TOXIC POSITIVITY

 

Toxic positivity is the belief that no matter how dire or difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset. While there are benefits to being optimistic and engaging in positive thinking, toxic positivity rejects all difficult emotions in favor of a cheerful and often falsely-positive façade. Toxic positivity involves dismissing negative emotions and responding to distress with false reassurances rather than empathy. Toxic positivity or positive toxicity is dysfunctional emotional management without the full acknowledgment of negative emotion.

Positive and negative emotions should match the appropriate situation. This is viewed as healthy psychologically. However, toxic positivity is criticized for its requirement to feel positive all the time, even when reality is negative.In her 2022 book, Bittersweet: How Sorrow and Longing Make Us Whole, author Susan Cain describes "tyranny of positivity" or "toxic positivity" as a cultural directive that says, "Whatever you do, don't tell the truth of what it's like to be alive".

Cain said that, historically and especially in the nineteenth century, boom-and-bust cycles led not only to reverence for successful businessmen, but also to attributing lack of success not to external circumstance but to a failure of character.Cain documents this perceived failure of character as being reflected in the evolving definition of the term "loser".The result is a culture with a "positivity mandate"—an imperative to act "unfailingly cheerful and positive, ... like a winner".

 Toxic positivity arises from an unrealistic expectation of having perfectly happy lives all the time. When this does not happen, people "can feel shame or guilt" by being unable to attain the perfection desired.Accordingly, positivity becomes toxic when a person rejects negative feelings even when they are appropriate. The concept of "tragic optimism", a phrase coined by the existential-humanistic psychologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, has been suggested as an antidote.

Medical News Today tells us that Toxic positivity is an obsession with positive thinking. It is the belief that people should put a positive spin on all experiences, even those that are profoundly tragic.

Toxic positivity can silence negative emotions, demean grief, and make people feel under pressure to pretend to be happy even when they are struggling.

The research around positive thinking generally focuses on the benefits of having an optimistic outlook when experiencing a problem. Toxic positivity, by contrast, demands positivity from people regardless of the challenges that they face, potentially silencing their emotions and deterring them from seeking social support.

• asserting after a catastrophe that “everything happens for a reason”
• brushing off someone’s concerns by saying, “it could be worse”

Some strategies for avoiding self-imposed toxic positivity include:

• recognizing negative emotions as normal and an important part of the human experience
• identifying and naming emotions rather than trying to avoid them
• talking with trusted people about emotions, including negative feelings
• seeking support from non-judgmental people, such as trusted friends or a therapist

ACK:WIKI,Medical News Today,Susan Cain