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Ways to Fight Depression & Jealousy

Depression and jealousy go together like milk and cookies, only they aren't sweet at all. These destructive emotions can destroy relationships, cause problems at work and generally decrease the quality of your life. Realizing that jealousy and depression are emotions that aren't always based in reality will help you fight them---and getting these two emotions out of your life will make that fight well worth it.

  1. Self-Esteem

    • Work on building your self-esteem. Jealousy and depression can arise from feelings of inadequacy. If you feel confident in yourself and your abilities, you won't have a reason to feel jealous or depressed over the accomplishments of others. High self-esteem also helps people not feel threatened by a partner's potential infidelities, as a person with good self-esteem will not accept infidelity or take it personally. To develop the kind of self-esteem that will help you fight jealousy and depression, pay attention to how you talk to yourself. Do you tell yourself you are stupid when you make a mistake? Mentally, do you give yourself the same breaks you give others? Besides paying attention to self talk, take some time to think about things that you are talented at and good things your do for others. Write them down. Remind yourself every day that you are a person of value.
      Stop comparing yourself to others. Comparing oneself to others is a major cause of jealousy and depression. The problem with comparing your life to someone else's is that you can never see the entire picture. The person you are comparing yourself to may appear to have the perfect partner, the perfect body and, indeed, the perfect life. Privately, this may not be the case at all. Think about how many envied celebrities suffer from drug addiction, spousal abuse and bankruptcy.

    Gaining Perspective

    • Talk to someone about the jealousy. Talking to a trusted friend, family member or counselor can help put your feelings in perspective. If you are jealous over a single issue, this may be all that you need to gain reassurance that your jealousy is unfounded. It also helps to recognize the source of your jealousy and depression. If you have a background in which you grew up being unfavorably compared to other people, you have learned to feel jealous for reasons that are likely irrational. Besides talking about it, journaling can help you determine the root causes of your jealousy and depression.

    Changing Thought Patterns

    • Change how you think. Both jealousy and depression are caused by your own negative thoughts about a situation. Enlist the help of a cognitive behavioral therapist and work on identifying negative thoughts that trigger jealousy and depression. Once the thoughts have been identified, you can work on eliminating them. Eliminating these thoughts will also eliminate the jealousy and depression. A study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry demonstrated that 10 out of 13 individuals with morbid jealousy were helped by cognitive therapy. It is a promising technique for cases of jealousy that may seem intractable.

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