Content Warning: self-harm, suicide
Our guest blogger for Suicide Prevention Awareness Month is Vu. He’s been on the launch team that has helped created large suicide prevention programs since 2003. Vu is also a father and TTRPG writer.
I’ve worked in suicide prevention for twenty years. Specifically, I help create hotlines. I was there at the start of the:
- Suicide Prevention Resource Center
- National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 988
- Veterans Crisis Line: 988, Press 1
- Games and Online Harassment Hotline: Text SUPPORT to 23368
- All Nations Native Hotline: Text SUPPORT to 402-275-2444
I’ve stood on bridges, at train crossings and in school cafeterias asking the same question – “How do we get people to stop killing themselves?”
My approach lately has been to get really granular, to find a way to approach specific community-based needs rather than serving the millions who call the hotlines I’ve helped launch.
I just found out that not only do I work in mental health, I’m also a consumer! I’ve been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and when I think back to the many times I’ve visited my local game store, wanting to sit down with folks playing a game, but being too scared to bother them, that diagnosis makes sense. But our community is so warm and welcoming! Rolling dice around a table with friends has gotten me through so many hard times. So, with a new mission—design a program based on the games I love for people just like me—I’m creating a new resource inspired by and in collaboration with the tabletop gaming community.
Initiative
While we get this up and running, you can get creative about mental health and supporting yourself and your community. The 988 Lifeline is there 24/7 to help if you or someone you know is in suicidal crisis. But for a variety of reasons, not everyone calls hotlines. Here is how you can save a life:
- Familiarize yourself with the Warning Signs for Suicide and take them seriously, every time.
- If you think someone is suicidal, ask. Asking won’t make someone suicidal when they’re not.
- Offer to reach out to the hotline or to a therapist on their behalf
- The biggest one: if it’s you that is in crisis, tell people who love you. Tell them plainly and directly. Don’t use social media for this! Algorithms and platform-censored words like “suicide” can prevent people from seeing your post.
Meeting People Where They Are
This has become such a non-profit catchphrase! But to me, it means building programs that seem so natural that they’re almost too obvious. Here’s one, using the party members from above:
When people are in suicidal crisis, one of the things that keeps them alive is having something to look forward to, some reason to stay alive. It can be anything from “I have tickets for the Menzingers next month” to “I want to be at my kid’s black belt ceremony.”
Game night is a perfect anchor for a safety plan: “My party is going to need their tank, I have to be there for them.” But game nights, especially TTRPGs, are notoriously tenuous, especially as life gets more complicated for players. Someone’s kid gets sick, the GM has to work late, traffic on I-35 is too bad to make the trek from north to south. Reliability is vital to any kind of mental health resource.
Thinking about this, I realized that a natural solution is to host mental health specific drop-in games. These would be consistent weekly gaming sessions using a virtual tabletop, run by guest GMs, offered to anyone experiencing a mental health crisis. During the game session, players would have access to a private Discord channel with a trained crisis counselor.
The game would happen weekly so that, no matter what, there will always be a game available and people who care about you.
Resourcing the Community
We need to put together a well-balanced party. Humans naturally want to help each other, but after the last 4 years, many of us are simply tapped. There’s too much everything: too much pain, loneliness, COVID-19 loss and, conversely, COVID-19 fatigue. The surgeon general’s newest advisory points to the epidemic of loneliness and isolation in the U.S. So, using the thing we love—games—let’s put together a party. At our disposal, we have:
- People trained in mental health—therapists and hotline workers
- GMs
- Players
- A virtual tabletop system provider (here’s looking at you, Roll20)
- Celebrity GMs and cast members
- Publishers and games industry folks
TTRPG players are naturally equal parts creative, strategic and community-focused. This community, more than any other, has a chance to work together to support people in suicidal or mental crisis.
Sometimes a game is just a game, and sometimes it’s a chance to be supported and to support each other. This is a small, welcoming and loving community. I’m excited to see what we can do together to keep people alive.
If you want to be part of the weekly drop-in program, get in touch with me at chris.vu.le@gmail.com.
If you or anyone you know is struggling with mental health call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org