If You’re Having Suicidal Thoughts
For Survivors of Suicide Attempts
For Mental Health Professionals
For More Information about Suicide and its Prevention
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For Immediate Help with Suicidal Thoughts
If you are in immediate danger of acting on suicidal thoughts or are in any other life-threatening crisis, please call emergency services in your area (9-1-1 in the U.S.) or go to your nearest hospital emergency room.
Hotlines in the U.S.
All hotlines listed below are free and confidential.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
Call 988 or 800-273-TALK (8255)
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline is open 24 hours a day, every day. Services are also available for veterans, and for Spanish speakers.
877-870-4673 (HOPE) Call or text
Samaritans Helpline is available 24/7.
800-604-5841 Call or text
According to the site’s webpage, “BlackLine® provides a space for peer support, counseling, witnessing and affirming the lived experiences to folxs who are most impacted by systematic oppression with an LGBTQ+ Black Femme Lens. Call BlackLine® prioritizes BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color).”
866-488-7386 – a hotline for LGBT youth
You can also text the Trevor Project’s hotline at 678-678 or chat online here.
U.S.: (877) 565-8860
Canada: (877) 330-6366
Designed for transgender people, the Trans Lifeline is staffed by people who are themselves transgender.
(800) 267-5463
Set up for police officers, staffed by retired police officers who volunteer their time, this hotline provides crisis intervention 24/7.
Warmlines
According to Mental Health America, a warmline “is a phone number you call to have a conversation with someone who can provide support during hard times… Warmlines are free and confidential. They’re different from crisis lines or hotlines, which are more focused on keeping you safe in the moment and getting you connected to crisis resources as quickly as possible. (That doesn’t mean you can’t call a warmline when you’re in crisis—a warmline may even be able to help you find the best place to go for crisis resources, or help you mentally prepare to seek out more formal treatment.)”
For a list of warmlines in the U.S., see the Warmline Directory.
International Hotlines
The above hotlines are based in the U.S. You can find a list of international suicide hotlines here. It is maintained by the International Association for Suicide Prevention.
Text
Crisis Text Line – 741741 (U.S.); 686868 (Canada); 85258 (UK)
According to Crisis Text Line’s web site, “Every texter is connected with a Crisis Counselor, a real-life human being trained to bring texters from a hot moment to a cool calm through active listening and collaborative problem solving. All of Crisis Text Line’s Crisis Counselors are volunteers, donating their time to helping people in crisis.”
Online Chat and Email
This Reddit community has almost 500,000 members (as of March 2024). The site is very sensitive to the needs of people with suicidal thoughts; it doesn’t permit posts that contain superficial reassurance, religious proselytizing, negative stereotypes of suicide, encouragement to end one’s life, or advice on how to kill oneself. Instead, the community is intended to nonjudgmentally help people through a suicidal crisis.
E-mail Samaritans
Note that the Samaritans international website states that people who send an email typically receive a response within 12 hours. The site also notes that names are immediately removed from emails, and emails are deleted after 30 days.
The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline also has chat available, 24 hours a day. To use the service, go to 988lifeline.org/chat/.
This site offers an opportunity for nonjudgmental, supportive discussion about chronic suicidal thoughts, with others who have experienced them as well. It is part of the site ChronicSuicideSupport.com.
International Suicide Prevention Wiki
You’ll find here lists with dozens of sites, in addition to the sites above, where a suicidal individual can discuss their problems via instant messaging, chat rooms, email, text, and online support groups. The site is ideal for someone who does not want to talk with someone on the phone about their suicidal thoughts. It offers healthy options for receiving help. (I say “healthy,” because unfortunately danger lurks on many Internet sites, where “pro-suicide” folks actually encourage suicide.)
The Trevor Project, which reaches out to LGBT youth, provides instant-messaging chat on Mondays and Fridays, from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern standard time.
