People who have been suicidal share what helped them get through the darkest times

Trigger Warning: Suicidal Ideation

Recent years have seen a promising rise in conversations surrounding mental health and the importance of seeking professional help. This has also opened avenues of research into the leading causes of suicide and debunked a number of dangerous and misinformed myths about such tendencies and thoughts. For example, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, "no one takes their life for a single reason. Life stresses combined with known risk factors, such as childhood trauma, substance use—or even chronic physical pain—can contribute to someone taking their life."

The organization also reveals that "limiting a person’s access to methods of killing themselves dramatically decreases suicide rates in communities," and that if an individual "can get through the intense, and short, moment of active suicidal crisis, chances are they will not die by suicide." Redditor firegate2233 sought to find the key to overcoming such moments of suicidal crisis when they took to the AskReddit forum with the following question: "Formerly suicidal Redditors, what's something that kept you alive a little while longer and helped you to get through the dark times in your lives?"

The answers that followed were some of the most powerful revelations ever made on the internet. Here are 25 of the most striking answers:

1.

2.

"I called someone I barely knew a couple of days before I planned it to basically unload what I couldn't say to those closest to me. It sounds backward, I know, but I wasn't really thinking straight back then. I don't think they understood the reason for the call because we shifted to talking about roommates and I had a good laugh for the first time in a while. I decided after we hung up that if a stranger could make me smile that I wanted to try to meet those who could make me happier and hopefully be that person for someone else. A year later and I can happily say I'm better and enjoying life, I found that the only real person though that can make me happy was myself. I just needed to give him a chance.
That person that I originally called, I am still in contact with them but haven't told them how much they helped me that day yet mostly out of being nervous lol. I hope to repay them though, with never leaving their side because they came to mine without even realizing it and I am forever grateful.
My advice to anyone making this far is it doesn't cost you anything to listen and be nice, someday you may help someone more than you will ever realize!" — Kaplet 

3.

"My brother! He found my note about an hour before I planned to do it while looking for a lost charger. He talked me down and reminded me how loved I was. Love you bro!" — Sad-Abbreviations239

4.

5.

"I was suicidal and taking Xanax but I took too much on accident, I could feel a weight on my chest type of feeling. I was scared shitless from it. The day after when I finally felt like I was able to do something I adopted a puppy. She’s been my reason to get up in the morning for over a year." — OpheliaLakewood 

6.

"My 9-year-old daughter. About 18 months ago, I was in a very bad place but I am a single dad and I would not do anything to hurt my daughter." — aussiegreenie 

7.

8.

"Knowing that my mum wouldn't have someone to walk her down the aisle when she married my now-step father. My dad had died three years prior and I think it would have broken her completely." — ElectroMod 

9.

"I finished a suicide note and folded it into my wallet on the bus ride back onto base after a weekend of binge drinking on the beach to avoid every person I could. When I got back to the barracks I looked at my rack mate and told him exactly what I wrote down in that note and instead of making things worse he genuinely helped me, and reminded me that not every Marine is meant to do a full term. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned and it’s okay to take that DD-214 early, even if it will disappoint your family. We still talk around the holidays every year." — TunaIn2D 

10.

11.

"I used to really enjoy going to gigs, so when I was struggling with depression I'd make sure I had tickets to see a band I liked. On the particularly bad days, I'd think "it'd be silly to do anything before I see them play". Seems a bit silly to write but it worked for me - I guess have something to look forward to, whatever it is." — isdnpro 

12.

"The thought that any of my students might look at my desicion and choose to follow in my footsteps. I could accept my own death, but I couldn't stand the idea of theirs." — PossiblyTrueInfo 

13.

14.

"I used to think, 'I can't do it because my parents would be crushed.' Eventually, even that wasn't enough. I found a thread on Reddit that was nothing but comments and stories from people whose loved one committed suicide. That did it for me. I sobbed because it took this ambiguous notion of 'it would hurt mom and dad' and turned it into something more concrete. Instead of just knowing they'd be upset, that thread helped me see how it would affect them in the long term. I turned to that thread several times over a two-year period. I haven't had to read in a long time, but I think that thread did help save my life." — littledetours 

15.

"Stubbornness. When I was in middle and high school, the first time I was suicidal, I thought I wouldn't make it to 25. When I got out of that I decided I was going to make it to 25, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I'm 25 now but I made it this far. If the mental illness wants me dead so badly it needs to shut down my organs and kill me its damn self, because I'm not going anywhere. Also, my pets. I don't want to be without my pets. They were the only things that made me happy, and even when I didn't feel like anyone else loved me I knew they did." — CaroAurelia 

16.

17.

"I would set a date for an event I was looking forward to. For example, season 2 of x show or book 2 of trilogy won’t be released till Jan 2021 so I’ll agree to do that and then kill myself. More often than not there was another thing to wait for by the time I got to that date. I did this for a few years and am now glad that I am alive today." — inscopia 

18.

"My cat found me in the bush in the back of my house at 3am and wouldn't leave me alone. She headbutted me and rubbed into my legs as I stood there with the knife trying to get her to to away. Had her for 20 years until she passed 2 years ago. Something about her that night broke me out of the crushing darkness momentarily and allowed me to get therapy to deal with the problems. Love you Kiss." — Roadside2493 

19.

20.

"The thought that killing myself meant those who didn’t believe in me, won. So I refuse to die, out of spite. Watch me live and succeed in life, now." — miserymishri 

21.

"I was standing on a bridge over the Mississippi River in Minneapolis with the intention to jump, and I took about 5 minutes to look over the edge and decide whether to land on the water or concrete slab 30 feet or so below. Then the thought crossed my mind to walk to the other side of the bridge and think about it on the way back. So I walked, then walked past where I was standing, and back to my car. When I got back into my car I burst into tears. Ugly crying, screaming, hitting my steering wheel, the works. I was 3 steps from being dead. One on to the concrete, one over the rail, and the last off the edge. That was the lowest I had ever sunk. I think what kept me going was the thought of lost potential. I was working a monotonous job that didn't challenge me, had no friends, and had so much love to give to someone who I hadn't met yet. I didn't want to lose any of that, so I devoted my life moving forward to growth and challenging myself. Now, 2 years and 1 month later, I have my own house, a loving girlfriend, a fun and challenging job, and am in the best mental state of my life. I'm glad I didn't jump." — TheMerk10 

22.

23.

"A hug from a friend that lasted just a little longer than normal. It let me know that someone cared about me and was willing to invest in me more than just the minimum. It game me the tiniest spark of hope where there had been none. Sometimes it’s the small things that matter most." — hey_tenor 

24.

"There was a page online that talked me down and convinced me to give it 24 hours. So I made a deal with the devil, fortunately I felt less shitty once the time was up and I continued to keep living." — Sandman1031 

25.