if you need someone right now
free, confidential, 24/7 — you don't have to be articulate
United States
988
Call or text. Veterans press 1 · Spanish press 2 · LGBTQ+ youth under 25 press 3 or text YOUTH. Or text HOME to 741741 for Crisis Text Line.
UK & Ireland
116 123
Samaritans — free from any phone, any hour. Or text SHOUT to 85258 in the UK.
Canada
988
Suicide Crisis Helpline — call or text. Under 30? Kids Help Phone: 1-800-668-6868, or text CONNECT to 686868.
LGBTQ+ young people (US)
1-866-488-7386
The Trevor Project — call, or text START to 678-678. 24/7, free, confidential.
France
3114
Numéro national de prévention du suicide — free, 24/7.
Germany
0800 111 0 111
TelefonSeelsorge — free, anonymous, 24/7. Second line: 0800 111 0 222. Also reachable on 116 123.
Netherlands
113
113 Zelfmoordpreventie — or 0800 0113. Phone and chat, 24/7.
Japan — English
0800-300-8355
TELL Lifeline (toll free). Chat also available on their site.
Japan — 日本語
0570-783-556
いのちの電話 / Inochi no Denwa. よりそいホットライン: 0120-279-338 (press 2 for non-Japanese).
Australia
13 11 14
Lifeline Australia — 24/7 crisis support.
somewhere else → findahelpline.com lists free crisis lines in over 130 countries. befrienders.org has a worldwide directory too.
brakes — things that interrupt the spiral
temperature
the fastest lever you have. cold shocks the nervous system out of a loop.
- cold water on your wrists 30 seconds, both wrists, under the tap
- hold something frozen ice cube, frozen peas, a cold can
- splash your face cold, not lukewarm. it matters.
breathing
not to calm down. just to give your body something to do.
- box breathing pacer there's one in the sidebar →
- guided breathing videos someone else counting for you helps
- yoga nidra lying down, guided, no effort required
senses
when you've gone somewhere far away and need to come back to the room.
- 5-4-3-2-1 grounding checklist in the sidebar →
- asmr, no talking sound without demands
- deep pressure weighted blanket, tight hoodie, heavy duvet
movement
doesn't have to be exercise. just move a little.
- ten minutes of stretching on the floor is fine
- walking in place no leaving the house required
- dance badly, alone curtains closed is allowed
hands busy
for when thinking is the problem. give the hands a job instead.
- fold paper origami, or just crumple and unfold
- draw badly scribbling counts
- make one thing food, tea, toast. something you can eat after.
one small thing
if everything is too much, don't pick the right thing. pick any thing.
- spin the wheel sidebar →, one suggestion at a time
- rain sounds put it on and lie down
- write it into the void somewhere to put it that isn't inside you
comfort media — things to put in your ears
ambient & endless
no lyrics, no structure, nothing to follow. good for lying still.
- Music for Airports Brian Eno — the original calm record
- rain on a window ten hours, if you need ten hours
- a soft murmur mix your own rain, wind, waves
somewhere else
for when your room becomes too stuffy.
- radio garden spin a globe, land in a random city's radio
- window swap look out of a stranger's window somewhere else
- walking tours follow someone through a city you've never been to
playlists
these are search links, not curated lists. swap them for your own — it'll be better.
- lofi the reliable standby
- quiet piano for when you don't want lyrics
- the sad ones sometimes you need to be met where you are
watch something
low stakes, no cliffhangers, nothing that will ambush you.
- restoration videos rusty thing becomes clean thing
- slow tv eight hours of a journey. that's the whole show.
- neal.fun small weird toys to poke at
reading & listening — other people who get it
organisations
actual charities with actual resources, not influencers.
- Mind (UK) plain-language guides on everything
- NAMI (US) family and peer support, lots of writing
- Trevor Project resources for LGBTQ+ folks, and for people who love them
directories
for finding help that isn't a phone line.
- find a helpline by country, by topic
- befrienders worldwide emotional support centres, globally
- IASP international association — crisis centre listings
words
essays and archives about being unwell, written by people who were there.
- internet archive old zines, old websites, old everything
- zine readings people reading their own work aloud
- podcasts company for a long night
other people's corners
personal sites like this one. the whole point of the web, honestly.
- neocities browse thousands of handmade sites
- my void//log you're welcome here
- the guestbook leave something, read what others left
tools — things that do a bit of the work
tracking
not to grade yourself. just to notice patterns you can't see from inside a bad day.
- Daylio mood logging without writing paragraphs
- Finch self-care as a small creature you keep alive
- Insight Timer free meditations, huge library
make the screen kinder
half of feeling awful at 3am is the light.
- f.lux warms your screen as the night goes on
- Dark Reader makes bright sites dark
- your OS night mode usually already built in, usually off
getting unstuck
for the specific paralysis of having twelve things to do and doing none.
- a 25-minute timer then stop, whether or not it's finished
- body doubling someone else working quietly on camera
- cut it smaller "shower" is really eleven tasks
offline
the ones that work when the wifi is off and you have no phone.
- 5-4-3-2-1 works anywhere, costs nothing
- box breathing four counts each way
- one small thing when choosing is the hard part
a note on this page: i'm not a doctor and this isn't treatment. these are things that have helped me or people i know, gathered in one place so you don't have to go looking while you're already underwater. if something here doesn't help, that's not a failure — it just means it wasn't the right one for you. try the next.