What the fuck is this emotion? This feeling, this god damned feeling, jealousy. I've experienced jealousy concerning every girlfriend I've ever had. I am, clearly, a jealous guy. But why? I wouldn't consider myself an especially insecure individual, however, thoughts of betrayal constantly haunt my mind. The slightest affection shown between my girlfriend and any other guy sets off alarms in my head. It can drive me fucking nuts. I guess my jealousy could be defined as an unreasonable pessimism in regards to intimate relationships. Is this feeling common amongst others? Not necessarily angry at my jealousy, merely trying to understand and come to terms with this trait. Forgive me for being greedy but I'm going to post this thread in both the general and the spiritualality and philosophy threads. I want the philosophical responses from the latter thread, I also seek the general thread because I am a man that appreciates instant gratification, and I wanna discuss this issue now damnit!
Unreasonable pessimism is a good description of what your feelings of jealousy feed on. Jealousy is a lot like Frankenstein's monster, self constructed in your head, from parts that look all right, but don't necessarily work together well. Take your mistakes, and suspicions from one relationship, fear and angst from another, sew them all together with the thread of social networks, and charge them into life with hormonal imbalance...and voile! And yes, this is a very common problem. Do you consider your relationships to be really serious at this point, or are you just playing around yourself? Because sometimes jealousy is a mirror of our own feelings of trustworthiness, or lack thereof. Can your significant others trust you implicitly?
Ego... you think there are people better than you out there and you suspect your girlfriends might find them. You (possibly only on a "sub-conscious" level) feel like you own your girlfriends and that they aren't allowed to cross some imaginary boundary you've created for how they interact with other men. Remember, jealousy is generally perceived as a negative quality... so maybe your jealousy actually pushes women away from you towards others in turn making you more jealous and pushing them even further away. If you truly Love these women, you should just let them go... why would you want them to be less happy with you than happier with someone else? Jealousy might not be an emotion to "come to terms with" but rather downright squash. I don't see much good use for Ego. Good point. I think this is where many of the negative traits we push on "other" people come from.
Is it possible to completely erradicate(sp?) this emotion? Or is it a permanent part of one's personality..
It might possibly you just haven't found the right person or you're not ready. It could be ego. I struggled with this particular demon for a long time. Most of my relationships were plagued by this emotion and it was the demise for most of them. It ate at me until I finally exploded into a psychotic rage. There really is no other way to explain it. I took some time away from dating to find myself. I couldn't understand why the fuck I was so jealous of everyone. In the end it came down to the fact that I just wasn't ready emotionally for any kind of deep attachment. Now the problem is taken care of and I can have healthy relationships. I really hope you can find the root of this evil and annihilate it, my friend. Believe me, once it is all taken care of, it's like the weight of the world is gone.