Emergency help
If you are in danger right now, or you are sitting with someone who is, start here. The numbers are free to call. The steps below are things you can do while you wait.
If someone is in danger right now
Immediate danger
Call 112
This is the emergency number for all of India. It reaches police, fire and ambulance. It works from any phone, at any hour.
What to say when they answer
Give your location first. Say the full address and a nearby landmark. Then say it plainly: this is a medical emergency, and a person is not safe. Stay on the line until they tell you to hang up.
If you need an ambulance
In Maharashtra you can also call 108. This is the state ambulance service. It runs 24 hours and it is free for the patient.
If you are outside Maharashtra, 112 is the safer number to use.
Going to a hospital
Any general hospital with an emergency room can help. A mental health emergency is treated like any other emergency. You do not need an appointment, and you do not need anyone to have been diagnosed with anything first.
What to bring, if you can
- Any medicines being taken. The boxes or strips are enough, or a photo of them.
- Old prescriptions or discharge papers, if they are within reach.
- Another person, so nobody sits alone in the waiting area.
- A phone, a charger, and some ID if it is handy.
Do not spend time hunting for any of this. Going is more important than arriving prepared.
While you wait
Waiting is the hard part. These are small things that help people get through the next hour.
If this is you
- Do not be alone. Call one of the numbers above, or move to where other people are. Another room in the house counts.
- Put distance between yourself and anything you could use to hurt yourself. Hand it to someone. Lock it away. Walk out of that room.
- Wait before you decide anything. Feelings this strong rise and then fall. The worst of it usually passes, even when it does not feel like it will.
- Bring yourself back to the room. Name 5 things you can see, 4 you can touch, 3 you can hear, 2 you can smell, 1 you can taste. Say them out loud.
- Slow your breathing out. Breathe in while you count to 4, out while you count to 6. Ten rounds. The long out-breath is what settles the body.
- Leave alcohol and drugs alone tonight. They make it harder to keep yourself safe, even when they seem to help.
- Write down one reason to wait until tomorrow. A person, a pet, a thing you said you would do. One is enough.
Feeling this way is not a life sentence. Crisis states are treatable, and most people who get through a night like this go on to feel differently about it.
If you are helping someone
- Take it seriously. Do not decide for yourself that they are only saying it.
- Ask directly and calmly. "Are you thinking about ending your life?" Asking does not put the idea in someone's head. This has been studied carefully, and asking does not raise the risk. It usually brings relief.
- Listen more than you talk. Do not argue, lecture, or rush to fix it. Being allowed to say it out loud is the help.
- Do not promise to keep it secret. Say something honest: you care too much to hold this on your own.
- Move dangerous things out of reach where you can do it calmly. Ask someone else to hold on to them.
- Stay. Stay in the room, or stay on the phone, until they are with someone who can help.
You do not have to have the right words. Staying is the part that counts.
If the danger has passed
The hours after a crisis matter. A few things to do next.
- Tell one person you trust. Today, or tomorrow. Not the whole story if you would rather not, just enough that somebody knows.
- See a doctor or a mental health professional soon. A crisis is a good enough reason to be seen. It does not have to happen again first.
- Call the helplines again when you are calm. They also take follow-up calls. You do not have to be in crisis to use them.
Things to read or keep
These are free pages from the Weave Family Library. They print well and are made to be kept on a phone.
- If you are not safe right now
A short card to hold on to during a bad night. - When it feels like too much
What to do when things are heavy but not immediately dangerous. - When someone you love may be suicidal
For family and friends: how to ask, and what to do next. - Staying connected: how ordinary people help prevent suicide
Why staying in touch matters, and how to keep doing it.
Weave sees people from 1:30 to 3:00 PM every day at Kanjurmarg, and online. In an emergency, the numbers on this page are the right door first.