During a recent Q&A I did, someone asked if I had ever experienced retroactive jealousy. I had never heard of the term before, so I looked it up. 

Woah… WOW. Yes. It’s all I ever felt and, embarrassingly, acted on in ninety-nine percent of my past relationships.

Even though I’ve never written a blog post using the term “retroactive jealousy,” I realized that I had experienced it, been writing about it, speaking about it, and helping people with it for years. It’s such a cool feeling when you find an actual term for exactly what you’ve gone through, felt and struggled with. It’s empowering to know that it wasn’t just you (it never is) and that you aren’t alone (you never are).

This was a severe and compulsive obsession that I could not control. It reached a point where I’d justify acting in ways that went against what I knew was morally and ethically right. Some people have broken the law, all in the name of retroactive jealousy.

What Is Retroactive Jealousy?

Everyone experiences relational jealousy at some point. However, when jealousy becomes obsessive and starts to affect your mental health, moral code, and quality of life, it becomes retroactive.

Retroactive jealousy is when you feel threatened by (and subsequently obsess and investigate) your partner’s past relationships, exes, experiences, and decisions. Although all of these things are in the past, you feel like they are a front-and-center threat to you and your relationship.

This can manifest in allowing your triggered emotions to dictate regrettable actions. The stress it causes can also affect you physically and sexually. The obsessive thoughts and anxiety prevent you from being your authentic self, and, in turn, it sabotages your relationship.

Whenever I started dating someone new, I would get on social media and immediately switch to FBI-investigatory mode. I’d stalk the exes of the person I was dating to the point that I knew their current relationship status, job, income, interests, and all of their siblings and cousins. I knew their parent’s hobbies; who their sorority sisters were. I even found exes of theirs. 

You name it, I knew it. 

I picked apart their looks, jobs, success level, the amount they traveled, etc. One time, I went to the boutique that the ex of the person I was dating owned. I browsed around and tried to study this woman as much as possible. I felt like we were in a battle; like she still wanted the guy I was dating, and he wanted her.

This couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Looking back, my behavior was creepy and desperate. That was a new low for me. (Sadly, a year later, I dove even lower than that). But I couldn’t see it for what it was back then because I was operating from a place of emotional survival. And when you’re in survival mode, as my dear friend Mastin Kipp explained to me, it feels like you’re always acting from a place of integrity because you’re, quite literally, hanging on for dear life, just trying to survive.

And when that life-and-death energy is at play, everything becomes justified.

No matter what, I always concluded that my partner’s exes were smarter, prettier, sexier, more successful, and all-around better than me in every way. I’d then start to question why my partner was even with me; how they were attracted to me when they had an ex who was everything I wasn’t.

With retroactive jealousy, your relationship can never be a twosome. It is a debilitating triangle of you, your partner, and all the stuff you know (and feel threatened by) but can’t tell your partner that you know. 

There’s no way you could tell your partner. You’d look crazy. But, as humans, we cannot help but communicate who we are. These things always end up seeping through our emotional pores.

So, you do what I used to do. You start asking questions and performing little “tests” to see how your partner responds and if they’re really “telling the truth.” The problem is that this search for “the truth” is endless. You don’t know the full truth about your partner’s past. You only know what you’ve been able to find out through the internet and social media stalking, so nothing satiates your hunger.

And because you aren’t being your authentic self (because of all the stress you put yourself through), you rob both yourself and your partner of the opportunity for your relationship to grow and develop.

It’s also worth noting that retroactive jealousy is not limited to romantic relationships. It can happen in friendships, professional, and familial relationships. 

What Are Some Signs of Retroactive Jealousy?

