What is Toxic Positivity and Why is it Harmful?

What is toxic positivity, and why exactly is the "good vibes only" mantra harmful to your health?

Toxic positivity is the belief that no matter how difficult a situation is, people should maintain a positive mindset. This can be incredibly harmful, because it creates a pattern of denial of any negative emotions –– and bottling up these feelings can cause memory issues, anxiety, depression, high stress.

In this week's episode of How 2 Deal, we're breaking down toxic positivity and sharing exactly why negative experiences are important to growth.

TikTok creators featured in this video:

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[PinkRose]

Basically this seems to be saying, it’s okay to cry and feel sad, or have other emotions other than smiley face all the time. That’s life. Joy is different than being in a constant state of happiness.

[bwabygirl]

it's okay to feel. everything is not going to be butterflies and rainbows all the time and that's alright.

[MisSamIvee]

Thank you guys so much for putting this up. I was having issues at work. Due to Covid and some people passing as a result. And toxic positive people told me that stress shouldn’t happen and I need to be grateful. I distanced myself from those people, saw my therapist and validated my feelings.

[theaterpup]

I'm right there with you. I've found the more positive I try to be at night, the more nightmares I end up having! Sometimes you need to get all the negative stuff out in the open in order to purge it. I had a friend who was obsessed with force positivity, and ironically she became quite the toxic person, scolding people for bringing her precious vibe down.

[sharlharmakhis]

I loved my grandmother very much but if Dad (her son) throws her 'If you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all' phrase at me to invalidate my feelings ONE MORE TIME then I will scream
Nana please haunt your kid into better behavior

[lauriepierce]

Thank you! If you only knew what it looks like through The eyes of a 61 year old, with daughters who like to live in this toxic world of positivity. Smh.
My oldest got mad at me because I shared with her feelings I had when I was at a very low point with my health. And took care of myself with her covert narcissistic grandmother. She sees me as the bad guy! I am viewed as the bad guy 😥

[DamyanTenev]

I prefer the depressed "negative" ones to the happy "positive" ones, because they will atleast tell something authentic, philosophical and intellectual, but the happy ones constantly repeat 2, 3 patterns, go by learned behaviour and are death inside

[NilaMatters]

I wish companies would stop mashing up TikToks and posting them on YouTube - I want more original content. If I want to watch TikToks I’d be on TikTok

[alphagirlgirrr]

how to stop it thou.if yu are sad in school people will try to cheer you up but after a while they leave and you will just feel even sadder because you are focusing on the negative emotions

[TheCreativeLifeStudios]

YES!! Thank you!! I wrote an entire blog post about this trend in the Christian community.

[TOracle]

I used to think this was fake, because my introduction to it was from people who were clearly expressing toxic negativity. Why is life so complicated?

[tonywalton]

Good luck not being EXTREMELY POSITIVE in the

[melissadixon]

You had me and then you lost me when you included a clip suggesting that suppressing your feelings gives you cancer. A page taken directly from the toxic positivity playbook! (And an oversimplified misreading of the study mentioned, I looked it up.)

[apoorvapatwardhan]

Okay who edited this video....because no