This episode digs deep into the warning signs of suicidal ideation and mental health struggles, both the obvious and the hidden. Lisa and Gretchen share raw, personal stories and provide powerful, actionable advice on supporting someone who might be silently suffering.
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A video version of this episode is available here: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSurvivorsPodcastChannel
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🧠 Episode Summary
In one of the most emotionally powerful episodes yet, Lisa and Gretchen break down the signs we often miss when someone is silently screaming for help. They explore the "two buckets" of those struggling—those who hide it well and those who visibly unravel—and offer a toolkit of conversational strategies and crisis support steps. Through personal stories and field-tested advice, they show how asking the right question could save a life.
📘 Lessons Learned
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There’s no one-size-fits-all when it comes to suicide warning signs—some suffer in silence, others show clear distress.
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Asking open-ended, direct questions like “Are you thinking of harming yourself?” can be life-saving.
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Holding space without judgment creates safety. Validation and presence matter more than solutions.
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A single person showing up can reduce suicide risk by up to 40% in the LGBTQ+ community.
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Add the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline to your phone favorites—you may save someone’s life.
⏱️ Chapters
00:00 – Trigger Warning & Episode Intro
01:00 – The Two Buckets: Silent Suffering vs. Visible Struggle
02:45 – How to Spot Behavior Changes
05:00 – Lisa’s Personal Experience with Hidden Depression
08:00 – Why Questions Matter: Open-Ended vs. Yes/No
12:00 – The Power of the 988 Crisis Line
16:00 – Building a Safety Plan: What to Ask
21:00 – Dispelling Myths: Talking About Suicide Won’t “Cause” It
24:00 – How to Respond if Someone Says “Yes”
25:45 – Closing Reflections and Call to Action
📚 Resources for Mental Health & Support
🔹 The Survivors Podcast Website – https://thesurvivors.net/
🔹 The HelpHUB™ – Mental health resources, tools, and support networks – https://www.thehelphub.co/
🔹 Schoser Talent and Wellness Solutions – Mental wellness coaching & support – https://schosersolutions.com/
🔹 Sh!t That Goes On In Our Heads – A raw, award-winning mental health podcast – https://goesoninourheads.net/
🧠 Mental Health Resources
🔹 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline – Free, confidential 24/7 support for people in distress: https://988lifeline.org
🔹 The Trevor Project – Crisis support and suicide prevention for LGBTQ+ youth: https://www.thetrevorproject.org/
🔹 Crisis Text Line – Text HOME to 741741 for 24/7 crisis counseling: https://www.crisistextline.org/
🔹 Samaritans USA – 24/7 emotional support for people who are struggling: https://samaritansusa.org/
📲 Follow & Connect With Us
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🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSurvivorsPodcastChannel
#TheSurvivorsPodcast #EndTheStigma #MentalHealthMatters #SuicidePrevention #YouAreNotAlone #BreakTheSilence #GriefSupport #988Lifeline #SurvivorStories #HealingTogether #PodMatch #MentalHealth #SuicideAwareness #Podcast #Community #Hope #Grief #Stigma #MentalIllness #Support #LisaSugarman #GretchenSchoser #ItsOkayToNotBeOkay #MentalHealthAwareness #YouMatter #HoldSpace #ValidateDontFix #ListenToUnderstand #TalkAboutIt #InvisibleIllness #CheckOnYourFriends #HelpIsHere
🎙️ See You Next Week! Stay strong, keep going, and remember: You are enough. 💜
00:00:01
The Survivors is brought to you by our friends at Schoser Talent and Wellness
00:00:04
Solutions. This podcast mentions suicide, mental illness,
00:00:08
grief and loss and may be triggering for some listeners. So
00:00:12
please take care of your mental well being by pausing or skipping any
00:00:15
sections that feel uncomfortable to you. And if you or someone you know is
00:00:19
struggling, please call 988 for support.
