Helpful Resources
How to Make a Difference
- If you are worried someone is depressed or thinking about suicide, ask!
- Listen to hear, not to change the person.
- If someone tells you they are considering suicide, work to remove anything potentially lethal in their environment, like guns and pills.
- If you are a young person and are concerned about a friend, tell an adult such as a school counselor or parent. Urge the friend not to take their own life, and give them a hotline number.
- If you are the parent of a struggling child, ask a pediatrician for help finding a therapist. Make sure the recommended therapist is using evidence-based approaches that have been proven to help prevent suicides among teens.
- Call 911 if danger is imminent.
Warning Signs in Kids
- Changes in grades, clothes, attendance, sleep patterns
- Withdrawing from activities they used to like
- Giving away their belongings
- Talk of wanting to die, feeling hopeless, being in unbearable pain, being a burden to others
- Rage, talk of revenge or severe mood swings
- Increased drug or alcohol use
- Reckless or agitated behavior
Books
- Goodnight Mr. Vincent van Gogh by Lindsey Doolittle
- How I Stayed Alive When My Brain Was Trying to Kill Me: One Person’s Guide to Suicide Prevention, by Susan Rose Blauner
The phone number for crisis support should be just as easy to find as that pizza place on your fridge. Here are some resources to keep handy:
- CrisisLink Regional Hot Line: call 703-527-4077 or text CONNECT to 85511
- Children’s Regional Crisis Response: 844-627-4747
- National Hopeline Network: 1-800-SUICIDE (800-784-2433)
- LGBTQ Lifeline: 866-488-7386
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 800-273-TALK (800-273-8255)
- SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) National Helpline: 800-662-HELP (800-662-4357)
- Arlington Behavioral Healthcare Services: 703-228-5160 (emergency line) or 703-228-1560 (nonemergency line)