A New Toxic-city, coming your way..."Warning, warning, warning!"

Narrowly defined, now broadly applied: At least in my world, the world of clinical psychology that is. Wherein lots of time is spent helping people in their various relationships, an increasing number throughout the past decade or so, the ones that used to be referred to as "sub-par" or even "unhealthy" or now, especially for the younger set, defined as "TOXIC!" -- something (some body) to stay away from, due to it's...well, toxic (or "poisonous"!) nature, I would assume. While growing up we started hearing about some of the waterways being infested with various chemicals, many of which we eventually learned occurred "naturally", as in from breakdown of stuff in nature, the traces of which got absorbed by the environment--ranging from the soil, to the waterways, even for us, in this region, the "Great Lakes" and then, winding their way even into the seas, oceans. Which at lower levels of concentration, remained relatively harmless, but if they reached certain levels, studied rigorously by the EPA and other environment experts were deemed "unhealthy" for consumption, even exposure, such as going "in for a dip" in the case of E.coli ("gross me out!" was our cry). Many contaminants, of course, the ones that could become more toxic if left unaddressed, could found more plentiful around what used to be called the local dumps...and now, similar to the word "toxic" have also found new apps, relationship-wise...at least metaphorically speaking...

The new dumping grounds: As in "trauma dump" -- the persistent oversharing of personally traumatic experiences with people who may not be ready (or interested) to receive the information. The rate of overexposure no doubt increased by social media. If done too often could easily lead to you, the over-sharer, being termed a bit toxic yourself, "off-putting!". But if done in more digestible bytes, that can be diluted, then it may be at least tolerable. In any case...

Caution called for: In both the use of such terms, and their application in your own personal interactions...as you don't want to become a burden. In earlier times, especially in the fall. when we were allowed to do it with leaves and debris to rid our neighborhood with such stuff (not now, with NIMBY!) was termed by our grandparents, as a "slow burn". When done deliberately, in concentrated areas, could actually be part of an environmentally friendly approach to preventing larger forest fires, thereby conserving them for future gens. But, then we started seeing more ads regarding not throwing trash out of car windows and such ("litterbugs!") --especially lit cigarettes ("can't you hear Smoky the Bear, you moron!") if thrown in the wrong direction, could start a "dumpster fire"!  Which is a new-ish way to describe what used to be known simply as "a catastrophically bad situation"...worded now, via more drama driven social media...which can easily lead to...

Over-exposure..."I'm so over it, this toxic relationship!" The description of which has become an area for me of "sensory defensiveness!", so much so that I would vote, this coming fall, at the time that words and phrases may fall out of favor, be endorsed as those we won't any longer toss out so casually, those that I would vote to "toss out with the trash", "kick to the curb"...hopefully outside of city limits, where it can do less harm, regardless of the origin or level of this new so-called "toxicity". Exposure to which could easily leave you feeling "down in the dumps"...

Don't say I didn't warn you...well before Earth Day arrives.