00:00:23
So we talk a ton about every facet
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of suicide awareness and prevention and
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what to do and how to have the conversations. We haven't really
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spent an awful lot of time yet talking about. What are the
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warning signs? Like what. What are the things that we should be
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looking for when we're looking at the people around us? When we're looking
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at our family members and our partners and spouses
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and kids and friends? You and I have talked a lot, just the two of
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us, about there are kind of two buckets. I always say it in the same
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way. There are two buckets of people in the world. There's the bucket where
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no one knows anything is wrong. My dad was in that bucket.
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You were in that bucket. Nobody has a clue. Life is
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always great. Smile's always on your face and you're dead
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inside. Then you have the other bucket where it's obvious. It's like
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overflowing because there's so much that the person is
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putting out into the world about how unhappy they are. And, and in lots of
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ways that can be really helpful. It can be scary, but it can be really
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helpful. So there are two different kinds of people. But what do you do when
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you find out or you have a hunch that somebody is not
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okay? What do you do? Like, that's, that's what I think. In my
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opinion, people really need to know because it is
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absolutely terrifying when you're trying to figure out how to help somebody.
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Yeah, for me, I hid my depression, but at the time I
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just didn't know how to talk about it. I kind of like checked out and
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nobody even blinked twice when that happened. I didn't put up any
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Christmas decorations or Thanksgiving. I kind of
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just checked out. I wish that somebody had dug a
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little deeper and asked some more probing questions about what was going
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on inside my head. That's key. And I'm really glad you said that because
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in trying to figure out where somebody's at,
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the way that we engage with them, the questions that we ask
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them, that's critical. It's so important to ask
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open ended questions. And I'm saying this now as someone who spends
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an awful lot of my time on crisis hotlines and in
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support groups and grief support groups. And we oftentimes
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ask questions that are super simple. They're like, yes and no questions. And we think
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that we're kind of checking off the box, like, how you doing? Are you good?
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That's everybody's first instinct. Are you good? You having a good day? And
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then you're going to say, yeah, no, I'm great. Everything's. Everything's great.
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Moving on, you know, and then you just kind of flit off and do the
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next thing, and nothing else is required of you. And for the person who's
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asking, it kind of sort of checks the box of, okay, I was checking
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in on my person. Yeah, yeah, I see you. And then at the
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same time, it was like, I didn't have to really dig too deep, but I
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got the question out there. And the problem with that is that it's.
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It's super easy, especially for those. And you talk about
00:03:08
extroverted people a lot because that's how you were at that time.
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You don't feel like there's any reason to dig any deeper because they seem great.
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So why would you. So, okay, so let's. Let's talk about what do we
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do? What do we do when we start to see that something's off? What does
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that even look like? What does looking off look like for a lot
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of people? Like, okay, for you, it looked like you were disengaging.
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You didn't put up Christmas decorations. What else. What else did
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you do that was different from your normal behavior? I was a little
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snippy. For me, you know, I have a very gregarious
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personality. Like, you either love me or you hate me. I'm a little
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irreverent, but my temper. I had a shorter
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fuse. Like, I can let a lot of stuff roll off my back. But during
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those three months when stuff was really horrible, I had a really
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short fuse. And I didn't have a whole lot of time in my head
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for people that were whining and complaining. I also
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kind of. I was sad, but I was happy at the same time.
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But when I was sad, nobody else saw it because I would do the sadness
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on my own time because I didn't want anybody to see,
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because I felt weak. I'm like, I gotta be able to get past
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this, but I'd be really sad on my own.
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In my book, I give really good examples of what people
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can look for and how they can help. We already talked about the probing
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questions. Number two, making sure that we're getting out of our own
00:04:35
Head. Even during the winter months, people out of the house. I didn't want to
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leave the house. Like, I don't want to do anything. I didn't even want to
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get dressed. I had to, because I was still working, trying to have a conversation,
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like, a really deep conversation, trying to get me to laugh.
