When people achieve positive things in life, there’s almost always someone else overlooking their success with jealousy. What’s even more unfortunate is that this person could be someone close to you. Nonetheless, this is a part of life, and you can prevent this from degenerating into intense conflicts by getting this person out of you life quick. Here are some telling signs that could help.
Lack of Support
Continuing from how friendships should be mutually supportive, jealous friends will sometimes withhold support or enthusiasm for your goals and dreams. Whereas genuine friends are supportive and encourage you to pursue your ambitions wholeheartedly, jealous friends might dismiss your ideas or offer lukewarm responses to your plans, almost as if they are scared to push you to succeed even further.
Gossiping About You
It’s not kind for friends to gossip about each other, so if you hear your friends talking behind your back, they may be doing so out of jealousy. Otherwise known as tall poppy syndrome, spreading rumors or sharing your personal information with others indicates a serious lack of respect and envy. Trustworthy friends aren’t interested in gossip, leaving you to handle your personal matters with care and discretion.
Reluctance to Celebrate Your Success
Unfortunately, if your friends are jealous of you, they’ll not only minimize your achievements, but they’ll be reluctant to celebrate them, too. They may even avoid acknowledging them altogether, completely failing to join in the festivities. It’s a sad situation to be in because true friends share your joy and will be genuinely happy to celebrate your accomplishments with you.
Backhanded Compliments
As Verywell Mind points out, a major sign of jealousy among your friends is if they frequently give you compliments that are masked by subtle digs. Phrases such as “You’re so lucky that you don’t have to work hard to look good” can indicate underlying envy. Genuine compliments are supportive and free of negativity.
Minimizing Your Achievements
When your friends downplay your successes, attributing them to luck rather than your hard work, this is another clear sign of jealousy. Comments such as, “Anyone could have done that,” attempt to undermine your accomplishments purely out of jealousy. Meanwhile, true friends will celebrate your achievements alongside you and will never attempt to minimize them for their own self-esteem.
Competitive Behavior
If you have friends who are always trying to compete with you, trying to one-up your experiences and successes, that’s a clear sign that they’re jealous. You’ll notice that they turn every conversation into a comparison, showcasing their achievements in an attempt to outshine you. This isn’t how a supportive friendship should be; they involve mutual support, not constant competition.
Unnecessary Criticism
True friends know that constructive criticism is well-intentioned, so they’ll only offer it in ways that are genuinely helpful. This is in contrast to a jealous friend, who will relish giving you unnecessary criticism, usually without being constructive. They may pick apart your choices, appearance, or actions, for no apparent reason or motive other than bitterness.
Imitation
If you notice that your friends are starting to copy your style, interests, or habits, the reason is obvious–they want to be more like you. While imitation is sometimes flattering, it can also indicate a desire to compete against or emulate your perceived advantages. It’s unusual behavior, as genuine, healthy friendships will respect each other’s individuality and personal boundaries.
Exclusion from Group Activities
Another clear sign that your friends are jealous of you is if they start excluding you from group activities or gatherings. They’ll organize events without inviting you or even or avoid spending time with you altogether. The reason for this is simple: they’re intimidated and, ultimately, jealous of you, making it difficult for them to be around you. That’s their problem, though, not yours.
Visible Discomfort with Your Success
Along with failing to celebrate or encourage your achievements, jealous friends will also become visibly uncomfortable when they see you doing well. While your supportive friends will listen attentively and share your happiness, the jealous ones will seem uneasy, lack confidence, and may even attempt to change the subject when you share good news.
Sabotaging Your Efforts
While this is extreme, don’t put it past a jealous person to attempt to subtly sabotage your efforts, such as by gaining intentionally bad advice or discouraging you from pursuing opportunities. They may undermine your confidence or create obstacles to your success just to make them feel better about themselves. These kinds of people are not friends you want around you in life.
Enjoying Your Failures
Not only will jealous people try to make you fail, but they will also relish the moment, genuinely enjoying your struggles. They’ll likely react with a smug expression or attempt to make jokes about your misfortunes, showing that they’re not a true friend, who would always offer empathy and support during difficult times.
Frequent Arguments
Good friends don’t argue too often as they have a mutual understanding of each other, so if you notice an increase in disagreements from a certain friend, it’s possible that this is a hidden sign of jealousy. This is because they become more irritable and confrontational when seeing your success, unlike your true friends, who respectfully communicate, even when you disagree on something.
Avoiding Compliments
Because they are scared of raising you up even higher than you already are, jealous friends will actively avoid giving you compliments and insulting you if they get the opportunity. They know that if they downplay your accomplishments or ignore your positive attributes, they will feel better about their own disappointments, a highly toxic trait that you should avoid at all costs.
Inconsistent Support
True friends offer consistent and unconditional support for their friends, whereas those who are jealous will only be there for you when they need you. When you could do with advice, they’ll be quick to withdraw their support, fearing that helping you will turn you into an even stronger person.
Showing Off
If you ever notice a friend who is constantly showing off or bragging about their achievements to you, consider why this is. Ultimately, it’s probably because they’re trying to compete with you out of jealousy, seeking validation by highlighting their successes. Everyone likes to receive validation, but healthy friendships find a balance and don’t focus on one person or the other.
Lack of Genuine Interest
It’s a sad fact that some people will start to show a complete lack of genuine interest in your life, and it’s all because they are jealous. They already feel intimidated by your success and ashamed of their own in comparison, but instead of asking for help, they act like you’re the problem, pushing you out of their life.
Passive-Aggressive Behavior
One of the most classic traits of a jealous person is passive-aggression; they’ll rarely be rude directly to your face, but they’ll happily make subtle remarks, such as through sarcasm, backhanded comments, or silent threats. These behaviors will inevitably cause tension and discomfort in the friendship, but the good news is that you really don’t need such people around you.
Resentment of Your Relationships
It’s very common for jealous friends to resent the relationships of other friends, as it’s something they have yet to achieve for themselves. It doesn’t matter if it’s a romantic, professional, or platonic relationship; seeing you happy makes your jealous friends bitter, so they’ll express resentment when you spend time with others. Hopefully, it will be obvious who the real friend is in this situation.