A friend and Jealous, this statement might seem ironic to you. It’s no joke. As it happens in the real world. Research supports this claim as 51% of respondents have experienced friends with benefits relationships. But people don’t know how to deal with it. If that resonates with you, then this article is for your benefit. You will get to know how to deal with jealous friends.

No doubt jealousy can cause many damages. However, if handled correctly it not only saves your relationship but also improves it. The constructive ways shared in this article will help you to deal with your jealous friends effectively. There’s no harm in trying out these methods.

So, without any ado, let’s begin.

Signs

How would you know your friend is jealous? Many signs indicate that your friend is jealous. These will help you identify whether your friend is jealous of you or not.

Major signs include that they don’t support you rather discourage you by saying negative words.

They’re not going to congratulate you on your wins. Instead, it will make you feel low about them as if your success is not worthy of celebration. No matter how big your achievement is. Another sign your friend is jealous of you is to try to get ahead in any way. Most of the time they’re insecure and have low self-esteem.

How To Deal With Jealous Friends

Once you’ve seen the signs it’s time to do something about it. The first is to abandon them. But that’s not always necessary. Sometimes you can even strengthen your relationship by handling the issue well. Communicating effectively and having certain boundaries can solve the problem. So, let’s find ways to deal with jealous friends.

Realistic Insight To Your Life

You might wonder why I attract jealous friends? One of the main reasons is that your friends assume your life to be a perfect one. As research reveals individuals who have unrealistic friendship views are more vulnerable to feeling jealous.

However, you can cope with this issue by giving them a real insight into your life. Showing them that your life is not all about butterflies and roses. They’re struggles and problems in your life too. Break the assumption of your perfect life they had in their mind. It will help them relate to you and understand that there is nothing like a PERFECT life.

Praise Them

You might think why do I get jealous of my friends having other friends? The answer is that it’s your insecurity that leads you to think so. In case, your friend is going through the same thing you can assist them in getting over it by praising them. Let’s be honest here who doesn’t like to be praised.

But the purpose here’s not to just praise for the sake of praise. Rather make them believe in themselves and their abilities. As a study reveals that poor self-esteem relates to friendship jealousy. In other words, if a person has poor self-esteem he/ she might get jealous of their friends. Once they have confidence in themselves it will improve their self-esteem. Eventually, mitigating the jealousy from the relationship.

Help Them

How to deal with jealous friends? Help them. Yes, you heard it right HELP them. How? The best thing to do is improve their self-esteem as we’ve discussed earlier. Make them realize their self-worth. What are their strengths and capabilities, how they can put these into work to achieve greater things in life? Or else self-discrepancy can provoke envy and jealousy.

Other than this you can help them achieve their dreams. Discuss their plans and what they want to do in their life. Set the goals to achieve them. If possible, help them in the process of achieving their goals. Working together on their future will eliminate the jealousy and make you both connect well.

Make Them Part of Your Success

How to deal with jealous friends? One way to decrease the jealousy of your friend is to make them a part of your success. Involve them by asking for their advice and opinion. Make them feel heard and respected. This way they’ll feel valued. Hence jealousy will be automatically reduced. Otherwise, your friend might suffer loneliness and social exclusion.

Confront Them

Bearing all their behavior silently won’t make any difference. The key to the relationship is effective communication. The better you communicate, the better your relationship. When you feel how to deal with jealous friends? Confront them. Try to openly discuss with them. This will help you understand their position.

Sometimes it’s just misunderstanding that’s destroying your relationship. Things will get clear when confronted and discussed. Even if not you can see where the problem is laying. What made them think so? Recognizing the root cause of problems will help you solve them.

Encourage Healthy Competition

A jealous friend is a dangerous enemy. It’s one way to look at it. But a bit of change in view can turn around things. Why not consider this friend as a competitor? How will this change the situation? Let me explain.

When you consider your friend as a competition it is no more jealousy but healthy competition. If taken positively, competition can help you both achieve more. As it will motivate you to put more effort and improve your performance. There’s a need to look at the constructive side of things.

Motivate Them To Take Action

If you’re an achiever or have some fame in your field. Then, this could be a reason for your friends getting jealous. As research conducted shows that jealousy is positively correlated to popularity.

Now how to deal with such jealous friends? Make them Popular too. Just kidding. Of course, that’s not in your hand. But what you can do is to motivate them to do something in life. Because most probably they think it’s all a game of luck. And that life isn’t fair with them.

You have to play a role to broaden their perspectives. So, they can look at things differently. Tell them how putting in effort and taking action has helped you reach this point. And they can do the same by taking action. This will shift their focus and they’ll put their energy in a positive direction. Might be this is all they need. Guess what, they’ll no longer be jealous of you.

Give Them Space

Why do I attract jealous friends? Maybe it’s time to have some distance. Sometimes it’s important to have a break. Giving space will make you both realize whether keeping this relationship is worth it or not. Research proves selective ignoring relates to reduced jealousy.

Once you’re done trying everything else, give this method a try. Step back temporarily and see what happens. If nothing gets better. It’s high time to call off such a relationship. As it will do no good to you instead will drain your energy.

Conclusion

Let’s face it that it’s not your responsibility to cure a jealous friend. But you should at least try once. So, you don’t have to regret it later on. And have this peace that you’ve put effort into saving the relationship. All the tips shared above will help you deal with jealous friends. Still, if the situation doesn’t get any better. You should move on and not waste time and energy on such people.

If you’ve any other tips to add to this list, do share them in the comment section.