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You know, changing my browsing history, like, probably would have
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been okay because I was looking up ways to, like,
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just be done. Wow. Okay. I didn't even know that. You never shared that with
00:05:01
me before. Not a whole lot of people knew that. But I was thinking of
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ways of, like, how can I do this so it doesn't hurt a lot of
00:05:08
people. And then I also, like, had the thoughts in my head of, like, what
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are people gonna think of me? And
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so, you know, thank God for that little glimmer of hope that things were gonna
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be okay, because they did turn out okay. But for a lot of people,
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I think they don't have that glimmer, and they don't have anybody to
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talk to, or they're at work and they're kind of, like, being
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absent a lot, or they're not doing their work or
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they've checked out, or they're, like, you know, looking up,
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giving away all their stuff, like, hey, here's my new laptop. You can
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have it. Right? Those are kind of signs that you need to look for
00:05:45
and help them get the help that they need, whether it's called a
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988, whether it's getting them to a crisis center,
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whether it's just go to the ER or urgent
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care, like, show a vested interest in them because
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it's us screaming to the world that we're not okay. Yeah, yeah.
00:06:04
No, that's all really powerful and important and
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a lot of it, too. I think it just starts fundamentally with
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keeping your eyes open. You and I talked in one of our more recent episodes
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about self care and about how important it is to take the oxygen mask on
00:06:19
yourself and make sure that you're good. You can't help anybody if you're not good.
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But we also. That means paying attention to yourself. But at the same time,
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like, we really do have to be paying attention to the people around us.
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We're not here alone. We're here with a world full
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of people, with communities, full of people, with families,
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filled with people in a lot of cases. And we do have, I
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believe, an active responsibility to be looking out for each
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other. We can't solve each other's problems all the time, if ever, but
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we can be there to hold space. We can be there to just listen. We
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can be there to guide someone, to support someone, to laugh or
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cry with someone. So there's so many different ways that we can show up, but
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at the end of the day, we have to be paying attention. And if we
00:07:02
notice that something is off, like all the things that you said,
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you know, work performance is suffering. Maybe hygiene is
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suffering. Someone who used to respond right back to your
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texts or your phone calls is totally disengaged. Someone's canceling
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plans all the time, no enthusiasm for anything. You haven't seen
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them laugh in a long time. I mean, all those things, those are definitely
00:07:24
telltale signs. But there are lots of other signs that may not
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be as common. But you know them because you know your person, you
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know your child, and you know your spouse or you know your best friend. And
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you know what their baseline is. And it's when
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you notice a sharp shift away from that
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baseline that that usually means something's wrong,
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something isn't good. And so, okay, then what do you do? Because
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everybody wants to help, or the majority of people. We all want help,
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right? But it's terrifying. We want to find out what's wrong. We want to try
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and help the person through whatever it is that they're dealing with, but a lot
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of us just are not equipped. And so right there, you're just like, oh, God,
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what. What do I do? What do I say? I don't want to do anything
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that makes the situation worse. I think a lot of people have that kind of
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built in fear, but we don't have to have that kind of fear
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if we have the knowledge of the ways that we
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can help people. And you already said the number one.
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In my opinion, there are two things equally as important.
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Lifeline numbers like the 988 crisis and suicide
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hotline, places like the Trevor Project, platforms like the
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crisis text line, Samaritans, all of these places that you
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can immediately access. You don't have to pay a dime. You don't have to
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wait in line for months. You just call. And the other thing
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is having conversations. It all starts by having a conversation
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with someone and asking the hard questions. And the conversation usually
00:08:52
has to be somebody asking you the question.
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Because in my. My case, I couldn't talk about
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it because I. Like I said, and I'll say it again, I didn't understand
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what was happening in my own body. I didn't understand what was happening in
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my mind. I didn't know how to tell somebody how
00:09:11
shitty I was feeling because I'M telling you, like, all I wanted to do
00:09:15
was be done. I was ready to check out, and
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there was a lot that had gone. Gone on during that
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period of time. I kind of wish that somebody would have, like, brought up
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calling 988 sooner, but I wasn't looking for that when I
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was looking for stuff online. I was looking for ways to just
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get out of my head and maybe having these numbers on your
00:09:38
phone, because you never know when the one a situation's gonna come up
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that you are in a conversation with somebody and they need this
00:09:45
phone number or they need to talk to somebody. So, like, for
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me, I have the 988 crisis line as a favorite on my phone.
