Green With Jealousy? - Underlying Jealousy and Envy

What is jealousy and how would you know if you were conflicted with this seemingly dangerous aliment? Wikipedia defines jealousy as "an emotion by one who perceives that another person is giving something that he/she wants or feels is due to them (often attention, love, respect or affection) to an alternate." Princeton classifies it as "a feeling of jealous envy (especially of a rival)
zealous vigilance;" and the University of Berlin equates the jealousy of sexuality as "A boundary-setting custom developed for limiting sexual access to those relationships that a group defines as important. On an interpersonal level it is a felt threat from an outsider to an important relationship in which one is involved and produces feelings of anger and fear."

While some of us will debate the causes and reasoning behind jealousy, one should always be weary of the individual that is displaying this emotion in high degree. According to The Commonwealth Fund, Health Concerns Across a Woman’s Lifespan: 1998 Survey of Women’s Health it estimated the range from 960,000 incidents of violence against a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend per year to three million women who are physically abused by their husband or boyfriend per year. More and more individuals, men and women, are falling victim to the "Green Eyed Monster".

According to statistics derived from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, family violence accounted for 11% of all reported and unreported violence between 1998 and 2002. About 22% of murders in 2002 were family murders.

Of the nearly 500,000 men and women in State prisons for a violent crime in 1997, 15% were there for a violent crime against a family member. Now of course these numbers represent from 1998 to 2002 and are not 100% accurate due to factors such as misleading information given through surveys, police, hospital, state and federal reports, it does represent a very clear and concise image of the dangers jealousy presents.

It is also very important to be able to distinguish the differences of jealousy and envy. Both seemingly the same but are infact, two different emotions. Much like twins but one is female and the other male. Both look alike, but have their own qualities, signs, and dangers. Envy, for the most part, is defined as being an emotional attachment at a minor level (eg. One being envious of a friend's bike but will not harm the friend to obtain it), while jealousy is the emotional attachment peaking obsession to have what one has (eg. One wanting the girlfriend of another and will try anything to "make her his".)

If you, or a loved one, suffers from extreme jealousy, please seek medical advice. Allowing this form of emotion to remain contained could not only destroy you, but possibly someone you love!

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