Beware The Green-Eyed Monster - Genitalia Edition

Wow, what a story.  Jealousy rears its ugly head once again, leading to the most incredible of behaviors.  When I used to do therapy with individuals convicted of domestic violence, jealousy was an issue that required significant intervention, because it is a powerful emotion that drives extreme behavior, and because it is difficult to manage.  Part of the problem is that every action a jealous person takes is reinforcing, whether they find the incriminating evidence or not.  If they do, then the response is, "See!  I told you!"  If they don't, the response follows a classic stress-relief pattern. Either way, the jealousy-based behavior (checking the phone calls, spying, etc.) is more likely to be re-enacted, not less, and generally with more frequency and intensity.  This is a topic that begs for a more thorough post at some point, but in the meantime, if you or someone you know has problems with jealousy, don't simply discount it, especially if the behaviors are escalating, or are suffocating, isolating, etc.  Jealousy tends to be a problem that only gets worse over time, unless the person learns how to manage it, then reduce/eliminate it.