Other Online Resources for People with Suicidal Thoughts
This online handbook provides information and food for thought for suicidal individuals, with material addressing what to do when suicidal, how to make sense of suicidal thoughts, and ways to decrease suicidal thoughts and prevent more suicidal episodes. (Sponsored by Simon Fraser University in Canada.)
Healthline’s Suicide Prevention Resource Guide
This guide contains resources and information.
This site was created by Douglas Bloch, the author of books such as Healing from Depression: 12 Weeks to a Better Mood and When Going Through Hell… Don’t Stop!
This site, a project of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, contains personal accounts of people who have seriously considered suicide or attempted suicide. The people come from all walks of life – gay and straight, military and not, teen and adult, and so on – and though their suffering has been great, their survival is inspiring.
For Friends and Family of People with Suicidal Thoughts
Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do
This book, by the website’s author Stacey Freedenthal, is just what the title sounds like: a treasure trove of tips on how to help someone with suicidal thoughts. You don’t have to be a therapist or psychiatrist to help!
Information and Support After a Suicide Attempt
This booklet by the VA is geared toward family members of veterans who survived a suicide attempt, but the information largely is applicable to all attempt survivors and their families. The guide contains good advice on talking with children about a suicide attempt of a family member, separated by age groups: 4-8 year olds; 9-13 year olds; 14-18 year olds.
How to Help Someone who is Struggling
This page by the Samaritans provides advice on how to help someone you care about who may be considering suicide.
Warning Signs for Suicide Risk
Verbal signs, physical changes, new behaviors, and triggering events linked to suicide are described here. (Sponsored by the Samaritans.)
After a Suicide: A Practical and Personal Guide for Survivors
This booklet begins with information about the practical logistics immediately following a suicide, including details about a possible autopsy, cleaning of the home if the suicide occurred there, organ donation – and more. The second part of this booklet addresses the emotional aftermath of suicide bereavement, including common reactions to the suicide of a loved one, as well as the process of grieving.
Alliance of Hope for Suicide Loss Survivors
This site contains abundant information about the experience of losing a loved one to suicide. It includes a blog, recommended books, memorials for people who died by suicide, and a community forum. The site states, “In our forum, survivors can contact others with similar losses, share their stories and discuss the many facets of healing from loss by suicide. It operates like a 24/7 support group, with a team of trained moderators and a mental health clinician who contributes regularly.”
This blog for survivors of suicide loss is authored by Franklin Cook. His father died by suicide almost 30 years ago, and since then he has served as a voice for suicide loss survivors in numerous national roles. A highlight of his blog is the Survivor Outlook section, which features first-person accounts of other suicide loss survivors. The Grief After Suicide blog also contains numerous other resources, including lists of suicide loss survivor websites, support groups, online discussion forums and chat rooms.
SOLOS: Spouse-Partner Loss Group
This Facebook group describes itself as “a suicide grief support group for spouses-partners who have been through loss of a husband/wife, fiance, boyfriend/girlfriend, or life partner to suicide.” (SOLOS stands for Survivors of Loved Ones to Suicide.)
A Handbook for Coping with Suicide Grief, by Jeffrey Jackson
Of all the online guides to surviving the suicide of a loved one, this may be the most comprehensive. The guide includes information on the “emotional rollercoaster” that follows a suicide, myths and facts about suicide, suggestions for coping, narratives from other survivors, and inspirational words for surviving, coping, and healing after the loss of a loved one to suicide. (Sponsored by the American Association of Suicidology.)
Lists of Support Groups for Suicide Loss Survivors
This site, sponsored by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, provides a directory for support groups nationwide for people who have lost a loved one to suicide. Some support groups are led by a mental health professional, while others are led by participants themselves.
Healing Conversations: Personal Support for Survivors of Suicide Loss
The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention trains people who have survived a suicide loss to reach out to others newly bereaved by suicide. The volunteers will visit new survivors and offer peer support, at the survivor’s request. Click here to request an in-person or remote visit.
