The Grey Matters  Blog

Everything you need to know about anxiety, depression, trauma, PTSD & CPTSD

So what is Toxic Positivity? Toxic positivity is the excessive and ineffective overgeneralisation of a happy and overoptimistic state in any situation- denial, minimisation and invalidation of genuine emotional experience.

Of course, even the tiniest threads of hope can help you pull through challenging thought spirals, moments of anxiety or difficult circumstances like now. Perhaps, you may think, I’m not feeling as bad as my brain is making me out to be today. Perhaps life isn’t as catastrophic as it feels right now. 

But positivity isn’t the best way to help other people, it can have a damaging effect if they are looking for support. 

What we are going through IS hard. There is NO silver lining! 

Non-toxic: “This is very hard, but we will get through it”