulsory treatment! There was talk that Snezhnevsky pitied dissidents, and in order to save them from prison, he gave them a diagnosis necessary for placement in a special hospital. This is not true, he honestly fulfilled his medical duty. Although there are good special hospitals. One of them is located near Kamyshin, there is a wonderful chief physician, patients mow their lawns, plant flowers, create libraries, and there is a TV in every room. It’s so much better there than at the logging site.
— What kind of disease is “truth-seeking syndrome”?
— Psychiatry does not use this term. But we understand what we are talking about. There really are people with whom you just can't get along. We had such a patient in the hospital named after. Alekseeva. The sailor served strictly according to instructions, rose to the rank, began to inspect the establishments of the Marine Fleet, and found an insane number of shortcomings in each: someone drank a glass of cognac during working hours, someone spilled something on the deck... And the heads of excellent workers flew. He was promoted again - and he began to write papers for the Minister of Marine. When this truth-seeker was admitted to a psychiatric hospital for examination, the first thing he did was to meticulously look for any disturbances there and write about them to the Minister of Health. He was commissioned, and the further fate of this man is unknown to me.
“Psychoanalysis is already yesterday”
— How do you feel about psychoanalysis?
— At one time, they called me from Literaturnaya Gazeta and also asked how I felt about psychoanalysis. I replied that I was negative. There was silence on the other end of the line, then it was said: “Do you know that Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin signed a decree on the restoration of the Institute of Psychoanalysis in St. Petersburg?” However, I believe that psychoanalysis is a thing of the past. Although in St. Petersburg there is a professor Victor Vid, who works at the Institute. Bekhterev and, in my opinion, is one of the best experts in this method of influencing the patient. Personally, I am not a supporter of psychoanalysis. I believe that patients should be treated differently.
“The hallmark of a genius is not talent, but uniqueness of thinking.”
— Is it true that a genius is, to one degree or another, insane?
— The idea that “genius and madness go together” is not new. Plato also considered creativity “a delirium given to us by the Gods.” There have been a great many attempts to clearly explain how talent differs from genius, but the boundary between one and the other remains not fully defined. I like the formula (I don’t remember who it belongs to): “Talent hits a target that no one can hit, genius hits a target that no one can see.” Thus, the distinguishing feature of a genius is not talent, but uniqueness, unconventional thinking. And insanity, insanity, is characterized primarily by an extreme (physiological) deviation of the psyche from standards. There have been cases when geniuses went crazy, but from this we cannot conclude that there is only one step from genius to madness.
“Our patients may be among the psychiatrists”
— Can historical or natural disasters provoke a mental disorder?
— I was in the USA after the explosion in Oklahoma. I was interested in how many people received mental illness as a result of what happened and what kind of illness it was. Our American colleagues were unable to answer this question. I don’t think there’s a clear answer here. After all, sometimes a natural disaster or a historical cataclysm contributes not to an increase, as one might assume, but to a decrease in mental illness. Because people pull themselves together and mobilize.
— By the scale of mental illnesses and by which of them dominate today, can we judge the mental health of society?
- I doubt it's possible. Average numbers won't tell us anything. I will never forget how, at a scientific congress in Washington, my colleagues asked an Indian doctor for medical statistics: “Give us the average figures.” He said irritably, “I can’t give an average because in Calcutta the average puddle is ten centimeters deep, but every year hundreds of cows die in puddles in Calcutta.” There are a number of factors that influence the average figure. This is the state of psychiatric care, and the detection of patients, and the number of people registered... Not to mention the fact that our patients may be among the psychiatrists.
Scientific center on Kashirka
Alexander Tiganov preserves and develops the best traditions of Russian psychiatry. The Mental Health Center of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, which he heads, is world famous. It conducts extensive clinical and biological studies of the etiology, pathogenesis, psychopathology and clinical picture of such important diseases from the standpoint of theoretical medicine and practical health care as schizophrenia, affective diseases, psychosomatic disorders, and various types of dementia. The new results obtained during the research are actively introduced into psychiatric and general somatic practice and make it possible to improve the quality of life of patients and the level of their social and labor adaptation.