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Hopefully I'm never gonna need it again, but, you know,
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life happens, and I may be with somebody who actually needs that
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phone number, but being there, being present, asking
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really good questions, and helping to calm down the
00:10:08
inner demons, that helps. Don't be judgmental. Just
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like, don't. Don't be a dick. Don't be judgmental.
00:10:16
Just hold space and see what you can do to maybe, like, talk to them
00:10:20
and get them to open up a little bit more. And if you're not getting
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anywhere, make that suggestion for them to call 988. Sit with them
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while they make that call. Help
00:10:30
them realize that they are enough, that they're wanted, they're needed,
00:10:34
they're loved, and a lot of things can happen. There could be
00:10:38
somebody maybe just lost their job or they got
00:10:41
diagnosed with a really serious illness, or they've got some
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financial stress or legal problems, or maybe they
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have a history of trauma. Maybe you don't know what's going on. All you
00:10:52
notice is that there's been a huge change in them and you want to
00:10:56
help. Yeah. And here's the thing that was
00:10:59
so profound for me when I was training to
00:11:03
be on the lifelines. One of the things that. That we have to learn
00:11:07
how to do in every case, with every call,
00:11:11
regardless of what we believe the
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level of crisis is because that's subjective. What I think might
00:11:18
be something manageable might be something that throws
00:11:22
somebody else completely out of control. So one of the things that I learned that
00:11:26
was the most valuable was take every call. And so now
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I'm changing that for the purposes of this conversation and saying, take
00:11:33
every conversation at face value. Whatever it is
00:11:37
that the person you're talking to, your friend, your family member, your
00:11:40
coworker is sharing with you, that's sacred.
00:11:44
If that person feels comfortable enough with you to have
00:11:48
that kind of an intimate, honest, vulnerable conversation.
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You just go into that conversation assuming that every single
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thing that that person is telling you is exactly what
00:12:00
they're telling you. In other words, validate, validate,
00:12:03
validate. Because I can only speak in terms of the Trevor
00:12:07
Project, in terms of data relating to the Trevor project in the queer
00:12:10
community, but one single person, and I use this statistic a lot because
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I'm just always so moved by it, one single person
00:12:18
who shows up to listen to someone who is in crisis within the
00:12:21
queer community can reduce that person's risk of harming
00:12:25
themselves or taking their life by 40%. That's a huge
00:12:29
number. That's almost half of the people out there who are
00:12:32
struggling, who will survive if one person takes the time
00:12:36
to hold space for them and to validate them and to listen to them non
00:12:39
judgmentally. And those are the keys. That's it. There's no great art and
00:12:43
science behind holding space for someone. All it is is
00:12:47
listen to what they have to say and validate it and be there to
00:12:51
support. Like you said it yourself, and I've said it a million times, we're not
00:12:54
there as crisis counselors, as therapists, as friends, as
00:12:58
family members. We're not there to solve your problems. We're there to help
00:13:02
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00:14:18
Absolutely. And you know, like you said, you know, everybody's story is
00:14:22
different. Everybody's journey is different. I, like I said, I just had a
00:14:26
lot going on. My little brain, as big as everybody
00:14:30
thinks it is, my little brain just had way too much shit in it. And
00:14:33
like I Couldn't filter out the good from the bad. And no fault of my
00:14:37
friends or, or my wife or my co workers because I
00:14:40
hid what was going on so well, they didn't even have an
00:14:44
opportunity to help me out. Well, look, you can't. And when I say you,
00:14:48
I mean people in general. We can't fix a problem
00:14:52
that we don't know exists. If you don't know that someone is
00:14:56
struggling and you don't know why, how can you
00:14:59
address that? How can you help with that? You can't.
00:15:03
And that's why it's this whole process that we're talking about.
