A Pamphlet
The Guide to Crisis

This is not medical advice.
It's one person's perspective on surviving hard moments.
It cannot replace professional care.

If you're thinking about suicide,
stop here and call or text 988 (US)
or go to findahelpline.com

How to Use This

Find the chapter that names what you're in. Read it. That's all.

If nothing fits, start with "You're Not Crazy."

Contents

1. The One Thing
2. You're Not Crazy
3. When Fear Takes Over
4. When The Body Won't Cooperate
5. When You Can't Stop
6. The Longest Night
7. When Someone Is Gone
8. When You Know Better
9. When Nothing Goes Right
10. Tools
11. When This Isn't Enough

1. The One Thing

If you take nothing else from this pamphlet:

Notice.

That's the practice. Not "fix." Not "change." Not "stop."

Just: notice.

Notice what you're feeling. Notice it's feedback — not punishment, not proof you're broken. Just your system telling you something.

You're suffering because you're not at steady state yet. That's all. Not a verdict. Just: not there yet.

With noticing, choice appears. You can notice you're panicking and keep panicking. You don't have to do anything about it.

But now you have a choice you didn't have before.

Day by day when you can. Hour by hour when you can't. Minute by minute when an hour is too long. Breath by breath when a minute is impossible.

There's always a frame small enough to survive. Find it. Stay in it.

2. You're Not Crazy

You're not crazy.
Read that again.
You're not crazy.

You're overwhelmed. That's different.

Here's how you know you're still here:

• You're reading this.
• You've made it to this exact moment.
• You're questioning — that questioning means part of you is still watching.

Look at one thing in front of you. Name it. Out loud if you can.

You're still here.

3. When Fear Takes Over

If this might be a medical emergency (chest pain, first-time symptoms, etc.) — call 911 now.

If you've been here before and know it's panic:

You are not dying. You are not going crazy. Your body is wrong about the danger, but it is not broken.

Your only job: do not make permanent decisions while this wave is peaking.

The way out is through. Let it pass over you.

One phrase that sometimes helps:
"I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me."

4. When The Body Won't Cooperate

Chronic illness, chronic pain, disability, a body you hate — none of that disqualifies you from this practice.

This pamphlet doesn't require a body that works. It requires only that you notice you exist.

If you can notice any sensation at all — pain included — you're here. That's enough.

5. When You Can't Stop

Restlessness, looping thoughts, skin-crawling energy.

If you can move — move. Walk, shake, push against a wall.

If you can't — clench every muscle for five seconds, release. Repeat.

If even that's too much — just name it: "This is restlessness." You don't have to fix it. You just have to survive it.

6. The Longest Night

Sometimes nothing works. Sometimes you just endure.

Time stretches because you're measuring every second.

Shrink the frame until it fits:

• One hour — too big?
• One minute — too big?
• One breath — too big?

Find the smallest survivable unit. Stay there.

Your only job tonight: no permanent decisions.

7. When Someone Is Gone

Grief is love with nowhere to go.

You can't grieve what you didn't love. The size of the grief is the size of the love.

The pain is the collision between the world you had and the world you have now.

You can't undo the collision. You can be with it.

8. When You Know Better

You know what you're doing is wrong and you're doing it anyway.

Shame doesn't help. If it worked, you'd have stopped.

Try dropping the judgment layer, not the behavior (you may not be able to drop that yet).

If the behavior harms you or others — get professional help. You can drop shame and still get help.

9. When Nothing Goes Right

No big trauma. Just endless small disappointments stacking up.

The weight is cumulative. You're not weak — you're carrying fifty pounds of pebbles.

You don't need permission to set the backpack down for a minute.

Stop adding new pebbles today. That's enough.

10. Tools

5-4-3-2-1 Grounding
5 things you see. 4 you can touch. 3 you hear. 2 you smell. 1 you taste.

If stuck in thought
Name it out loud: "This is anxiety." Write it if you can.

If you can laugh
Find anything remotely funny, even dark. Laughter is your body saying "I can still release."

Phrases
I have arrived. I am home. — This too. — Just this.

11. When This Isn't Enough

Get professional help if you:

• want to harm yourself or others
• see/hear things others don't
• can't eat, sleep, or function
• have been suffering many days

If you have prescribed rescue medication — this is the moment to use it.

Crisis survival is not healing. You deserve both.

The End

You never actually left.

You've been here the whole time — reading, noticing, breathing.

You're already home.