A website is not a person.
If you are thinking of ending your life, if someone is hurting you, or if you cannot keep yourself safe tonight, please do not read on and hope it passes. Reach someone who can pick up. Everything on this site can wait. You cannot.
In India
- Emergency112
Police, ambulance, fire. Any phone, any network.
Government mental health line. Free, 24 hours, in many Indian languages.
- iCall9152987821
Counselling by phone and email, from TISS. Monday to Saturday, 10am to 8pm.
24 hours, every day.
- AASRA+91 9820466726
24 hours, for anyone in distress or thinking of ending their life.
Elsewhere
- United Kingdom and Ireland116 123
Samaritans
- United States and Canada988
Suicide and Crisis Lifeline
- Australia13 11 14
Lifeline
- New Zealand1737
Need to Talk
- Any other country
findahelpline.com lists free, confidential lines by country.
If someone is hurting you
Call the police. In India that is 112. If the person hurting you is someone in the Church, tell the police first and the Church second, and know that telling is not disloyalty. It is what the Gospel asks of anyone who sees a small one harmed. You do not need to have the words right. You do not need proof. You need to be safe, and then to be believed, and the first is not negotiable.
If a child is in danger, in India call Childline on 1098.
This is not a failure of faith
Some readers will hesitate here, because somewhere along the way they were taught that a person of faith should be able to pray their way through anything. That teaching has hurt a great many people. Picking up the phone to a doctor or a counsellor is exactly what a wounded person is meant to do. God is in that help as surely as He is in any prayer, and prayer walks beside a doctor’s care rather than standing in its place. He is not waiting on the far side of your recovery. He is in the room with you now, including the room where you make the call.
You do not have to arrive tonight. He is walking at your pace.