Suicidal thoughts and self-harm

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Welcome to the Suicide and Self-Harm Section

replies: 0

Hi there, Welcome to the Suicide and Self-Harm section of the Beyond Blue Forums. Life gets pretty hard sometimes, and many people here on the Forums have had times where they have thought about harming themselves or ending their life. This can be a deeply distressing experience, and this section is here to support members who have had these experiences. This section is not a crisis support service. If you are in crisis or need immediate help, assistance is not available via these Forums. Please call: Suicide Call Back Service on 1300 659 467 (24/7) Lifeline on 13 11 14 (24/7) If it is an emergency, contact emergency services on 000. This is a place to share where you are at, seek ideas for support and know that you are not alone. We are here to create a safe environment for everyone. Please do not provide any details about any plans/ideas that you may have had to hurt yourself, and importantly, help us to understand if you are safe by letting us know in the post. For some people this section might be difficult to read – if it is not helping how you feel, then please consider moving to another section. This section, like the rest of the Forums, is closely monitored and all posts are reviewed by moderators before publication. Moderators will also ensure that anyone needing follow up will be provided with information about how to access further support. If after a period of time you no longer wish others to engage in the discussion you have started, please use the 'Report Post' button and request the discussion be locked to prevent any further replies. Thank you for being here, we're glad you're here. Treat yourself gently as you read through this section. Beyond Blue

by BeyondBlue •

Community Manager•

Posted in Suicidal thoughts and self-harm

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26-06-2026

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Do you have a safety plan?

replies: 97

Safety planning involves creating a structured plan – ideally with support from your health professional or someone you trust – that you work through when you’re experiencing suicidal thoughts, feelings, distress or crisis. Your safety plan starts with things you can do by yourself, such as thinking about your reasons to live and distracting yourself with enjoyable activities. It then moves on to coping strategies and people you can contact for support – your friends, family and health professionals. The safety planning model was developed in the US by suicide prevention experts Barbara Stanley and Gregory Brown. It has been used extensively by US veterans’ health organisations, hospital emergency departments and high schools, and there is strong evidence that it works. Many health professionals in Australia also use some form of safety planning to support clients experiencing suicidal thoughts or feelings, or after a suicide attempt. beyondblue has an app you can use to create a safety plan, called BeyondNow. The BeyondNow app takes the principles of safety planning and makes it even easier to use – so rather than carrying around a piece of paper, you’ve got it on your phone at all times. It’s free to download from the Apple Store or Google Play. If you don’t have a smartphone or would prefer to use your desktop or laptop, BeyondNow is also available to use on our website. Do you have a safety plan? Do you have questions around how you might create one, or fill out some of the sections? This thread is for discussing ideas around creating a safety plan, and sharing tips about what has been most useful about this process for you. Below are two videos featuring Peter and Nic, who have both used safety plans successfully. Peter Nic

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Tried to call. Feeling very bad. Who can I talk to?

replies: 2

Hello, I need some help. I tried calling the hotline. I said I was experiencing suicidal thoughts and the counsellor ended the call ended after 11 minutes. I wish I never called. I think that's an awful way to treat another human being and I feel worse. I don't understand, who am I supposed to talk to? I told her things aren't working out with my therapist. She told me that I didn't connect with the therapist and that's what happens to people and to just find a new therapist and gave me a website. I expressed that I don't really have the resources for that. Then she ended the call, like that instantly fixes everything. I said oh dear this isn't good, and she continued to end the call. That is very dismissive. I don't understand. What am I supposed to do wait until I'm worse? I just wanted to talk to someone. Who can I talk to? I really regret making that phone call. I just want to get better. I thought the the helplines were supposed to be there for help I don't know what to do about how I am feeling. I don't understand why these scenarios keep popping in my head that I am gone. I don't want to die. I feel very alone and scared right now. I feel like everytime I reach out to another person for support it doesn't work and makes things worse. I don't know what to do. I'm trying to manage it on my own I'm trying to get better. Thanks

Calling the hotline

replies: 2

I want to call the hotline but I am unsure of what it is like and what questions are asked or if I am causing a bother?

