Help right now
You do not have to carry this hour alone.
A trained counselor is available right now, free and confidential, whatever you are carrying. You do not need the right words, a diagnosis, or an emergency to earn the call.
988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, 24/7:
Call or text 988
Or chat online at chat.988lifeline.org
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
Who the Lifeline is for
You do not have to be in the worst moment of your life
The 988 Lifeline is for mental health struggles, emotional distress, alcohol or drug use concerns, or just needing someone to talk to. Its own words: the 988 Lifeline is for everyone. The bar for calling is not danger; it is a hard enough hour.
Conversations are free and confidential, and the line runs 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Nobody needs your name to take the call seriously.
Source: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (SAMHSA), verified October 25, 2026
The routes
One number, several doors
Call or text 988, or chat
The same three digits work by phone and by text, and the chat lives at chat.988lifeline.org. Pick whichever one you can actually do right now; a text sent from a quiet room counts exactly as much as a call.
En Español
Call 988 and press 2, text AYUDA to 988, or start the chat in Spanish. The Spanish text and chat services are fully live.
Veterans and service members
The Veterans Crisis Line answers 24/7/365: call 988 and press 1, text 838255, or chat. It serves veterans, active service members, and the people who love them.
More doors
LGBTQ+ young people can call 988 and press 3 for counselors focused on them. Deaf and hard-of-hearing callers have their own access routes, listed on the Lifeline's site.
Source: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, verified October 25, 2026
When it is 911 instead
Medical emergencies get the medical number
If someone is hurt, unconscious, or in immediate physical danger, call 911. That is true on this page the same as everywhere else on this site. 988 serves every hour around a crisis: the buildup, the hard nights, and the long after.
If you are safe but shaken, 988 is the right first call, and the counselor can help you figure out what, if anything, should happen next. Nothing about reaching out commits you to anything.
Worried about someone
You can call about a person you love
The Lifeline takes calls from people who are worried about someone else: a spouse who has gone quiet, a friend whose messages changed, a kid who is not okay. If someone you know is struggling emotionally or having a hard time, a counselor can help you think through how to show up for them.
You do not need a plan or the perfect words before you check on somebody. Asking directly how they are doing, and staying for the answer, is a skill anyone can use the same day they learn it.
Source: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
After a disaster
The hard weeks after the storm have their own line
Distress after a hurricane, fire, flood, or any disaster is common and real, and it often arrives after the cleanup, not during it. SAMHSA's Disaster Distress Helpline serves exactly this: call or text 1-800-985-5990, toll-free, 24/7, year-round, multilingual, for anyone in the U.S. and its territories dealing with emotional distress from natural or human-caused disasters.
On a preparedness site this deserves saying plainly: recovering households track tarps and insurance claims and forget the people under the roof. The person who handled everything during the storm is allowed to not be fine in November.
Source: SAMHSA Disaster Distress Helpline, verified October 25, 2026
Keep going
More support on this site
Sources: 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline (988lifeline.org, administered through SAMHSA), SAMHSA Disaster Distress Helpline. All claims verified against primary sources. Last reviewed October 25, 2026.
This page is not medical advice or therapy. It is a plain-language map of the help that exists, written so no one has to search for it on a hard day.