Another sign [of an emotionally toxic environment] may be a sense of burden, a powerlessness, anxiousness, or irritability when going to family reunions, church gatherings, or our workplace. We usually blame ourselves for such a feeling and resolve to do better later, but the feeling returns and becomes chronic. It is quite possible that what we are feeling is not just our own individual problem — but the shadow of a depressed and wounded communal body whose pain has never been identified and healed.
— Flora Slosson Wuellner, Release