What makes “Toxic Positivity” different from a healthy attitude?
Influencers and self-help gurus promote positive psychology that may hurt.
Have you ever reached out to friends or relatives after a hard day or year to be told “don’t be discouraged” or “everything happens for a reason”?
Maybe you entered your boss's office to gripe and saw a new sign on the door that read “Positive vibes only!” Or you've seen innumerable self-help books, workshops, and TikTok gurus promising a wonderful existence with a positive affirmation.
The idea that the right mindset and attitude may make you happy and successful is tempting. Self-help gurus may make inflated claims, but you may wonder, “What’s the harm?”
However, the urge to remain optimistic despite all hurdles threatens our personal and collective well-being. Thus, some experts label modern culture's fixation on cheery concord in all situations "toxic positivity."
My mentoring internship experience was a clear example of poisonous optimism. My boss thought negative thinking caused illness. He advised individuals to ‘cleanse’ themselves of negative thoughts and memories and keep positive to stay healthy.
Our supervisor belittled another intern after she announced her cancer had returned during a group mentoring session: “You keep bringing this stuff up, don’t you!” The intern left, devastated, never to return.
Toxic optimism wasn't sudden. Positive thinking is likely useful. A whole field, ‘positive psychology’, studies these benefits. Positive and optimistic people are less worried, depressed, and healthier, according to research. Positive people are appealing, and the social advantages are crucial to well-being.
Positive psychology conclusions have been criticised as too simplistic by researchers. Understanding that positive psychology interventions assist mentally healthy persons is crucial.
Thus, positive psychology may not be as effective as cognitive behavioural therapy for persons with severe psychological difficulties or life situations.
Positive thinking taken to extremes and believed to solve all problems is especially dangerous. Unfortunately, millions of individuals are receiving this oversimplified optimism message.
With their latest gimmick, the lucky girl mentality, and the hero tale of overcoming adversity through determination, online influencers promote this superficial form of positive psychology. Many of their followers see such images as the ideal existence.
Internalising these idealised norms of positivity may lead people to believe that their normal responses to life's unavoidable bad experiences—bereavement, job loss, epidemics, and relationship failures—are inappropriate.
They may adopt experiencing avoidance practices including denial, repression, or avoidance of challenging ideas and feelings. It's fantastic to smile through a challenging meeting or reframe a scenario to fix immediate concerns, but we all need to stop and confront our continuing challenges and problems.