Denial is the bedrock of mental health

On Hidden Brain, they talked about changing one's narrative to reframe life events. One can use a redemptive framing for adversity, and this improves mental health outcomes. But events are value-neutral. It feels like a form of denial to reframe events in a positive light when they could just as easily be framed negatively.

What are the mental health implications of containing multitudes, of complexity? Of understanding that "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so" (Hamlet)? This event happened in my life. The way I think about it frames it. Should we encourage people to put positive spins on things, knowing it is manipulation, if it makes them feel good? It seems useful to acknowledge that one can go into a negative spiral over events, that it is a question of thought patterns and reactions (basically the whole foundation of cognitive-behavioral therapy), but it feels wrong and deceptive to make everything seem positive.

Related: A Short History of Nearly Everything is so scary. When I read parts of it I thought it should be retitled, "Everything could kill you at any time." If you really think about all the ways you could die at any moment, it's paralyzingly terrifying. You have to put blinders on just to live your life. Anxiety seems like a rational response to the ever-present dangers of existence, but anxiety is a health risk, in itself creating a danger to existence.