• You feel the need to snoop through your partner’s phone, computer, tablet, car, desk, etc. When I did this, it wasn’t ever something I thought out. I did it very impulsively. And it was always justified because I was in emotional survival mode. I felt like I had to protect myself and find out everything I could. In my mind, it was self-protection. I was just doing my due diligence. I needed to figure out the truth of what went on/was going on. The problem is that when you’re operating on the gasoline of this level of fear, NOTHING satisfies you – no matter how much to try to tell yourself that “this is the last time.”
• You obsessively think about your partner having sex with their past partners.
• You social media snoop/stalk your partner’s exes and incessantly compare yourself to them.
• You feel terrible about yourself when your partner talks positively about a past relationship or an ex.
• You believe they had a better sexual connection with their exes than you. It’s like you put yourself in a competition with a made-up opponent.
• You wonder if your partner did the same things with their ex as they are doing/have done with you. And the thought of it makes you so sick you can’t be present nor enjoy the moment.
• You are constantly suspicious of your partner, even though they’ve done nothing to break your trust.
• You give your partner’s exes all of these incredible qualities (that you don’t even know if they truly possess) all to confirm your own perceived worthlessness and insecurities.
• The searching/snooping/stalking is obsessive. And because it’s un-satisfiable, it’s endless.
• You use your partner’s past against them to shift the power and gain control because you feel so powerless, unworthy, and out of control deep down.

What Causes It?

Contrary to what your triggered emotions try to convince you, retroactive jealousy is caused by your past – NOT your partner’s.

My retroactive jealousy was caused by un-dealt-with childhood trauma that bred low self-esteem and resulted in anxious attachment in my relationships.

If you’ve been cheated on, lied to, gaslighted, or abused/manipulated in past relationships, it’s only natural that you’ll have anxiety in regard to your partner’s past and being abandoned.

But if you allow that trauma to turn you into a puppet (letting your triggered emotions dictate your actions), you will sabotage the relationship, end up single, and, once again, fill your self-fulfilling prophecy of “I am not enough.” Wash, rinse, repeat.

Retroactive Jealousy Is the Way I Used to Project My Insecurities

I grew up in a very unstable and chaotic environment. And I was disciplined with the possibility of one of my parents “divorcing me,” like they did my other parent if I did not shut up, never question anything, get straight A’s, and behave.

I felt like I wasn’t wanted at times. And after my parents divorced, I felt like they both chose their spouses over me. (My parents did the absolute best that they could. No one had the perfect parent, and no one will be the perfect parent. I do not blame them for a thing, nor do I share this from a victim standpoint whatsoever. I share this to help others feel less alone and heal).

When I took a compassionate look at my past and where I came from, I was able to understand exactly why I was experiencing these emotions and establishing these destructive patterns. I then got rid of everything that was exacerbating the jealousy and was able to pivot from the hell I was putting myself and other people through.

Although I didn’t know of the term “retroactive jealousy,” when I saw it for what it was, it took the electrical charge out of it. It no longer had the power over me that it once did.

How to Overcome Retroactive Jealousy

• Make sure you have a healthy, respectful relationship with alcohol. Don’t use drugs.
• Unless your partner has given you reason not to trust them, you must give them the benefit of the doubt (just like you’d want them to give you).
• Vulnerability is the ultimate strength. Have an honest conversation with your partner. Share your feelings, fears, and concerns in a non-accusatory way. The truth really does set you free.
• Stop any activities that activate you. A client of mine decided to take a shot of spoiled milk every time she went to social media stalk. She could never bring herself to drink the spoiled milk (I am NOT suggesting you do that), and it really helped because she could see that she wouldn’t make herself physically sick (from the spoiled milk) but was making herself mentally sick (from the constant snooping).
• Work on loving yourself. Be who you needed when you were younger and did not have. Get acquainted with your White Horse. And understand that by making these little agreements/promises to yourself and following through with them, you will gain self-love and respect that no one can ever take away. You’ll reinstate your dignity.

You’re not going to read a blog post and magically never experience retroactive jealousy again. But something you read may have sparked something inside of you to hold yourself to a higher standard. To stop engaging in behavior that is beneath you. To hug yourself a little tighter and be grateful that you can redirect, heal, surrender where you need to, and control what you have to so that you can remember who the f*ck you are.

Have some compassion for yourself. Your emotional body is just trying to keep you out of the kind of pain that it still needs to process from your past.

Written by: Natasha Adamo