So, @mailonline published this article about Toxic Positivity, where I talk about the impact of Dad& #39;s death

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-8889965/Why-looking-bright-BAD-you.html

Despite">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/ar... what& #39;s implied, I had no idea about this. I wasn& #39;t contacted any point

Basically, the Mail exploited my grief. For free content/clicks
I have indeed written about this, for @cosmicshambles

https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blogs/deanburnett/toxic-positivity

But">https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blo... you know what? That was MY choice. To do so on my own terms, for a platform I trust, that& #39;s crowdfunded

The world& #39;s biggest paper copying it for profit is NOT something I& #39;m OK with
It& #39;s been about 6 months since Dad died. I& #39;m & #39;coping& #39;. My Nan died recently too. Both were traumatic. I& #39;m managing OK considering. I find talking about it publicly helps, when I& #39;m up to it.

Does that give a major platform carte blanche to hijack my grief for free content?
Now I& #39;ve get emails from strangers wanting advice about how to & #39;get over& #39; a father& #39;s death. And voicemails from radio shows saying "We read *your* article, would you like to come on and talk about it?"

I could easily have been in a headspace where this would be devastating me
The Mail article mentions I & #39;wrote& #39; about my experience. Do they *link* to, or even mention the original source article? No. They copy the content verbatim, so obviously know all about it. A conscious and actively self-serving choice was made to hide the source.
If they& #39;d linked to or acknowledged the original article, or even linked to one of my books, at least I& #39;d have got *something* from it. But no, they exploited my grief, and actively denied me any chance at benefiting from them doing so.

As you might guess, I& #39;m not OK with this
The worst thing is, if they HAD asked me if they could use what I& #39;d written, I& #39;d have said yes. It& #39;s otherwise a GOOD article, which I agree with, that puts #ToxicPositivity in front of a readership that& #39;d most benefit from learning about it

But... they stole my grief to do it
And you know what, the author of the article, one Marianne Power, is a MENTAL HEALTH writer/speaker, or whatever label you prefer

She& #39;s done books and TEDx talks about it, and her own experiences

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWO-NbYmmFg">https://www.youtube.com/watch... https://www.theguardian.com/books/2018/aug/29/help-me-marianne-power-review">https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...
An interesting approach, pushing her own efforts to help people& #39;s mental health, by actively throwing mine under the bus. For profit/attention

Maybe it was the Mail& #39;s instruction, not her choice. But you know what? If it was me, I& #39;d have refused to do it.
Thing is, I& #39;m ALSO a mental health writer. I know how this should work. I have contributions from people in my new book all about it. I always get consent and check they& #39;re OK with things. Because it& #39;s #mentalhealth, you don& #39;t get cavalier with it, if you really care
And if I haven& #39;t been able to reach the person who& #39;s public contribution I use in my work, I always do everything I can to properly source/reference it. It& #39;s the bare minimum of what you should do, as far as I& #39;m concerned

Sadly, seems others don& #39;t feel that way.
And I& #39;ve already had several people say "It& #39;s the Mail, they& #39;re always doing shit like this". Yeah, I know.
But you know what; maybe if enough people give them grief (ironically) about it, they might consider not doing it any more? Worth a go, at least.
And yes, what they regularly do/say about immigrants/minorities/LGBTQI* etc. is far worse and more blatant than what& #39;s happened to me.

But maybe they& #39;re more likely to pay attention if the balding straight white cis guy takes them to task? I& #39;ll happily use my position for that
But in any case, that& #39;s not how it works. I& #39;ve said this many times in many contexts; just because someone else has it objectively *worse*, it doesn& #39;t mean your own pain and problems are somehow diminished.

I had my grief hijacked by the Daily Mail! And I& #39;m not ok with that!
If you have followed this thread and feel sympathy for my position, I appreciate that. Not sure what you can do though. The fact is, I can deal with it. But that this is the case is pure good luck. I could well have been in a position where this would have ruined me for days
The Mail, or the author, didn& #39;t know I was in the sort of headspace where I could manage this. They made no attempt to find out. In an article all about good #mentalhealth, mine was of no concern. I doubt they even considered it at all.

And that, I feel, is vile
If some good can come from this, can anyone who sympathises link to and share the original @cosmicshambles article, and maybe support the patreon?

https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blogs/deanburnett/toxic-positivity

https://cosmicshambles.com/words/blo... href=" https://www.patreon.com/cosmicshambles 

That& #39;s">https://www.patreon.com/cosmicsha... how I *meant* to share my grief, after all

/end
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