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Prompts to help you think through your story
Tell us about yourself.
Help readers get to know you. Include the things you love and love doing. Only disclose the personal details you feel comfortable sharing and leave out any information you would not want publicly known.
Think about why you want to share your experience with others.
Do you want to raise awareness or are you looking for support? If it is the latter, we recommend you also browse resources to support yourself here.
What do you wish people understood about your experience?
What were some factors or key moments that led you to experience thoughts of suicide? Think about what aspects of your personal experience you wish to share and remember that you should only share details that you are comfortable disclosing on a public forum.
Tell us about your experience getting support for your thoughts and feelings of suicide.
It can be helpful to share parts of your experience that demonstrate the importance of seeking help early, and promote hope and recovery. You could talk about people, activities and actions that supported your recovery and helped you cope. These elements in your story will illustrate the value of finding coping skills that work for you and connecting to support.
Share your present experience. How are you today?
How are you different today? What helps you make the decision to stay alive and keep working to make a life worth living for yourself? How do you cope with any ongoing struggles? Share what is going well in your life, as well as any ongoing support you have in place such as a safety plan. Focus on sharing hope for others.
Your message of hope for others.
Looking back at your journey, and looking forward to the future, what would you say is one of your biggest learnings that you’d like to share with others? Why do you think it is important to talk about your story?
Please aim to keep your submission between 500-700 words. If you have any questions, please feel free to write to contact@outlive.in
A Note from those who’ve shared their story
If you are currently experiencing suicidal thoughts, feelings or behaviours you should call a crisis helpline number or talk to a trusted adult or friend before submitting your story on Outlive. Visit here to find resources to support yourself.
Senjuti, 22
A Note from those who’ve shared their story
If you are currently experiencing suicidal thoughts, feelings or behaviours you should call a crisis helpline number or talk to a trusted adult or friend before submitting your story on Outlive. Visit here to find resources to support yourself.
Senjuti, 22
questions about sharing your story
If you answer yes to any one of these, we invite you to share your experience with Outlive.
- Have you experienced thoughts of suicide or acted on them?
- Have you supported a loved one who has experienced such feelings or acted on them?
- Have you lost someone to suicide?
Talking openly about suicide can make a big difference in breaking the stigma around suicide and help young people find the support they need. Your story can inspire other young people and let them know that they are not alone.
You can share your story as a blog, poetry, video, art or as an audio file. You can even submit your story anonymously if that is your preference. We request all non-blog submissions to be shared through an open sharing link such as Drive or Dropbox, along with a description to help readers understand and interpret the submission in context. We will not publish information, images, art or vidoes related to methods of self-harm or suicide.
Stories are edited by Outlive staff for spelling, grammar, clarity, length, and to meet our editorial guidelines. We may suggest edits or changes to your submission based on the impact we want to create. The edited draft will be shared with you for your approval before publishing. Published stories are distributed through the Outlive website, and our communications channels (social media, press releases, newsletters).
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