Advice columns: my weekly drip of self-help

I just can't quit you

Photo by Towfiqu barbhuiya on Unsplash.

When I was trying to crawl out of the black hole of a bad breakup, I read every Dear Sugar letter and answer going back to 2008. Whatever the topic of the letter was, I mined Steve Almond’s, and later Cheryl Strayed’s, responses for any words that would fortify my heart and soul. Some people would have turned to a religious text for such comfort; I needed Sugar. Every letter contained a little piece of what I was feeling—grief, loss, betrayal, hopelessness, anger, loneliness—and many phrases from the answers still rattle around in my head today.

I’m not alone in my enjoyment of and occasional reliance on advice columns; they’ve been a newspaper, magazine, and now Internet staple for over a hundred years. Online versions and podcast variations have allowed the letters and answers to expand into lengthy ruminations and reflections that take us into the life and mind of the “agony aunt” as well, a la Heather Havrilesky’s

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