Toxic Positivity
Toxic positivity is the act of avoiding, suppressing, or rejecting negative emotions or experiences. This may take the form of denying your own emotions or someone else denying your emotions, insisting on positive thinking instead. Although setting aside difficult emotions is sometimes necessary temporarily, denying negative feelings long term is harmful because it can prevent people from processing their emotions and overcoming their distress. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with showing positivity, optimism , and gratitude —those traits help humans flourish. Positivity only becomes problematic when it functions to reject negative emotions—if someone responded to a disclosure of distress, for example, with “It’s all for the best, “Just try to be positive,” or “Good vibes only!” Toxic positivity describes a pattern of behavior; it’s not an official psychological term or diagnosis. It’s also not without controversy; some believe that the term can be overused to t...