Everyone has experienced jealousy at some point in their life. There is nothing to be embarrassed about, it is a natural emotion that is tough to ignore, especially during difficult situations. Take dating for example; you’re in a relationship and your partner has a lot of friends that are the opposite sex. They see them on a regular basis and this upsets you because you are afraid one of them might take him/her away from you, this is a form of jealousy.

In basic terms, jealousy is described as having a sense of fear that you will lose something or someone. So what people do is try and prevent themselves from losing what they got. This can lead to them taking precautionary measures because this emotion can cause depression and disappointment if the outcome is negative.

So if someone is jealous of you, they may try and get in your head and control your emotions since they cannot control theirs. Below are 7 signs that someone may be jealous of you.

Fake Praise: A jealous person will not have any problems giving you compliments, but once you leave their sight, they will turn their back on you and put you down to their peers. They probably do not like confrontation, so they will never tell you to their face that they are jealous, instead, they will pretend like they are proud of you. So just keep your ears open!

Moderate Your Success: The second you achieve any success, someone who is jealous will always try and downplay it. They will do everything in their power to try and prove that it is not a big deal. The reason they do this is that they do not have this type of success to fall back on, so the only way they will get any satisfaction is to convince others that it’s not important.

Brag About Their Success: They are the total opposite once they achieve any success. They will do everything in their power to flaunt their success, especially while you are celebrating yours. The reason behind it is that they get a sense that you are more important than they are, so they have to try and keep up.

They Imitate You: Take it as a sign of flattery, someone who is jealous of you will often try and do everything you do. They will walk the same way you do, try and dress the same way, they may even go as far as trying to talk the same way as well. This could get annoying at times, but the best thing to do is accept it. They obviously think that the way you go about your life is a successful way, so embrace it.

They’re Very Competitive: Psychologist Melanie Greenberg states that jealous individuals will either be arrogant or insecure and will want to prove that they are superior to others. So this leads to them being very competitive. You might be thinking that a competitive edge is healthy, and you would be right if the outcome was a friendly win. But a jealous person is out to embarrass people and brag, and there is nothing worse than a “bad winner.”

They’re Happy When You Fail: Because they hate when you have success, it is only natural that jealous people will be thrilled to watch you fail at something. They will never say it to your face, but deep inside they are enjoying it. In my opinion, it doesn’t make much sense. If you are trying to replicate someone so you can have the same success as them, wouldn’t you be disappointed when they fail, since what you are essentially copying didn’t work?

They Love to Gossip: As I mentioned earlier, jealous people will often pretend they are proud of you, but the second you leave, they will be running their mouth to anyone that will listen. They will try and target people that you have a good rapport with because those people respect you and they wish they had that same respect. So they will try and ruin it with negative comments about you which could include false rumors.