Immediate danger
Call emergency services.
If anyone is in immediate danger or needs urgent medical attention, call your local emergency number now. In the United States, call 911.
Safety comes before the exercise
If someone may be in danger, stop and get real-time help.
Bestead cannot monitor you, contact emergency services, assess risk, or keep a child safe. Do not wait for an app exercise to work when you or someone else may be harmed.
Choose the route that fits now.
Suicide or emotional crisis · U.S.
Call or text 988.
The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is available across the United States and its territories. Call 988, text 988, or use 988 chat.
Child-safety concern · U.S.
Contact Childhelp.
For confidential guidance about possible child abuse or neglect, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453 or visit Childhelp.
Outside the United States
Use local services.
Call your local emergency number for immediate danger. For crisis support by country, Find A Helpline provides a searchable directory maintained outside Bestead.
Resource availability and eligibility vary by location. External services have their own privacy practices and response policies.
If you may lose control
Make the situation safer before calming down.
A short reset may be useful only after immediate safety and appropriate supervision are addressed.
01
Stop the interaction
Put down objects, stop driving if safe to do so, and create physical distance without abandoning a child who needs supervision.
02
Bring in another safe adult
Ask a trusted adult to take over supervision or stay with you if you are afraid of what you might do.
03
Contact real-time help
Use emergency or crisis support when there is danger, suicidal thinking, violent urges, severe disorientation, or inability to keep yourself or someone else safe.
04
Do not return because a timer ended
Return to caregiving only when safety is established. A cooldown timer cannot decide whether you are ready.
Beyond a crisis
When self-guided support is not enough.
You do not need to wait for an emergency to seek qualified help.
Consider a licensed medical or mental-health professional when anger, anxiety, low mood, guilt, intrusive thoughts, sleep problems, substance use, trauma symptoms, or relationship conflict are persistent, severe, worsening, or interfering with daily life.
Seek specialized help early when yelling, threats, intimidation, physical aggression, coercive control, or fear are recurring. An apology or communication exercise is not a safety plan and cannot repair ongoing abuse on its own.
If a child discloses abuse, take the disclosure seriously, prioritize safety, and contact appropriate child-protection, medical, or emergency services. Do not pressure the child to recant, keep a secret, or confront an alleged abuser in a way that increases danger.
About Reset Tools
Available does not mean sufficient.
Bestead keeps its Reset Tools available without a subscription. They include brief breathing, grounding, pause, and support-information options. These can create an interruption in a non-emergency hard moment.
They are not emergency response, therapy, anger treatment, risk assessment, or proof that it is safe to resume an interaction.
Read the exact Reset Tools boundaryImportant
Bestead cannot receive crisis disclosures.
Do not use product support, a journal entry, or an editorial corrections request to seek urgent help. Those channels are not monitored as crisis services. Use the emergency or crisis routes above.
For non-emergency moments