Why excessive positivity is bad for your health and mental well-being

There are real benefits to a positive mindset, but the idea that we should always look on the bright side has gone too far. Research into toxic positivity can help restore balance.

Are you struggling with low self-esteem? If so, you may have been told to repeat phrases such as “I am a loveable person, I am a loveable person, I am a loveable person”. Positive chants like this, known as self-affirmations, are said to boost a person’s mood and feelings of worth. You might think that sounds too good to be true – and you would be right. When psychologists tested the effects of this very mantra, they found that it backfired. Those participants who started out with low self-esteem ended up feeling worse. The problem was that they simply didn’t believe what they were saying.

We know that a positive attitude can be good for us and that the right mindset can have a real impact on our health and happiness. But it turns out that we can have too much of a good thing. What those psychologists studying self-affirmations found was an example of “toxic positivity” – the idea that a forced optimistic interpretation of our experiences alongside the suppression of negative emotions can do real damage. The term has become something of a buzzword in both academia and pop culture. Yet despite this, messaging that “happiness is a choice” and “positivity is a mindset” abounds.