Are You Feeling Suicidal?
If you or someone you know is suicidal Dial 2-1-1 or 9-8-8
for immediate help!
Multiple languages available:
Marque 2-1-1 para asistencia en español
Rele 2-1-1 pou asistans an kreyòl
We know you are hurting right now, but you don't have to go through this alone. This page contains some suggestions for things you can do right away to help yourself get through the immediate crisis and have a chance to find other solutions.
Talk
Talk to someone who has experience helping people in your situation:
A crisis or suicide hotline like 211
A private therapist, counselor, or psychologist
A community mental health agency
A school counselor
A family physician
A religious/spiritual leader
Think of Alternatives
Develop a list of things that you can do when you are in crisis. When you find yourself getting overwhelmed, go down your list and do each thing until you are able to go on. For instance, your list might include:
Do some deep breathing exercises. Count to ten while breathing.
Take a hot bath.
Call a crisis hotline (keep the number with you and by your phone).
Eat your favorite food.
Watch a movie on TV.
Read a magazine.
Write in a journal.
Call friends or support people (keep their numbers with you and by your phone).
Go for a walk.
Your list should contain many items that help you to calm down, and may not be like the list above at all. The important thing is that it is useful to you.
Click here for more calming activities
Don't Self-Medicate
Avoid using drugs and alcohol when you are feeling desperate or in a crisis. Although it is tempting to try to use them to try to numb painful feelings, they can make your emotions more volatile, and affect your judgment. Using drugs or alcohol while you are in crisis will greatly increase your risk of hurting or killing yourself impulsively, even though you may not have fully decided to do that.
Give yourself today.
The option of killing yourself isn't going to go away. It is a choice you can make tomorrow or next week or next month if you decide that's still what you want. When you are feeling so bad that you want to kill yourself, the thought of just surviving the days ahead can seem exhausting, overwhelming, and unbearable. So try to focus on just getting through today, not the rest of your life. Your coping ability is greatly weakened right now. You may not be able to imagine getting through this -- but your thoughts can play tricks on you when you're in crisis. So don't try to handle thoughts of the future right now; just make a decision to get through today. Today may be painful, but you can decide to survive it and give some other options a chance, at least for a day.
Ask for Help
Remember that however alone you feel, there are people who want to talk with you, who want to help. Call a crisis line to talk with someone like that right now. In the Palm Beach area, dial 2-1-1, 24 hours a day. If you are located elsewhere in the United States, call 9-8-8, which will route your call to a hotline near you.
You may also wish to visit some of the links for Suicide Prevention Resources.
You Are Not Alone
After an attempt, one of the most powerful things to know is that you are not alone. You may have never felt this way before— but you are not the only one who has felt the way you do now. Knowing how others have made it through may help you learn new ways to recover. In this spirit, the Lifeline asked persons who have survived suicide attempts to recall what helped them make it through their darkest moments. Hopefully the rewards they later found will inspire you.
Ashley’s Story
From ages 17 to 21, Ashley made five serious suicide attempts. “I felt like I was never going to change, I was constantly going to be a disappointment to myself and others,” she says.
She has bipolar disorder and it took her several years to figure out that her medication wasn’t working. Thinking back, she wishes she would have known more about how her illness was affecting her. On top of that, she was married to a man because she felt that if she admitted that she was gay her family would disown her.
One day the feeling of not wanting to be alive had become so overwhelming that she couldn’t function. Ashley checked herself into a mental hospital, where she was able to have her medication adjusted and also find the solace and strength to come out about her sexuality. “Although it was extremely hard and I did lose a few people, I’m so much happier overall,” she says.
Now 31, she admits that there is truth to the maxim that ‘It gets better.’ “Sometimes life just sucks and sucks and sucks you down into the muck. And it feels like quicksand and like you’ll never be happy again. But then, one day, the muck dries out and you can feel yourself able to move forward again. So you keep trying and keep pushing and eventually, you get out of it. Sometimes you fall in, but you can always get back out.”
Chad’s Story
Chad thought the world was better off without him in it. He felt hopeless and thought that people in his life, even his daughter, would have a better life if he no longer existed. He thought about it and rationalized it so much, he believed it was the truth.
“No matter what you say, at that moment, there is no rational thinking. That no amount of reasoning can convince that person that what they are thinking is not rational,” he says. Chad works as a paramedic and sees life and death everyday. On the day he attempted suicide, his fellow paramedics had to come and rescue him. It hit them pretty hard to see Chad in so much pain, but their support and the tightknit bond they have formed help get him through.
Now Chad knows he means so much to his friends and family, and especially to his daughter who he adores watching grow up. “The world had more in store for me. There are countless lives that depend on me in the future.” Chad often has patients who are suicidal themselves. “It is completely different hearing things from someone who knows what they’re going through than someone who doesn’t.”
Joe’s Story
Joe felt like he was living in a nightmare that would never end. “It felt like the only thing I could control was if I lived or died. It was this feeling of overwhelming sadness and defeat. I thought I was just dragging down my family and friends and rationalized that they would be better off without me since I was such a drag,” he said.
Connecting with people who understood him helped Joe get to a place where he felt calmer and in control. He started having coffee with a professor at his university to talk about what was happening in his life. “She was one of the few who knew what I was going through and walked with me during the dark days,” he says. On one of those dark days shortly after his attempt he was taking a walk through Pittsburg and came across a painting of an anchor with the words ‘Know Hope.’ “I was filled with this sense that I was going to not only survive this depression, but soon I was going to thrive in ways I couldn’t even imagine,” he says. “From that moment, it was game on. In fact, I have an anchor tattoo on my side to symbolize always knowing hope, even in the dark moments.”
He didn’t know it at the time, but he would soon make a group of friends that would help him feel a sense of community. “I won the friend lottery this past year at college. We all lived on the same floor last year and it just clicked. We have so much fun and there is almost always nonstop laughter and love. Sure, we have sad days but we get through them together.” Since his attempt he’s also come out as gay. “My sexual orientation played a big role in helping me get through the darkness of depression.”
And when he is sad, he knows that there is a reason he is here. There’s a reason you are here too. “The world needs you to stick around. I have full confidence that you are going to get through this. Getting past whatever is making you feel suicidal is a hard challenge. It takes a lot of time and energy. You are going to get knocked down a lot, but eventually you’re going to become so pissed and stubborn and you’ll want so badly to get better that you’ll call on courage you didn’t even know you had to stand up again each time you are knocked down by depression. When you do finally crawl out of the valley of darkness that you are currently stuck in, you will be greeted by a beautiful vista. And it will be so amazing.”
Are You in Need or Know Someone that is?
If you know someone who might be in need of assistance, please share this web page and encourage them to call 2-1-1 or Get Help Now