Suicide Support · Psychoeducation
After a crisis
Getting through a crisis is not the finish line. The days after can feel raw, flat, or ashamed. Staying alive is a practice — small, repeated, human.
A safety plan (research-backed shape)
Modeled on the Stanley–Brown Safety Planning Intervention — collaborative, written, used when the dark gets loud.
- Warning signs you personally notice (mood, sleep, isolation, substance use).
- Internal coping — cold water, walk, music, prayer, grounding — what actually lands for your nervous system.
- People & places for distraction (not yet “I’m in crisis”).
- People for help — two names you can tell you are struggling.
- Professionals — 988, text HOME to 741741, your therapist, local walk-in (Raleigh).
- Environment — reduce access to the most dangerous means with trusted help or a crisis counselor.
SPI reduced suicidal behavior ~45% with follow-up in a VA ED study; meta-analysis ~43% reduction in behavior. Details: Evidence & studies
Day-to-day staying alive (CBT · ACT · DBT flavor)
- Body basics (behavioral activation roots): food, water, sleep window, meds if prescribed.
- One human contact per day — even a short text. Isolation feeds despair.
- Shrink the day: three small “musts,” not a productivity reset.
- Name the story (CBT): “I’m a burden / nothing changes” — write one piece of counter-evidence, however small.
- Values inch (ACT): one tiny action toward care, honesty, faith, craft, or kinship.
- Ride the wave (DBT distress tolerance): urge surfing, TIPP-style body resets, opposite action when shame says hide.
Hubs: CBT · ACT · DBT · Check-ins · Hope & meaning
Keep care in the loop
Follow up with a clinician. Write down what happened and what helped, so it’s there when you need it. If thoughts return with intensity, treat that as a signal to use crisis lines again — not as failure.