PSYCHOLOGY TODAY | Walk through an airport bookstore, scroll the podcast charts, or listen to a leadership keynote, and it’s easy to reach a simple conclusion: we’re living in the golden age of vulnerability. Yet even as we talk more often about feelings, there’s a simple, seemingly contradictory fact about our times: it can feel harder than ever to ask for help.

In my latest piece for Psychology Today, I argue that there’s an important distinction between saying “I’m struggling” and asking “Can you help me?” The second one asks for time, attention, and follow-through—all of which can be challenging when people are overworked and overburdened.

We’re living in an age when social support is often seen through the lens of scorekeeping. But building a culture of belonging depends on cultivating reciprocity—an ethic that rejects the transactional logic of the market in favour of mutual care and grace.

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