![]() "In all honesty I'm very humiliated to have Othello syndrome," Charlotte tells me. This is likely because many sufferers feel ashamed to talk about it. When Googling it I was only greeted with medical definitions and the odd sensationalist tabloid headline. Othello syndrome is still relatively unknown. Read More: The Perils of Pooping While Dating They must deal with the source of this uncertainty to deal with jealousy, contemplating the origins of each anxious thought." "Those suffering have a world view that men are not to be trusted, which may be based on experience or observation. ![]() He also mentioned that to overcome the condition, you must first recognize it and then tackle it from the perspective that it is irrational. In one of the best-known cases of Othello syndrome, a woman banned her partner from looking at pictures of women in magazines and even forced him to take a lie detector test every time he left the house.Īccording to Professor Drydon, the partners of those with Othello syndrome should instead reply, "I love you, but I'm not answering your questions." Constant and incessant reassurance does more harm than good. The same goes for those who bow to their partners' illness, taking lie detector tests or easing their worry with rehearsed responses. The problem is that such behaviors only perpetuate the condition. In the first years I would argue with my partner a lot, and accuse him daily of cheating.Īt a time when keeping tabs on our partners is all too easy, monitoring their Facebook statuses, Tweets, and Instagram images social media has become a quick route to finding relief from any paranoia. The internet doesn't exactly help anyone obsessed with doubting their partners, with a survey by the charity Scope last year showing that social media sites are making users feel "ugly, inadequate and jealous." In the most extreme cases, Othello syndrome has led to people killing their partners before committing suicide. Left untreated, there's the chance that sufferers could spiral into ever more violent and unpredictable rages over such thought processes. Jealousy involves a desperate search for evidence that you'll never believe." "It could even be things like your partner being polite to the opposite sex. "It's fuelled by any kind of perception of a threat to your relationship that is surrounded by ambiguity, particularly at a time when you're already feeling unsure about your capacity to hold a relationship. Photo by Brianna Morrison via StocksyĪccording to Windy Drydon, the professor emeritus of psychotherapeutic studies at Goldsmiths University of London, those suffering from morbid jealousy have an intolerance to uncertainty and constantly crave reassurance. She stapled all the pages to the walls in front of me, saying to him, 'Look at your whores now.' She would accuse my father of wanting to sleep with anyone who was even slightly attractive, real or on television."īoth men and women suffer from Othello syndrome. I can remember her finding Playboy magazines in a new house we moved to and thinking they were my father's. Morbid jealousy is something that she became acquainted with in her childhood. ![]() Rachel, 31, is a private health care worker from Georgia, US, and suffers from the condition too. "I knew what I had was bound to be a mental disorder because it wasn't normal in any way, so I was happy to be able to name it." Read More: How to Have the Gentle Sex Your Doctor OrderedĪfter months of dealing with such paralyzing anxieties, Charlotte researched her symptoms and stumbled across Othello syndrome. Sometimes I even thought it would be best for my partner to be unfaithful, because then I wouldn't have to wait for it to happen." "The pain and depression it caused me felt like perhaps it wasn't worth going through. Her delusions of jealousy got so bad that she would often try to end the relationship. The symptoms began small, but the small paranoid thoughts grew into full-blown breakdowns over believing my loved one was hurting me." I am not jealous of other females, and I'm very confident in my appearance and abilities, so I'd say that I was developing an irrational fear of infidelity or abandonment. "The symptoms seemed to come out of the blue. For 21-year-old Charlotte, a student from the UK, Othello syndrome started during her first serious relationship.
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