It is so hard to go on

replies: 8

Everything has fallen apart and it’s my fault entirely I don’t go through a day without wanting to die I just want it all to end I keep searching for answers but find none I’m giving up as the days go by

i struggle everyday

replies: 2

I hate my life, and I want to die.” I thought “What teenage girl hasn’t had a fight with her friends? My mum thought. The next morning, I didn’t want to go to school, butmy mum made her go. At 10 a.m., my mum received a call from the school’s guidance counselor, who said I wasn’t doing well, and that she needed to get there right away. When she arrived, they spoke about how the idea of suicide had dominated me thoughts for three months. My mum and I went directly to the ER. That’s when she realized my issue was more than teenage angst it was a true mental health crisis. My mum felt scared and helpless. She wasn’t sure where to turn for additional care and treatment. Who should she call? A psychiatrist? Her pediatrician? A family therapist? Beth was lost. I was instantly thrust into the unfamiliar world of caring for a child experiencing a mental health crisis.

I’m lost

replies: 2

I’ve been on antidepressants since 2015 when I was 15 and the last 2 years- especially couple of months I’ve been struggling. I reached out for help to headspace last year but got lost in the system and never heard back from them, followed up and I was too anxious to go through the whole process again because it took a lot the first time. I finally got into the course I’ve been working towards since 2018 and I’m struggling with my mental health more than ever, for the first time in 2 years I relapsed on my self harm and everything’s just falling apart at once. I feel like giving up so much and I’m trying so dam hard not to, I feel like a failure. I switched to part time at tafe and the lecturer made me feel like I was just worthless and lazy when it’s not that, I’m trying so hard to hold on. I reached out to a gp for help and he just said it’s all in my head and barely helped when I was at my lowest 3 weeks ago- which caused me walking out ready to end everything. I was a mess but so lucky I had my partner there who took me back in and made someone see me due to the state I was in. My new gp seems to care and I feel somewhat comfortsbke with her, but I’m finding it so hard to open back up. my meds are being changed so I’m easing off them currently and I’m finding it so so hard, the migraines, my thoughts and emotions I’m struggling. I’m on a waiting list for a psychologist but I’m not even sure how long I can hold on for, I’m so tired of feeling this way. There’s so much going on, my friends don’t want us living where we are anymore and we have no one to live with as my parents aren’t stable due to alcohol abuse and mental illness and my partners lost his dad to suicide and his mum is heavily on drugs. So I’m lost for what to do, this on top of everything is just too much to handle and I feel so trapped. I don’t really know where this post is going but I had to let some of it out, keeping it all in is killing me and my chest feels so tight like I can’t breathe. I thought by this age it would all be a bit better, I’d maybe have some of my stuff together but it just seems to be getting worse and I’m trying so hard to get help but it just seems like I’m such a burden for needing it

14 years of chronic pain, anxiety and depression: should I still have hope?

replies: 8

Hello, I have suffered anxiety, panic and crippling depression for most of my life. 14 years ago, chronic abdominal pain was added to the mix, which is particularly strong right now. I saw every specialist under the sun - including alternative therapies - and I had all tests done and I’m now on too many different meds that give me unbearable side effects. Five years into the chronic pain, I asked around on a free medical forum and two pain specialists, as well as a pain specialist I saw briefly, all said that if I had the pain for five years that it is unlikely that it will ever go away. I thought: why on earth would you tell someone that? Given the power of placebo and the power of the mind on pain, statements like that can well be self fulfilling! I still think about that often. Is this really true? Will I have this pain forever or is there still hope? Hope is everything? My questions are: • Is there still hope? • Are there new treatments I may not be aware of? • When my pain is really strong and I feel very down, especially at night, it would help to online chat with someone - I have diagnosed phone phobia - which I know Beyond Blue offers, but I need to tell the same story to a new person each time. Is it possible to ask for a particular person with a new chat? This may sound strange, and I don’t want anyone to freak out, but when the pain and sadness are really bad, I think about taking an overdose of something that would gently put me to sleep forever. I would never do that and I never made preparations for it, but the thought itself can give me peace. Like at SOME point, when I die, I will be released from this pain. If you have read this far, thank you for your interest in me and my story. If you know of any help out there that I may not have considered, I would be very grateful.

