If you are in immediate danger, or someone else is, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. If you or someone you know is struggling or having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or chat online at 988lifeline.org. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is free, confidential and available 24 hours a day. You do not need to finish reading, researching or comparing anything first. These numbers are for the United States; if you are elsewhere, contact your local emergency number or health service.
The rest of this page is for the moment after that: sorting whether what you or someone you care about is experiencing is a “keep researching” situation or a “get help now” situation.
The Short Answer: When Research Should Stop and Help Should Start
Reading about mood, focus, memory or sleep is reasonable when a change is mild and you are trying to understand it. It is the wrong tool when safety is in question, when something changes suddenly and severely, or when it becomes hard to tell what is real. An article, a product page or a forum thread cannot assess an emergency. A trained person can.
Urgent-Help Decision Card
Use this card as a sorting aid, not a diagnosis. If you cannot tell which row fits, our editorial suggestion is to treat it as the more urgent one and contact help.
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room if:
- The situation is life-threatening. NIMH directs people to call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room in life-threatening situations.
Call or text 988 (or chat online) if:
- You or someone you know is struggling or having thoughts of suicide. NIMH points to the 988 Lifeline for exactly this.
- You are in emotional distress and need someone to talk to right now. NIMH describes the Lifeline as support for anyone in suicidal crisis or emotional distress, and the Lifeline itself says it is “for everyone.”
Contact a healthcare provider if:
- You or someone close to you has changes such as suspiciousness or paranoid ideas, trouble thinking clearly, difficulty telling reality from fantasy, confused speech, disrupted sleep or a sudden drop in grades or job performance, and the changes intensify or do not go away. NIMH lists these among the early warning signs of psychosis and advises reaching out to a health care provider.
- A memory change is sudden, getting worse quickly or interfering with daily life. Our guide to memory changes and when to worry explains why that pattern calls for medical attention.
Keep learning, and plan a regular appointment, if:
- The change is mild, gradual and not affecting safety. Our guide to preparing for a mental health conversation can help you organize questions for a primary care provider or mental health professional.
Limit of this card: the only specific early warning signs we could verify from a primary source for this page are NIMH's list for psychosis. It is not a complete list of every situation that needs urgent help, and absence from the list does not mean a situation is safe.
What to Know About Contacting 988
NIMH says you can call or text 988 or start a chat online to connect with a trained crisis counselor, in confidence, at any hour. The 988 Lifeline says it is available 24/7/365, that its text and chat services are available in Spanish, and that it has a dedicated resource for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.
Other Lines Listed by NIMH
- Veterans Crisis Line: call 988 and then press 1, text 838255, or use the online chat. NIMH describes it as available to all veterans regardless of VA enrollment status.
- Disaster Distress Helpline: call or text 1-800-985-5990 for crisis counseling related to disasters, with interpretation services in more than 100 languages, according to NIMH.
Prepare Before a Hard Moment
The 988 Lifeline's self-help guidance suggests putting the number 988 into your phone, and recognizing your personal warning signs by asking what thoughts, images, moods, situations and behaviors tell you a crisis may be developing. Doing this when you are calm makes it easier to act when you are not. If you want help judging whether a specific phone number or website is legitimate, see our article on how to verify a local emergency and support resource.
If You Were Reading Because of a Mood or Focus Claim
Many people reach pages like this after searching for ways to feel better or concentrate. If what you are experiencing matches any row of the card above, set the research aside and contact help first. Questions about supplements, routines or other approaches can wait, and are best raised with a licensed healthcare provider who knows your history and current medications. NIMH notes that a qualified mental health professional, such as a psychologist, psychiatrist or social worker, can provide a thorough assessment and accurate diagnosis.
Limits of This Page
This is general educational information from the GlobalMHSummit.com Research Team. It is not medical advice, it cannot tell you whether you are in an emergency, and it does not replace a conversation with a professional. Our Medical Disclaimer and Editorial Standards explain how we handle health content. If anything here conflicts with advice from an emergency responder or your clinician, follow theirs.
Sources
Sources opened and checked on October 6, 2026.
- National Institute of Mental Health: Mental Health Crisis Resources and Finding Help (page shows last reviewed April 2026): 911 and emergency room guidance, 988 Lifeline, Veterans Crisis Line, Disaster Distress Helpline.
- National Institute of Mental Health: Suicide Prevention (page shows last reviewed August 2025): 988 for anyone who is struggling or knows someone who is, and 911 for life-threatening situations.
- National Institute of Mental Health: Understanding Psychosis: early warning signs, when to reach out to a health care provider, and who can provide a diagnosis.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 24/7/365 availability, “for everyone,” Spanish text and chat, deaf and hard-of-hearing resource.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: How Can You Help Yourself?: saving 988 in your phone and recognizing personal warning signs.