It’s just about web legislation that, if you happen to search around on-line, you’ll in all probability discover one thing to substantiate your worst suspicions. Your ear is likely to be sore since you went swimming yesterday, but it surely may additionally imply you’re going deaf or have a mind tumor. There’s at all times one thing to ship us right into a doom spiral.

“Rebecca Syndrome” is, in some ways, a product of this Twenty first-century affliction. The psychological phenomenon—which has been round for years however is presently seeing a surge of curiosity on social media—was named after Daphne du Maurier’s 1938 novel, Rebecca, wherein the heroine develops an obsession along with her husband’s lifeless first spouse and imagines that she’ll by no means stay as much as her. Psychologists outline it as pathological jealousy, with victims continually evaluating themselves to their companion’s ex.

Sound acquainted? It’s one thing we’ve in all probability all accomplished to some extent—that’s, spending time fascinated by, perhaps even worrying about, a companion’s ex. Uncommon is the one that doesn’t need to know something in any respect about the one that got here earlier than them, and if you happen to actually need to know, you may simply google it. A fast search, or 20, can reveal the place they stay, work, go on vacation, and, after all, how they appear. After which, having discovered this all out, we naturally are inclined to really feel discombobulated by it. Are they extra profitable? Extra engaging? Essentially higher than us?

It’s simple to spiral. Earlier than you recognize it, you may end up trying up the feminine colleague your companion at all times appears to say, the lady that they had an unrequited crush on in school, their first kiss. And if you happen to uncover that your companion continues to be liking their photos or commenting on their posts… effectively, then what? Your mind needs to leap to the worst conclusion, the identical approach it did about that earache.

Right here’s what worries me: the mindlessness of my reactions on-line. Might I let you know the very last thing I preferred on social media? Completely not. Do I do know whether or not it was posted by a person, lady, or somebody I feel is engaging? Nope. I click on and touch upon all types of issues that I like or agree with. I hardly ever think about how they may look if somebody (my husband) have been to have a look at them out of context or seek for “patterns.”