Get Help

If you know someone who is having or has had issues, my advice is to have a plan.

I’m going to talk about self-harm here.

Have a plan that works for you and the people you know. You might contact the Lifeline site for chat or call 1-800-273-8255 – not just if you or someone you know is thinking of harming yourself, but if you are struggling with a lot of things – “substance abuse, economic worries, relationships, sexual identity, getting over abuse, depression, mental and physical illness, and loneliness, to name a few.”

You can also text 838255 if you are a veteran.

También, puede llamar a 1-888-628-9454 si habla español.

You can call 1-800-799-4889 if you are deaf or hard of hearing.

Or a Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990, or text at 66746.

And you can also chat at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/chat/.

You can also make sure you have a friend’s address and be ready to call 911 or an appropriate agency in your community who can do a wellness check. Or coordinate with friends so that if you aren’t able to connect someone, you can let someone know what is going on so they can help. This is a way you can help, even if you’re long-distance and don’t live in their area. Even if you don’t trust anyone in your community to do a wellness check – you can plan to have someone sit the night with them.

If you haven’t already, you might want to take some training through Mental Health First Aid, or promote such training to people in your community.