Toxic positivity is making me feel worse

Thank you. It feels like emotional gaslighting when people refuse to let you just be sad.

Toxic positivity is the overgeneralization of a happy, optimistic state across all situations, resulting in the denial and invalidation of authentic human emotional experience. It is a form of emotional avoidance. Suppressing negative emotions actually intensifies them—a psychological phenomenon known as ironic process theory. True emotional resilience requires "affect labeling"—naming the negative emotion and allowing yourself to feel it without judgment. It is okay to respond to people by saying, "Right now, I am not looking for silver linings; I just need space to be upset."