00:15:07
But like, you know, pinpointing the signs, paying attention to the signs, and
00:15:11
then acting on that and knowing what to do. You have to be hyper
00:15:14
vigilant in the way that you, you get someone to, to not
00:15:18
only open up, but you get them to help themselves. And it goes both ways.
00:15:22
Like you can't do it all yourself on their behalf and they
00:15:25
can't do it alone. So it becomes a team effort. And maybe
00:15:29
the team is just you and another person, or maybe the team is you and
00:15:32
a therapist or a crisis counselor or a friend, or maybe it's a family or
00:15:35
a whole community. But it takes more than just one single person.
00:15:39
And a lot of it involves breaking cycles
00:15:42
because so much of what goes on in people's heads. And tell me if this
00:15:46
is true, because this is why I love the fact that you and I have
00:15:49
so many different perspectives to come at this from. You've been there,
00:15:52
You've been in that place of hopelessness and desperation where you
00:15:56
did not wanna live anymore. You were done. What was
00:16:00
going through your head in those moments? Were you actively
00:16:03
trying to throw people off the track? Were you just kind of resigned?
00:16:07
Were you playing a part? Or were you just like, screw it? If somebody
00:16:11
notices, they notice. Yes, to all of it. For me, I didn't
00:16:14
understand how I could tell somebody what was going on. It was very
00:16:18
confusing for me because I'd never felt like that before.
00:16:22
I'm kind of mad at myself though, that I didn't open up
00:16:25
sooner. But when I got really depressed of this last November,
00:16:29
like I didn't hide it. So things that I had learned through
00:16:33
therapy had helped me to identify that you're kind of
00:16:36
fucked up in the head again. But I don't have the tools.
00:16:40
I couldn't open up. And I didn't know how to ask for
00:16:44
help at that time. But I had remembered that I'd seen a
00:16:48
commercial for 988. And thank God I saw
00:16:51
that commercial because I kept that in the back of my head as
00:16:55
all the other stuff was going on. Yeah, that's one of the big things you
00:16:59
and I are out here doing. That's why we mention that number
00:17:02
every single time we record. That's why we
00:17:06
mention that number in every post that you and I make on social
00:17:10
media. Because that one resource can so
00:17:13
often be the difference between life and death. And I
00:17:17
can't think of a better resource that's out there that we put in
00:17:21
people's hands. I mean, that's. That's why the mental health community shortened
00:17:25
it from an actual 800 number down the way
00:17:28
that they made 91 1. An emergency line that people
00:17:32
just immediately. Three digits. And you're. You're getting help. Same
00:17:36
thing for our mental health and wellness. And it's just so
00:17:39
important that. That I think I'm just sitting here thinking, like, about
00:17:43
how isolating it is when you're alone in your own head
00:17:47
with those thoughts that keep circulating over and over and
00:17:51
over again. Like, you must have been like, I just want to hug you right
00:17:54
now because you must have been in such a state. And at
00:17:58
least you. So you were thinking. You were thinking of
00:18:01
other people, and that's not as common. You were
00:18:05
thinking about how your actions and your
00:18:09
potential decision to end your life would affect your wife and your family and the
00:18:13
people you work with and your friends. Thank God. Like, thank God that you had
00:18:16
those thoughts coming through your head to give you even a little bit of
00:18:20
pause. There are so many people out there who don't. They don't
00:18:24
consider the outcome the ramification. They are thinking about one
00:18:27
thing. And most people who are in that kind of a headspace are thinking about
00:18:31
one thing only, which is make that pain
00:18:35
stop. Right. Yeah. And that's why I made the call.
00:18:39
Because it was that call or figure out a way
00:18:42
to be done. And I think I got scared. I think I
00:18:46
scared myself to the point. That's why I picked up the
00:18:50
phone and called 988. Because I was literally that close.
