One sentence at a time
Practice saying it out loud.
Most people know who they should tell. What stops them is not knowing how the first sentence goes, and not knowing what happens after it. Run it once here first.
How it works
Pick who you’re practicing on and what it’s about. It plays them, and it plays them the way people actually are: a bit awkward, worried, asking a question that lands wrong, then coming round. Not a perfect parent, because a perfect parent would leave you unprepared.
You can stop at any point and ask it what to say instead. It’s still the same chat, so it still saves nothing and still doesn’t know who you are.
Set it up
Who are you practicing on?
What’s it about?
Nothing is saved. Closing this loses it, the same as everywhere else on the site.
If it goes badly in real life
Sometimes it does. Someone reacts with anger, or panic, or by making it about themselves. That is about them and it does not mean you were wrong to say it.
- The first reaction is rarely the final one. People often come back within a day having thought about it.
- You are allowed to end a conversation that has stopped being useful and pick it up later.
- Have a second person in mind before you start. A different relative, a school counselor, a friend’s parent, a coach.
- If it stops feeling safe where you are, 988 is free, answers 24/7, and will talk about exactly this.