Welcome to episode 290 of Live Happy Now.

It's no secret that here at Live Happy, we're big fans of positivity.

So what's all this talk about toxic positivity?

This is your host, Paula Phelps, and this week we've invited author and therapist, Dr. Lauren

Cook, to talk about this new backlash

to positivity. Toxic positivity is a form of happiness that can actually damage personal and

professional relationships. So Lauren is here to explain what it is, why it's so harmful to us

and our loved ones, and what we can do to overcome it.

Lauren, welcome to Live Happy Now.

Paula, thanks so much for having me.

I'm so glad I get to be here with you today.

Yeah, this is something I wish we had been able to talk about sooner, but we're talking about it now because obviously we are big fans of positivity here.

So I was really intrigued when I heard about toxic positivity.

And I wondered, to start this off,

can you explain what you mean when you say toxic positivity?

Yes.

So toxic positivity, it's definitely been making the rounds on social media right now.

It's a very hashtagable word, if you will.

But essentially, it's this idea of it often comes from a really good place when we're trying

to say something positive to a person. But especially when a person is in a place of pain or

suffering, that really can be received as invalidating or hurtful or dismissive.

And so toxic positivity is this notion of almost being blind to the suffering that someone

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