For Survivors of Suicide Attempts
After an Attempt: A Guide for Taking Care of Yourself After Treatment in an Emergency Department
“Today may feel like the hardest day of your life,” this brochure states. It directs information to someone who very recently attempted suicide and is now leaving the emergency room, but in fact much of what it states about the recovery process, safety planning, and coping applies to anyone who has attempted suicide or still considers it. (The brochure was developed by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.)
This site contains a rich collection of personal narratives by people who have survived a suicide attempt. The site’s creator, Dese’Rae Stage, has traveled the U.S. photographing and interviewing people who have been suicidal and lived to tell about it. As the site states, “Live Through This is the first known project of its kind, and the most extensive catalog in existence of stories told by suicide attempt survivors, for suicide attempt survivors. Its mission is to change public attitudes about suicide for the better; to reduce prejudice and discrimination against attempt survivors; to provide comfort to those experiencing suicidal thoughts by letting them know that they’re not alone and tomorrow is possible; to give insight to those who have trouble understanding suicidal thoughts and actions, and catharsis to those who have lost a loved one; and to be used as a teaching tool for clinicians in training, or anyone else who might benefit from a deeper understanding of first-person experiences with suicide.”
For Mental Health Professionals
There is a wealth of information available – too much to list here – for mental health professionals who want to learn more about risk assessment, intervention, psychotherapy, and legal risk management with individuals at risk for suicide. A comprehensive website with a wealth of information for mental health professionals and others is Stop a Suicide Today. I especially recommend their book-length document, Current Status of Suicide-Focused Assessment and Treatment: An Online Resource for Clinicians.
In addition, here’s a brief list of key books for professionals who want to learn more about helping people who have suicidal thoughts:
Cognitive Therapy for Suicidal Patients: Scientific and Clinical Applications
By A. Wenzel, PhD, G.K. Brown, PhD, & A.T. Beck, MD
Cognitive therapy (also called cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT) is one of only a few treatments that has demonstrated effectiveness in reducing suicide risk and attempts. This book describes in specific detail the cognitive therapy techniques that have helped reduced suicide attempts.
Helping the Suicidal Person: Tips and Techniques for Professionals
By Stacey Freedenthal, PhD, LCSW
My book contains 89 tips, on average 3-4 pages each, about how to help someone who has suicidal thoughts. Topics include overcoming the taboo, assessing danger, attending to immediate safety, alleviating psychological pain, exploring motivations and misgivings, moving forward after a suicide attempt, inspiring hope, and more. You can see a full list of the tips at my site, Helping the Suicidal Person. I wrote the book for clinicians, but quite a few people who aren’t helping professionals have told me it was helpful to them, too. (I also have another book specifically for non-professionals: Loving Someone with Suicidal Thoughts: What Family, Friends, and Partners Can Say and Do.)
The Practical Art of Suicide Assessment: A Guide for Mental Health Professionals and Substance Use Counselors
By Shawn C. Shea, MD
This book should be required reading not only for students, but also for mental health professionals at all levels of experience. As I explain in a separate post, it describes techniques to help assess a person’s suicidal thoughts and intent. It also provides extensive information, in a highly readable, non-academic style, about suicide, its stigma, and its possible causes, while also delving into the specifics of suicide risk documentation and decision making.
Preventing Patient Suicide: Clinical Assessment and Management
By R.I. Simon, MD
The author may well be the foremost authority on the legal aspects of psychotherapy with suicidal clients, in particular the risk for malpractice lawsuits following a client’s suicide. He provides good, sound advice in this book for managing suicide risk and providing competent care. He states his positions forthrightly; in fact, he approaches sacrilege when criticizing commonly held notions in suicide risk assessment. For example, he asserts that suicide risk assessment forms encourage clinical lassitude and increase malpractice risk. And he argues that clinicians are practicing unethically when they do not provide after-hours coverage for emergencies and instead refer a patient to call 911 or go to an emergency room in the event of an emergency. All the while, he bases his arguments on prior legal cases and case histories.