Alexander Tiganov and his students created the theoretical foundations for the classification of mental illnesses, and the prerequisites for creating its domestic version are being developed.
What is a jealous person capable of?
A jealous man strives for complete control over a woman. It seems to him that otherwise she will leave him, and he needs to make it as difficult as possible for her to leave. He demands obedience, sets rules that sometimes reach the point of absurdity, and can also behave aggressively. A man's jealousy towards a woman can be expressed in different ways:
- a ban on communicating with other men - even with his father and brothers;
- a ban on leaving the house alone;
- requirement to give out passwords for social networks;
- installing wiretapping on your phone, tracking systems on your computer, and even cameras throughout the house;
- prohibition to work;
- constant accusations;
- changing behavior for no reason - an outwardly calm person can lose his temper in a second;
- inappropriate reaction to your words, for example, to the mention of a man’s name in a story;
- constant intrusive calls and messages - and, of course, a scandal if there is no answer for too long;
- threats;
- physical violence.
It is important to understand that none of these are expressions of love. True love is based on trust and respect for personal space. This means that all these are signs of unhealthy jealousy.
How to deal with jealousy: advice from a psychologist
Olga Fufaeva, a psychologist at the Russian representative office of the Institute of Remote Psychology, comments on the situation:
“Modern psychology has long recognized strong jealousy as a pathology. This is a model of behavior learned from childhood. Therefore, if you have not done anything wrong to your partner, do not torment yourself needlessly.
If you are faced with strong jealousy from your partner and this causes unbearable discomfort, but at the same time you have decided for yourself that you want to save the relationship, then you need to know how to behave with a partner (jealous). Here are some recommendations:
1. Try to adjust your behavior. Pay more attention to your partner, praise him more often, talk about how much you value him and your relationship. Show tenderness and care.
2. Under no circumstances compare your partner with other men; resist the temptation to use your friend’s husband, your colleague, or even your father as an example.
3. Answer questions calmly. When a jealous partner pesters you with questions about where you were and what you did during the day, be patient and do not show irritation. Describe in detail how you spent the day, what you did, what emotions you received - awareness of your actions will make your partner calmer.
4. If you are late at work, stuck in a traffic jam, or force majeure has occurred, take a minute to warn your loved one that you will be a little later. This way he won’t have to worry about you again.
5. Don’t let your partner know the details of past relationships. Don’t talk about your exes, especially don’t use them as an example to your current chosen one.
6. If you have male friends with whom you periodically communicate, but your partner, due to his jealousy, forbids you, you can try to introduce him to your circle. Since the unknown is always scary and gives your partner another reason to imagine unpleasant events and possible betrayals, meeting friends will help him feel safe and will certainly bring you closer.
These recommendations can help make your relationship calmer and more trusting. But do not forget that your emotional comfort in this relationship and safety should come first. Therefore, if your partner’s jealousy has crossed boundaries when you are risking your health and even your life, think about whether these efforts and your patience are necessary, or will you be happier without constant tension and fear?
Test: when does jealousy become pathological?
We have prepared a checklist by which you can determine the degree of jealousy of your partner. Read it and mark the statements with which you agree:
- My man forbids me to communicate with other men, even with relatives.
- My man asks me for passwords from social networks.
- We only go to all events together; I can’t go anywhere alone.
- When I'm at work, my partner calls me constantly.
- There are no secrets in our relationship.
- I know my man checks my phone often.
- One day my boyfriend/husband made a scandal because I didn’t behave the way he wanted, or even hit me.
- My husband's mood changes so often that I can't track the reasons.
- I don't remember the last time I was alone.
- I can’t talk on the phone calmly; my boyfriend/husband doesn’t even hide the fact that he’s eavesdropping on the conversation.
If you agree with 3 or more statements, it makes sense to pay attention to the problem. Remember that pathological jealousy can lead to serious problems, including physical violence.
