While many people strive to be a positive influence on the world and to think and behave with positivity wherever possible, there is such a thing as too much positivity, this is known as toxic positivity.
Toxic positivity occurs when someone is pressured into displaying only positive and happy emotions and repressing any emotion that may be regarded as negative. This creates an atmosphere where people who are going through hard times or experiencing trauma feel unable to talk about their experiences. Toxic positivity is often dismissive of peoples emotions and can lead to isolation and unhealthy coping methods.
One of the big problems with toxic positivity is that you may be a part of it without ever meaning to or realising. Examples of toxic positivity include phrases like “positive vibes only” or “don’t be a downer”, even something as simple as “you’ll be fine” can be toxic to someone trying to express their emotions. When phrases like this are used, it makes people feel like they are unable to say anything that isn’t totally positive, causing them to shut down. If these phrases and attitudes are wide spread it creates a culture where people are unable to express their true feelings and where they feel as though they are failing if they are unable to be happy all of the time.
As humans, we feel a wide range of emotions and all of them are natural and need to be expressed. When we stop someone from expressing their emotions, we trap those emotions inside, leaving people unable to deal with them in a healthy way. A lot of the time these emotions then come out in other ways including self medicating with alcohol or drugs or self harming, People who are on the receiving end of toxic positivity can end up feeling as though they are wrong to feel negative emotions in the first place which may mean that they become extremely hard on themselves and hold themselves to impossible standards. Toxic positivity can also cause problems for the person delivering it as they may internalise the idea that negative emotions are bad or shouldn’t be expressed, leading them to hide their own emotions find their own coping mechanisms
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