00:18:53
I'm glad that I made the call. I'm happy to be alive today. It's been
00:18:57
a two and a half years of really hard work on myself, but I
00:19:01
wouldn't be where I am today if I'd gone
00:19:04
through all that shit. Yeah, if you hadn't gone through it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,
00:19:08
and the juice is worth the squeeze, right? It really. It really is. But the
00:19:12
problem is people can't often see that when they're in the
00:19:16
thick of their emotions, when they're in the weeds and they can't
00:19:19
see anything around them and they, they get hijacked
00:19:23
by, by the depression and by the
00:19:27
negative self talk and by the, the
00:19:30
feelings of hopelessness and inadequacy and whatever else piles
00:19:34
on you, becomes something, I would imagine that you just, you can't even like
00:19:38
lift your head anymore because it's so filled with all
00:19:42
the reasons why you want to get away. I, I, I think the other
00:19:45
two thing too is that a lot of people are kind of self,
00:19:49
self absorbed, right? They may notice a difference in somebody
00:19:53
else, but they don't want to get involved. Right? I don't know.
00:19:57
I'm just going to put a selfless plea out there. If
00:20:01
you see somebody that's struggling, make that attempt, because
00:20:05
that attempt may be the reason they are alive. Reach
00:20:08
out, give them a hug, give them your phone, help them dial
00:20:12
988. It's that simple. I get
00:20:16
it. We all got a lot of shit going on. But for
00:20:19
those of us that are mentally checked out,
00:20:24
having somebody take that, just that tiny extra
00:20:28
step can be a matter of life or death. It absolutely
00:20:31
can. And I think this is a good point in the conversation
00:20:35
to talk about how to have the hard conversation, how to
00:20:39
ask the questions that are really truly the meaningful questions that
00:20:42
will allow you to drill down and know, okay, we
00:20:46
are in a bad place right now. We gotta do something. So when
00:20:50
you're dealing with someone who you either have been told, maybe the
00:20:54
person has told you, they're, they're in that cohort of people who will say how
00:20:57
they feel and you know it because they're sharing it, or maybe you're with someone
00:21:01
who doesn't say it. Either way, you can almost always have the
00:21:04
same kind of conversation. You need to use very specific,
00:21:08
very direct language. And it can be really,
00:21:12
really scary. I mean, I use it when I do a risk
00:21:15
assessment on every single Lifeline call that I take. This is what
00:21:19
we're doing, risk assessments within the first five minutes of every single call that
00:21:23
we take. And they're always the same. We're
00:21:26
asking, are you thinking about harming or
00:21:30
killing yourself? And I know people freak out when they
00:21:33
hear that. They're like, I, I can't say that. You can't say
00:21:37
that to someone because that's going to start them thinking about
00:21:41
suicide and that will encourage them to do the thing.
00:21:44
No, that is untrue. Don't think that way because
00:21:48
there is so much Data to support studies,
00:21:52
to support the fact that when you actually ask that
00:21:55
question in that way with those words, it dramatically
00:21:59
reduces the likelihood that that person will harm themselves or kill
00:22:03
themselves. And here's why. When you ask someone
00:22:06
who you believe is struggling, are you thinking of harming yourself
00:22:10
immediately? That identifies you as someone safe. That identifies
00:22:14
you as a person who's taking them seriously. You're
00:22:17
validating them. You're saying, I see you. I see that things suck
00:22:21
for you right now. I see that it's hard for you right now. I see
00:22:24
that you're hurting right now. And I'm here. I'm here, and I'm safe, and
00:22:28
I want to help. So that's why in
00:22:31
saying the scary thing to the person who's struggling, you're actually
00:22:35
saving their life in a lot of cases by saying that. Then what do you
00:22:39
do? Then when they come back and they say, actually, you know what?
00:22:42
I have been thinking about harming myself or I am
00:22:46
considering ending my own life, then you get some more questions
00:22:50
you need to ask, and they're just as challenging, but they're just
00:22:54
as important. Then you say, have you done anything today? Did you do anything today
00:22:58
to harm yourself? Let's say they say, no, but I'm going to do it this
00:23:00
weekend. Okay, well, what are you going to do? Do you have a plan?
