On the Eve of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrew's Resignation

A reminder to Put End to Toxic Positivity

Below is an article I transcribed from The West Australian’s OPINION section, dated Tuesday, August 24th, 2021

Put end to toxic positivity

by Chrissie Maus

Tuesday, August 24, 2021 | The West Australian - OPINION

It's real life Lord of the Flies living in Melbourne right now, buckling under the pressure of COVID-19 case numbers.

People are going made. It's now very clear that, given the recent riots, when emotions are high, intelligence falls through the floor.

Basketball rings have been taken down off backboards. There is police tape and fearful warning symbols around playgrounds.

It's a $5000 fine for sitting on the swing. God forbid you go down a slippery slope.

Cases that have spent time in the community while infectious are increasing. So is the level of frustration and calls at a critical unprecedented high to suicide prevention service Lifeline.

We need to start treating our mental health as seriously as COVID-19. This insidious disease is upping everyone's stress, anxiety, fear and loneliness to extraordinary levels.

Our communitiy's psychological wellbeing is clearly a concern when there is a six-month minimum waitlist for many top psychologists across the eastern seaboard.

If I come across another poster that says "Keep Calm & Carry On", I'm going to bin it. You can take your toxic positivity somewhere else. Authentic, empathic leadership is what we need right now.

Toxic positivity is hiding or disguising how you really feel. It minimises other people's feelings because they make you uncomfortable.

Toxic positivity is the belief that no matter how dire or difficult a situation is, people must (fake it if you must) have a positive Mary Poppins-style predisposition. Now, of course, there are..

"Toxic positivity rejects difficult emotions in favour of a fake positive facade."

..benefits to being an optimist. However, toxic positivity rejects difficult emotions in favour of a fake positive facade.

Tragic optimism is more my jam right now. This is the search for meaning during tragedies of human existence, and is better for us than avoiding darkness and trying to give out good vibes only through gritted teeth.

There is a bit of radical acceptance involved as no amount of positive thinking will change how damaging the Delta outbreak is. So, now I'm trying to find meaning and sometimes growth, one slow lockdown day at a time.

Last week marked an unpleasant milestone for Melburnians, more than 200 days under some of the world's strictest lockdown conditions.

Many months are fuzzy for me and I struggle to remember much of last year due to the trauma on my brian, and maybe forgetting helps me endure the current pandemic trauma.

The majority of us frame our day around the chaotic 11am briefings to buy some certainty with counterfeit coins.

Some days I feel the walls this 60sqm Windsor apartment closing in on me. Just a side effect for the percentage of us without COVID-19.

The financial and mental toll is paralysing for our businesses and residents, collectively grinding the whole of Melbourne into the ground.

Foodbank Victoria had to close its hamper drive last week because demand was so overwhelming that police deemed it a risk to public safety.

As the general manager of Chapel Street, Australia's largest shopping precinct, I see that businesses are at their wit's end. Overight I've had two business owners message me to advise they are closing their doors for good.

Their mental health is so fragile they've asked not to be named for f ear it may send them over the edge.

One of these business has suffered a 60 per cent downturn and our Government's heartless policy deems them not needy enough for assistance. A 60 per cent downturn and they've fallen through the cracks.

It's absolutely heartbreaking because they didn't meet the 70 per cent downturn threshold. Vicarious trauma is my co-morbidity, witnessing people's livelihoods being destroyed daily. GP Liam Egan of Next Practice Prahran, said he had seen a "concerning number of people experiencing serious mental health challenges right now."

"Almost every patient discloses some form of mental health distress that they are facing," he said.

People in WA seem to very critical of what's going on this side of Oz.

During a crisis we usually come together as a country and I'm not feeling that right now.

We need to draw on our unified strength and leadership. Has that train left the station?

I have worked very closeley with Perth psychologist Rodger Jones out of his Mosman Park practice over many years. He helped me navigate my time in the media and the cut-throat world of my communications career.

He taught me the master resilience skills I mentally need, and thank god he did. I'm not sure that, without his help and the intense work we did over the years, I would still be so together at this point.

I do, however, feel like I'm looking at the world through a windshield that needs a wash.

It's not burnout, as I still have some energy. It is not depression, I don't feel hopeless. I'm just somewhat joyless and "blah". It turns out there's a name for this - languishing.

This neglected Neapolitan vanilla flavour of mental health is dulling motivation and focus across the eastern seaboard right now. It is maybe half of our country's collective feeling for 2021.

I'm definitely going stir-crazy as I languish in a sense of stagnation.

Organisational psychologist Adam Grant said at first friends told him they were having trouble concentrating and workmates reported that, even with vaccination rates on the rise, it was hard to see light at the end of the tunnel.

Call your friends in Melbourne. It's a mess over here.

P.S. There are moments when I think of putting on my runners and swinging my dog Poppy under my arm to make a sprint for the border. This thought is recurring more and more.

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Chrissie Maus is the general manager of Melbourne's Chapel Street Precinct, representing more than 2200 businesses, an award-winning marketing leader and keynote speaker.

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