This is temporary, and I only have to get to morning.
Use it when
- You are thinking about ending your life, and you have told nobody
- It is late, it is bad, and there is nobody in the room
- Reaching for somebody feels like more than you can manage
- The tools that usually work are not touching this
- You are close to deciding something that cannot be undone
The steps
- Say a number out loud, then dial it. Nine-eight-eight, call or text. You do not need the right words first, and you do not need to have decided anything. Saying the number is the step.
- Do not be on your own to sort this out. Go where there is another person, even a stranger, even silently. This state will tell you to be alone with it. Being alone with it is what it feeds on.
- Turn the input down. Lights lower, screen face down, one window open. Less coming at you, not more. The same reduction you would offer somebody else.
- One physical step, not a plan. Feet flat on the floor. One slow breath out. A glass of water. That is the entire task, and finishing it is the point of it.
- Tell one person one sentence. "I am not doing well tonight." You do not have to explain it, justify it, or make it make sense to them.
- Decide nothing tonight. Anything that can wait until morning waits until morning. This state ends, and the conclusions it hands you do not survive it.
What to expect
You may not feel any better for saying the number out loud, and saying it is still the step. Nothing here asks you to explain yourself, and nothing has to be decided before morning.
If this isn't the one
- You are through tonight and it is the next day → The Baseline Reset
- You are safe and the thought is still running → The Thought Reset
- Somebody is with you now → The Co-Regulation Sequence
Where it comes from
- Session 17 — the full handout
- Session 17 — Crisis and Escalation Plan
- Supported
Prefer it one step at a time? The same protocol as a guided runner in the app, which also keeps a private record if you want one.
This is one of the tools a seventeen-session series teaches, ninety minutes at a time, in a room of six to twelve people. It is peer-facilitated, free to host, and every handout and worksheet it uses is free to take.
Where this one comes from
You have just run one protocol. Behind it is one idea: everything you do is paid for out of a single account, and almost nothing is charged at the moment you do it — which is why the fifth repetition is worse than five times the first, and why a bad night does not present its bill until the following afternoon. Shoulder the Bill is that argument as one continuous read, written out of a workplace injury and the four years afterwards. The manual is the one you open at a page. The Workbook is the one you write in.
three books, one system →Check what stayed 3 questions
Answer in your own words, out loud or on paper. Nothing is scored, nothing is marked, and nothing is stored — this is for noticing what you have, not for anybody to grade.
The Crisis Response Sequence is written for a helper. Who is this one written for?
What the material says
You are the one who is not safe, and you are on your own with it.
The sequence opens with a single action, before anything is worked out. What is it?
What does the last step say to do about anything that can wait?