Suicide Prevention Begins with Us
During Suicide Prevention Month, learn how people, families, and communities can come together to support people in crisis and help prevent suicide.
Community suicide prevention can go a long way toward reducing suicide deaths and preventing the pain of losing a loved one to suicide.
But effective suicide prevention requires open conversations about suicide. It also requires shared effort from individuals, families, and communities. We all must work together to prevent suicide.
Stigma has always surrounded suicide, and many people have negative or false views about suicide and people who die by suicide.
Awareness of suicide as a preventable public health concern and stories from people with lived experience of suicide have eased some of this stigma. But many people still talk about suicide in hushed tones or use code words and softened language. That’s if they discuss suicide at all.
September is Suicide Prevention Month, but the work to prevent suicide and erase stigma continues year-round. You can begin this work by learning the signs, risk factors, and coping skills and resources for times of crisis.
If you’re having thoughts of suicide, know you’re not alone.
You can get free, confidential help right now by calling or texting 988 or chatting online with the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Crisis counselors offer compassionate support in English, Spanish, and American Sign Language. You can also get interpretation services in more than 240 languages. To get support in Spanish, call or text 988 and press 2, or chat online in Spanish.
Signs someone is thinking about suicide
Changes in mood or behavior could mean someone you know is thinking about suicide.
Common signs include:
- Thinking or talking about death, dying, or wanting to die
- Thinking or talking about being a burden to other people
- Withdrawing from family and friends, spending more time alone
- Frequent and sudden shifts in mood or energy
- New or unusual feelings of anxiety, sadness, agitation, or anger
- Changes in routine, including sleeping and eating patterns
- Changes in substance use
- New or unusual risk-taking behavior
- Feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, or feeling trapped in a situation
- Giving away treasured belongings for no clear reason
- Researching ways to die or buying suicide means, like a weapon
- Making a suicide plan
In most cases, a suicide attempt or death doesn’t happen without any warning. That’s what makes it so important to ask loved ones, “Are you having thoughts of suicide or hurting yourself?” if you notice any of these signs.
If they’re not thinking about suicide, asking them won’t give them the idea — this is one of the many myths about suicide. Asking someone about thoughts of suicide lets them know they can safely talk to you, when and if they do have those thoughts.
Contact the 988 Lifeline 24/7, 365 days a year to get support for yourself or a loved one thinking about suicide. The 988 Lifeline is always free and confidential.
Suicide risk factors and protective factors
Anyone can experience thoughts of suicide.
You can’t predict suicide, but certain factors do raise suicide risk. Other factors can lower suicide risk.
Risk factors
Some of the major risk factors for suicide include:
- Chronic pain conditions or mental health conditions, including depression and substance use disorder
- Lack of access to health care or mental health care
- A history of suicide attempts
- A family history of mental health conditions or suicide
- Weapons in the home
- A recent release from jail or prison
- Experiencing physical abuse, sexual abuse, or bullying, or other violence
- Reading or hearing about other suicide deaths in detail
- Stressful life events, like job loss, financial concerns, relationship loss, or the death of a loved one
- Discrimination, community violence, and historical trauma
These risk factors don’t automatically mean someone will think about or attempt suicide. In fact, most people living with suicide risk factors never make a suicide attempt.
Protective factors
Some important factors that help lower suicide risk include:
- Social connections and support from friends and loved ones
- Reasons to live, including friends, family, pets, and a sense of purpose
- Connection to community and culture
- Access to health and mental health care
- Less access to guns, pills, or other lethal means
- Coping and problem-solving skills
Coping skills
Many people experience thoughts of suicide and never act on them.
Support from a therapist or crisis counselor can help ease thoughts of suicide. Coping techniques can also make a difference.
Coping skills don’t just help ease distress in times of crisis. Having good coping skills may also help improve resilience to life’s challenges. Resilience describes the ability to adapt to difficult life experiences.
The same coping methods won’t work for everyone, but some of these may help:
- Grounding techniques: Grounding exercises involve your five senses. Smelling, tasting, touching, listening to, or looking at pleasurable things can help you feel calmer and safer in times of distress. Try using each of your senses one by one or use them all with the 5–4–3–2–1 technique.
- Going to a safe place: Leaving a place where you feel unsafe can help ease distressing thoughts. It’s a good idea to go somewhere else if you’re around pills, weapons, or other lethal means. You can also ask someone to keep them for you until you no longer feel in crisis.
- Positive distractions: Try doing an activity you enjoy, like listening to music, reading a book, petting your dog or cat, creating art, or spending time in nature. These activities can help distract you from thoughts of suicide until they feel less intense.
- Talking to a loved one: Telling a trusted friend or family member when you have thoughts of suicide can help you feel less alone. Their support can make those thoughts easier to manage. A friend or family member can also help you search for a therapist, if that feels too overwhelming to do alone.
- Reframing: During a crisis or distressing time, it’s easy to focus on things going wrong or losses you’ve experienced. Listing your strengths, positive things in your life, and reasons you want to live can often help ease thoughts of suicide.
- Making a safety plan: A counselor or friend can help you build a safety plan you can use in a time of crisis. These plans can list coping strategies, people to call when you need support, and ways to keep yourself safe if you have thoughts of suicide.
Get more tips for dealing with thoughts of suicide.
No matter your situation, you have free, confidential options for getting support during a mental health crisis.
The stigma around suicide can make it a tough topic to bring up, but talking about suicide is essential. If you think a loved one is thinking about suicide, talking about suicide can make a big difference: It could help save their life.
Resources
Interested in learning more about Suicide Prevention Month and other ways to prevent suicide? Start with these resources:
- National Suicide Prevention Month
- Suicide Prevention Month | NAMI
- Out of The Darkness
- Preventing Suicide
- American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Real Stories
- Suicide Prevention Month toolkit from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
- SAMHSA Safety Plan
