4 Reasons You Should Submit To My Advice Column

Hey all,

I’m starting an advice column on Thought Catalog. I’ve often written about mental health issues and sometimes gotten letters back, often from this article on depression that I still recommend as a read.

Here’s why submitting to my advice column might be a good fit for you.

1.

A lot of people could use an extra ear or an outlet, the paradoxical need to be anonymous while being recognized.

That’s what I’m here for.

What’s going on in your life? Are you in a weird relationship? Are you dealing with anxiety? Do you have both general and specific ~twenties angst?~

There can be something freeing about outsourcing your worry;

2.

Of course, I can’t promise the advice is going to be great. But you don’t have to follow it. The good news about getting advice is you’ll have a gut reaction; either it will sound right, in which case you just got outside confirmation of your suspicions, or else it won’t in which case, well, you deep down already knew what you wanted to hear.

If my advice is good, you’ll be psyched because you recognize it, and it sounds better coming from somebody else. That means it’s what you already knew, given words and form by a writer from afar.

If my advice isn’t good, you’ll know there’s something else I’m missing. And, when looking into that, you’ll be able to recalibrate what your emotions are.

Either way, getting some feedback can push the unspoken to the open, and that’ll make it easier to process and figure out, for your own sake.

3.

Don’t forget; it can be fun to write stuff down and to get an answer back.

Back in the day, people have been so interested in this that they invented Pen Pals way back when; they actually wrote stuff by hand to send to a single, solitary rando.

If you found this while you’re just surfing the internet, you may as well become a player instead of just a spectator. Send me an email; it doesn’t even have to be dramatic. In fact, it can be about boredom. Do I know any good TV shows? I do! And that counts for advice!

Reach out and holler. After all, it’s kind of fun.

4. 

Sending it out may be good for you.

When you’re overwhelmed, there can be a dominant joy in exhaling it, or putting it down on (virtual) paper. To quote my own article about why I overshare, 

“First, you get to wrestle your own fears into something you can defeat. What was once water that drowned you is a wave you can ride; crashing, yes, scary, sure, but it has form, it has shape, and now, just now, you’re on top.”

It may be kind of gauche to quote myself, but talking stuff out has always helped me out. Why not take that chance yourself?

***

If you’re down, here’s what you do.

• Email me your problem or question: I may edit it for clarity or length.
• Tell me if you don’t want this published. If you don’t, I’ll assume you do, and that’ll be a whole thing.
• Include the name you want it under. Is this “anonymous?” “Casey?” If left undecided, I’ll go “first name, last initial.”

Once that’s all down, send an email to GoAskLev at gmail dot com. I am especially interested in talking about anxiety, depression, dating, ambition, and fun stuff, like how you should be making your hamburgers.

Come and holler at me.