Get help now

If you are in danger right now

United States

Call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. It is free, confidential, and open 24 hours a day.

988

You can also chat at 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. Veterans can call 988 and press 1, or text 838255.

If someone is in immediate physical danger, call 911.

Outside the United States

For immediate physical danger, call your local emergency number: 112 across the EU and much of the world, 999 in the UK, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand.

You can find a crisis line for almost any country through these directories:

A few direct lines: Samaritans (UK and Ireland) 116 123. Lifeline (Australia) 13 11 14. Canada call or text 988, or Talk Suicide 1-833-456-4566.

If a recent experience is dysregulating you tonight

You do not have to make sense of it right now. Try this.

Take two minutes

A grounding exercise you can do right now

When you feel overwhelmed, anxious, or pulled back into a memory, this brings your attention out of your head and back into the room. Move through the steps slowly. There is no wrong way to do it.

  1. Settle inSit down if you can. Put both feet flat on the floor and feel the ground holding you up. Drop your shoulders. Take one slow breath in through your nose, then a longer breath out through your mouth.
  2. Five things you can seeLook around and name five things, slowly. Say them out loud if that helps. Notice colors, shapes, and textures, anything ordinary: a lamp, a picture frame, the weave of a rug, a leaf at the window, your own hand. Let your eyes linger on each one.
  3. Four things you can hearListen for four sounds. A clock. Your own breath. A car going past. A fridge humming. The sounds do not have to mean anything. Just let each one land.
  4. Three things you can touchRun your fingers over three things near you. The fabric of your sleeve, the arm of the chair, a cool wall, a smooth tabletop. Notice the temperature and the texture of each, one at a time.
  5. Two things you can smellTake a slow breath in through your nose. If you cannot smell anything where you are, that is fine. Name two scents you love instead: coffee, cut grass, a particular soap, bread baking.
  6. One thing you can tasteTake a sip of water, or notice the taste already in your mouth. Tea. Toothpaste. Whatever is there.
  7. Slow your breathingBreathe in through your nose for a count of four. Hold for four. Breathe out through your mouth for a count of six. Repeat four times. A longer out-breath tells your nervous system you are safe.

You are here, in this room, in this moment. Stay as long as you need. You can come back to this any time, and it works whether the trigger is anomalous or ordinary.

Nothing about what happened to you makes you unwell for needing a steadying minute. Come back to it when you are ready, not before.

Talk to a real person

Whenever you're steady enough, the community is here. You don't have to explain yourself or prove anything; just arrive. Join the community →

For peer support with trained volunteers, plus groups and resources, see Get Support.

The Experiencer Team is a community and a set of resources. We are not an emergency service, a crisis line, a clinic, or a substitute for medical or psychiatric care. If you are in danger, please use the numbers above.

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