Help

The writing on this site touches the experience of mental health crisis. If you are going through a hard moment — you, or someone close to you — below are places where you can talk to someone for free and in confidence. Asking for help is not weakness. It is the first step onto the shore.

Find a line where you live

findahelpline.com — free, confidential helplines in over 175 countries, kept current with the organisations themselves. Choose your country and it shows you what is open right now, by phone, text or chat.

befrienders.org — a worldwide network of emotional support centres, useful when your country is not listed elsewhere.

If life is in immediate danger

Call your local emergency number — 911 in North America, 112 across Europe and much of the world, 999 in the UK and Ireland. In an acute crisis you can also go straight to a hospital emergency department without a referral.

Lines in English (free, around the clock)

• United States and Canada — 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, by call or text: 988lifeline.org
• United States — Crisis Text Line, text HOME to 741741: crisistextline.org
• United Kingdom and Ireland — Samaritans, 116 123, free from any phone: samaritans.org
• Australia — Lifeline, 13 11 14: lifeline.org.au
• New Zealand — Lifeline Aotearoa, 0800 543 354

Anywhere else, use the finder above — it is more current than any list a website can keep by hand.

Addiction — mutual help fellowships

• Alcoholics Anonymous — aa.org — a fellowship of people who want to stop drinking. Free and anonymous; the only requirement is a desire to stop. The site lists meetings, in person and online, worldwide.
• Narcotics Anonymous — na.org — a fellowship of people who want to stop using. Free and anonymous, with a meeting finder covering most countries.

Talking face to face

There is one more place I write about from my own experience: the confessional. It helped me a great deal.

You don’t need to know any formulas or be a practising believer. It is enough to walk into a church and say you want to talk. A priest is not a therapist — but he is a person who will listen. Free, anonymous, face to face, on the spot, with no appointment and no queue.

For some this is a matter of faith, for others simply a conversation with another human being. If you feel it is not for you — skip this one. The door next to it is open too.

A conversation costs nothing and commits you to nothing. Sometimes it is enough for someone on the other end to say: I hear you.