If you’re reading this because you’re having thoughts of ending your life, I want to say two things right away. I’m glad you’re here reading this instead of somewhere else. And what your mind is telling you right now, however true it feels, is not an accurate picture of your actual future.
Content Note. This article speaks directly to someone currently having thoughts of suicide. If that’s you right now, please call or text 988 before, during, or after reading this. You don’t have to wait until you finish.
This Feeling Is Not Permanent, Even Though It Feels Like It Is
Suicidal thinking has a particular way of lying. It tells you this pain will never end, that you’ll always feel exactly this way, that there’s no version of tomorrow worth staying for. Researchers who study suicidal crises closely have found something important: the crisis itself is usually much shorter than it feels from inside it, which is part of why teaching people to actively cope with and outlast a suicidal urge, rather than assuming it will simply build forever, has become a genuine focus of modern suicide prevention research (Interian et al., 2019). That’s not because the pain wasn’t real. It’s because the specific moment that feels unsurvivable is often exactly that, a moment, not a permanent state, even when everything in you insists otherwise right now.
That means the most important thing you can do right now is put a small amount of space and time between this moment and any action. Just this moment. Not forever. Just long enough for the wave to move. Research on people who survive a suicide attempt backs this up in a way worth knowing: nine out of ten people who survive an attempt do not go on to die by suicide later (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, n.d.). Surviving this specific moment is not just a delay of the inevitable. For the overwhelming majority of people, it’s the actual turning point.
What to Do Right Now
Call or text 988. This connects you to a real person trained specifically for this moment, right now, for free, day or night, through the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, n.d.).
Tell someone. A friend, a family member, anyone you trust even a little. You don’t have to have the perfect words. “I’m not okay and I need help” is enough.
If you have access to something you could use to hurt yourself, put distance between you and it right now, even just handing it to someone else or putting it in another room. This single step, on its own, has been shown to save lives, because most of these moments pass faster than they feel like they will.
If you’re in immediate danger, go to the nearest emergency room or call 911.
You Are Not a Burden
One of the cruelest lies this feeling tells is that everyone would be better off without you. This is almost never true, and it is not something your mind is currently capable of judging accurately. Depression and suicidal crisis specifically distort a person’s ability to assess their own worth and their impact on others. That distortion is a symptom of what you’re going through, not a fact about your life.
What Scripture Says to You Specifically
You are in good company in Scripture, more than you might expect. The writer of Psalm 88 cries out to God day and night, describing a soul “full of trouble” and a life that “draws near the death” (Psalm 88:1-3, NIV). This psalm is unusual among the Psalms because it never resolves. It doesn’t end with a tidy turn toward praise. It simply ends in the dark, honest and unresolved. That psalm has been in Scripture for thousands of years exactly as it is, because God never required despair to be tied up neatly before it could be spoken to Him.
Paul could still write, even in the middle of real hardship, “hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed” (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NIV), something true underneath the pain even when it doesn’t feel true right now: not abandoned, even now, even here.
The psalmist writes elsewhere, “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:5, NIV). That verse doesn’t pretend the darkness away either. It just refuses to let it be the final word.
If You’ve Been Here Before
If this isn’t the first time you’ve had these thoughts, that doesn’t mean you’re broken beyond help. It means this pattern deserves real, ongoing treatment, not just crisis response in the worst moments. A therapist who specializes in this can help you build a plan for the times this feeling returns, so you have something concrete to reach for besides willpower alone.
Common Questions
What if I call 988 and I don’t know what to say? You don’t need the right words. “I’m having thoughts of suicide and I don’t know what to do” is exactly enough. The person on the other end knows how to take it from there.
What if I’ve already told someone and they didn’t seem to take it seriously? Keep telling people until someone does. Call 988 directly if the people around you aren’t equipped to help right now. You deserve to be taken seriously, and this line exists specifically because you do.
Will this feeling ever actually go away? For most people, yes, genuinely, with real treatment and time. The crisis you’re in right now is not a preview of every day for the rest of your life, even though it can feel exactly like that from inside it.
A Closing Word
Psalm 88 ends in the dark, without a resolution, and it has stayed in Scripture unedited for thousands of years anyway. Whatever this moment is asking of you, you’re allowed to simply survive it, one small step at a time, starting with reaching out right now. You are not required to have it figured out. You are only asked to still be here for the next step.
Crisis Resources: Call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, available right now. Text HOME to 741741 for the Crisis Text Line. If you’re in immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Sources cited:
Interian, A., Chesin, M., Kline, A., St Hill, L., King, A., Miller, R., Latorre, M., Gara, M., & Stanley, B. (2019). Coping with suicidal urges: An important factor for suicide risk assessment and intervention. Archives of Suicide Research.
Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. (n.d.). Means Matter.
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. (n.d.). About the Lifeline.
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