00:23:04
Tell me about your plan. And then you get them to tell you about the
00:23:07
plan. Do you have a timeline? When are you planning on doing this? Well, I'm
00:23:10
going to do it on Saturday. Well, okay, well, where are those things right now
00:23:13
that you're going to use to do the thing? And they say, well, I'm in
00:23:17
the bedroom, and they're. They're right over there on the. On the bureau. Okay,
00:23:20
well, can you do me a favor? Just while we're talking, maybe you're not with
00:23:23
the person. Maybe they're on the phone, or maybe you're in person with them. You
00:23:26
say, let's do this. While we're having this conversation, can you do me a favor?
00:23:30
Can you walk out of the room? Leave that stuff here. Walk out of the
00:23:34
room, go to a different place. Separate. You want to separate the person
00:23:37
from the means that they're going to use to end their life
00:23:41
if that's with them? And then you're jumping into a
00:23:44
conversation about. So who do you have for support? Do you
00:23:48
have a therapist? Do you know about the 988 crisis lifeline? Do you think you
00:23:52
need to go to the hospital? Can I take you? Can I Make a phone
00:23:55
call for you. Can I call a family member or friend? So that's. You see
00:23:58
how, you know, one question leads instinctively,
00:24:02
naturally kind of down that decision tree all the way down
00:24:06
to the point where, okay, now you've. You've gotten the person to admit
00:24:09
what's going on, to share what their plans are. You've kind of
00:24:13
separated them from anything harmful. And now you're like,
00:24:17
okay, safety plan. How do I keep this person safe right
00:24:20
now? And that's what you. That's what you work on. That's what the
00:24:24
rest of your questions focus on. Who's there to help and how can we
00:24:28
get you to that place or that person to help you. So those
00:24:32
are. Those are the warning signs. Those are the ways to have the
00:24:36
conversation. And at the end of the day, the best thing in
00:24:40
the world that you can do, if there is no other option and there's no
00:24:42
therapist in the picture and there's no family or community to
00:24:46
help, you either get that person in the car and drive them to the
00:24:50
emergency room of the hospital or you call 988
00:24:54
and inferior. Those people out there that are listening
00:24:57
for me. Once I made that call to 988,
00:25:01
I didn't see it as a sign of weakness. I saw it as a sign
00:25:05
of strength. Because in the back of my
00:25:08
head, I kind of knew I didn't want to die,
00:25:12
but I was tired of feeling like shit. And so
00:25:16
if you know somebody that's out there, help them make that call.
00:25:20
Yeah, it's worth it. I'm awfully glad that you made that call. I mean, this
00:25:23
was long before you and I even met each other, but boy, am I glad
00:25:27
you're still here. Boy, am I glad you made that call. And if you're
00:25:30
listening to us right now and you are not okay, now you
00:25:34
know who to call. You call 988. And if you know someone who's not
00:25:37
okay now, you know what to do. You have the language, you have
00:25:41
the hotline numbers, and you know the questions to ask. So
00:25:45
keep each other safe, okay? Yeah, for sure. And we'll see you guys next
00:25:49
week. I love you, Chi. Love you, man. Thanks for
00:25:53
joining us on the Survivors. Remember, no matter how tough things feel,
00:25:56
you are enough. And the world needs you just the way you are. You're
00:26:00
not alone in this journey. There's a community here, and every step forward
00:26:03
counts. We're so grateful you took the time to listen, and we hope you'll
00:26:07
take one day at a time. Just know there's always more light ahead.
00:26:12
Thanks for being here, friends. Just remember, help is out there
00:26:16
in so many different places. So if you or someone you know is struggling,
00:26:20
please call 988 and a trained crisis counselor like me will be there
00:26:24
to help. You can also find an inclusive and comprehensive directory of
00:26:27
mental health resources, tools and
00:26:29
content@thehelphub.co. just remember that
00:26:33
help is always just a call or a click away. We'll catch you next week.
00:26:37
In the meantime, keep surviving.