"Admittedly, the advice to be grateful is often good-studies link gratitude to a broad range of positive effects on mental health, well-being, and more. For instance, market research reveals that businesses that prime their messaging with gratitude can move people away from entitled and materialistic attitudes (Lee & Namkoong, 2022). New research also shows that prayers of thanksgiving-rather than prayers of requests-are associated with higher psychological well-being (Fukuromoto & Abe, 2025)."
""Be thankful" can shift from a gentle nudge into a subtle form of control-one that silences real needs, suppresses healthy anger, or keeps us in relationships and situations that aren't serving us. As psychologist Ramani Durvasala warns in It's Not You: Identifying and Healing From Narcissistic People, popular advice to "be grateful and forgive " can be detrimental to healing."
Gratitude has been linked to positive mental health and well-being outcomes. Businesses that prime gratitude messaging can reduce entitled and materialistic attitudes. Prayers of thanksgiving associate with higher psychological well-being than prayers of request. Gratitude can become a social demand that functions as control, silencing real needs, suppressing healthy anger, and keeping people in relationships and situations that do not serve them. Advice to 'be grateful and forgive' can impede healing after narcissistic abuse by minimizing victims' experiences and perpetuating messages of deficiency. Families and friends can act as enablers by urging silence, gratitude, and forgiveness when those responses are harmful.
Read at Psychology Today
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