Will the thoughts ever just go away? (TW)

replies: 3

I’m really lost, I haven’t been on this platform in a while and I don’t know what brought me back, I have started going to a psychiatrist since psychology didn’t work very well for me and they suggested prescription medication witch I refused, not because I don’t want to feel better but because I’d rather feel something sometimes then nothing at all, all the time. I still have to take some medication that’s useless and isn’t helping though, I still cannot talk to people. Along with other stuff I’ve also been diagnosed with ASD stage 1 which I kind of understand as she said there is a link between this and eating disorders but I’m still unsure. My parents know I’m still self harming now, I couldn’t tell them but I managed a nod when my mum asked. I feel very lonely, and being lonely is quite a very painful thing. When I first became depressed I never had suicidal intentions or thoughts but now after everything is supposedly going to get better I can’t stop but wanting to die sometimes. Everything I feel, feels wrong, and I feel that everything I do and everything I am will never be good enough for this world, for myself. I want to dig a hole and just lay there for a while until I slowly decompose into nature. I know I’m not a normal kid but sometimes I can act like one, it’s becoming less and less but sometimes I feel okay. But there are other times like now where I can’t help but wonder what my life could have been if I didn’t waste it in my head. I have struggles talking about feelings in person due to anxiety and my ASD but I do have a way with words and music but they don’t always feel like my own. My mum is going to tell my psychiatrist about my self harming and I’m afraid not because I’m scared of her knowing but because I’m afraid that I’ll have to talk about it and when I say I don’t how I feel I can just hear people telling me back “I think you do know” but I don’t and I don’t think I ever will. I’m afraid that if people find out I’m still so sad, worse then before then I’ll make them sad and depressed too, I’m a burden, but I wish I could be a good child, I good friend, sibling. Everything is so stressful and scary I relapse I flush my food down the toilet or throw it in the bin and if people know they’ll be sad, so I hide, I hide it so very deep till I can hardly remember it’s there, but it is, and it won’t go away. My head is a maze and right now I’m so very lost, there is no way out, all the ways are blocked, I am trapped.

Confused at my thoughts

replies: 2

Hi, I am new to these forums and just wanted to ask a question which has been troubling me. Some background: I am 17 and currently feeling pretty lonely, lost and not like me. I started uni this year and haven’t adjusted very well. I do most of uni online because it takes me three hours to get there and back, which has made the experience very lonely. My main social interaction is with my sporting club, but because of my mental health I haven’t been able to train and perform consistently to the standard I want to be at. I am currently in exam week and am finding it hard to get the energy to study. This is making me more worried, because I am not getting the appropriate preparation completed for my exams. To get to the point of the post: For the past couple of months I have been having thoughts and visual images about hurting myself, which I feel are increasing in frequency. Sometimes when I am really down, it is like a mantra going on in my head. I know that I wouldn’t actually act on these thoughts because there are things that I still want to achieve in my life, but it scares me that the thoughts are still there. What I mean to ask, is there actually something wrong, or am I still “just fine” because I know I will not act on these thoughts? I don't want to ask for help if there isn't actually anything wrong going on and I am just over reacting. I have tried talking to my parents but they just dismissed these thoughts because nothing serious has happened to me. As a side note, I just wanted to mention that I am safe.

Why am I like this?

replies: 5

Hi, I'm new here. I wanted to come here to help so I don't really know what I'm doing. Lately, I've been struggling and while I've been fortunate enough to be able to go to see GPs and Psychologists I don't think it's working. I've been thinking a lot about suicide lately and self-harm and I really want to get better: nothing makes me happy anymore and I can't continue acting like everything's fine. I haven't gotten a diagnosis so I don't know whats wrong with me or why I feel like this. I don't know what to do anymore, I have nobody to speak to and half of the time I can't even vent to myself because even I think I'm doing this for attention. Please help me.

How to come out?

replies: 7

Hi all, I'm a 32 year old male that has experienced gender dysphoria since i've been 10. When I was 27, I came out to both of my parents that I wanted to be female. My dad 100% supported me, but my mum doesn't support me at all. She believes its related to my autism, and shes more worried about how my family will feel than how I feel. she actively tries to block me from getting help or talking to anyone about it. It's gotten to the point where i'm having suicidal thoughts almost daily, I don't want to keep living in a body that I hate, when I look in the reflection I see someone I can't stand looking at, and I just don't know what to do. any advice would be helpful, I don't know if i'll have my mums support ever, but I can't just keep holding this off because if I do I just know i'll end up ending my life, and that terrifies me.

Welcome to the Suicide and Self-Harm Section replies: 0

Do you have a safety plan? replies: 97

Tried to call. Feeling very bad. Who can I talk to? replies: 2

Calling the hotline replies: 2

It is so hard to go on replies: 8

i struggle everyday replies: 2

I’m lost replies: 2

14 years of chronic pain, anxiety and depression: should I still have hope? replies: 8

Will the thoughts ever just go away? (TW) replies: 3

Confused at my thoughts replies: 2

Why am I like this? replies: 5

How to come out? replies: 7