Straight answers to the questions people type into Google late at night. One question per page, with sources.
Tonight: write the thing down, or say it out loud to a helpline, a warmline, or an AI that will listen without judging. This week: pick one low-stakes place where you'll see the same faces twice. Having no one to talk to is common, it's rarely permanent, and it's fixed by small repeated contact, not by one big conversation.
4 min read
Say what you need before you start: "I don't need advice, I just need to get this out for five minutes." Keep it to one thing, not the whole week. Ask how they're doing when you're done. And spread it out: the same friend at every low point is the one thing that actually wears people down.
4 min read
Yes, modestly, and mostly for things that are stuck. Forty years of studies on expressive writing find a small average benefit for mood and health, larger when you write about something specific that keeps coming back, and close to zero when you write about everything in general. Fifteen minutes, a few days in a row, about the one thing. That's the version that works.
4 min read
Written by the person who builds Lucy, with sources at the bottom of each piece. Lucy isn't a therapist and these aren't medical advice. If you're in crisis, call or text 988 in the US, or read how Lucy handles hard moments.