By Edwin Shneidman, PhD
In this book, the author (considered the “grandfather” of modern suicidology) focuses on psychological pain as the cause of suicide. Of course, this seems obvious, but in reality, much of the literature about suicide over the last few decades has focused on biological, sociological, and psychiatric risk factors for suicide, looking at statistics instead of individuals’ personal accounts of their pain. Shneidman elucidates this pain intensely, and argues that the only way to really prevent a person’s suicide is to fundamentally understand that person’s pain and to help reduce it.
Treating Suicidal Behavior: An Effective, Time-Limited Approach
By M. David Rudd, PhD, Thomas Joiner, PhD, and M. Hasan Rajab, PhD
Cognitive behavioral therapy has demonstrated effectiveness at treating depression and suicidality. This book describes, in extensive detail, one CBT approach to helping suicidal clients. Topics go beyond the standard fare of theory, risk factors, and risk assessment. The material has immediate relevance to clinical practice, with information on crisis intervention, symptom management, cognitive restructuring (the book titles this section “Changing the suicidal belief system and building a philosophy for living”), and skills training.
By Thomas Joiner, PhD
This book by a renowned suicidologist, whose father died by suicide, describes the author’s prominent theory of suicide causation, the Interpersonal-Psychological Theory of Suicide. Joiner provides evidence that key characteristics must co-exist for a person to die by suicide: 1) They perceive that they are a burden to their loved ones; 2) They experience, or perceive they experience, extreme alienation; and 3) They have become habituated in some way to physical pain or life-threatening situations, making suicide seem less frightening and formidable to them. The first two factors combine to create a desire for death, and the habituation to pain or danger enables the ability to die by suicide.
For More Information about Suicide and its Prevention
American Association for Suicidology
The AAS website contains material of interest to everyone on the suicide-related spectrum: professionals, survivors, crisis workers, employers, friends and loved ones, and suicidal people themselves. Geared more toward research and statistics than some sites, it still has material accessible to everyone. Especially valuable is the information on postvention (what to do after a suicide), suicide loss survivor groups, and warning signs for suicide.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
Like the AAS site (above), this site offers information for everyone affected, in any way, by suicide. It also has much information about research findings, and contains a rich section on advocacy efforts and opportunities in the field of suicide prevention.
Created by Anne Moss Rogers, a mother whose younger son died by suicide, this website serves several purposes, but for our purposes here what’s especially valuable is the resources page about suicide. It’s an amazing list with links to all sorts of information, not only for people with suicidal thoughts and suicide loss survivors, but also many others who encounter people affected by suicide, including funeral directors, correctional facilities, faith leaders, college students, and more.
This site also offers abundant resources for people with suicidal thoughts, friends and family, and mental health professionals. You can learn about warning signs of suicide; psychotherapy, medication, and other treatments; and many other topics related to suicide or suicidality. There’s also a section specifically for mental health professionals.
Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE)
At the SAVE site, you can find an array of information for both professionals and the lay public, including a depression symptom checklist, online resources, reading lists, and more.
Suicide Prevention Resource Center
This is the go-to site for all sorts of information on suicide and its prevention. Especially useful to practitioners is its Best Practices Registry, which provides a list and descriptions of evidence-based practices in suicide prevention and intervention.
This site offers information geared toward suicide prevention in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender youth. Educators, parents, mental health professionals, and youth themselves can find meaningful help here. In particular, the site offers extensive resources to youth; see the section above, “For Immediate Help with Suicidal Thoughts.”
Created and maintained by psychoanalyst Paula Fontenelle, this site contains a plethora of information for anybody who wants to learn more about suicide. There are resources, information about suicide, a podcast, and more. Fontenelle lost her father to suicide in 2005, and she has dedicated her life to helping others touched by suicidality or suicide loss ever since. She also authored the book Understanding Suicide: Living with Loss. Paths to Prevention.