Safety
When to stop reading and get help.
This site is for working something out. If it has already become an emergency, reflection is the wrong tool and this page is the more useful one.
Stop now and contact emergency services if
Someone cannot be woken, has had a seizure or fit, is having trouble breathing, has chest pain, is vomiting blood, has collapsed, or has taken alcohol together with other drugs or medication. Also if you are in immediate danger, cannot keep yourself safe, are having thoughts of ending your life, someone in your home has made you afraid, or you are worried about a child's safety. Use your local emergency number.
The SI (super intelligence) guide on this site cannot help with any of that. It cannot contact anyone, cannot monitor you, and will not try to hold a conversation that needs a human being.
If you drink heavily every day
Do not stop suddenly on your own, and do not let anyone talk you into it. Physical alcohol dependence is one of the few conditions where abrupt withdrawal can kill, and the danger window is the first seventy-two hours. Shaking in the morning, sweating, retching, a racing heart, seeing or hearing things that are not there, and severe confusion are the signs that this is medical.
That is a doctor, today, or urgent medical care. Medically managed withdrawal is routine, widely available, and in many places free. It is not a moral event and nobody there will be surprised by you. This site will not suggest a taper, a dose, a medication or a timetable, because that is a clinician's decision made with sight of you.
If you are having thoughts of suicide
This is more common among men who drink than the figures let on, and it does not mean the situation is what it feels like at that hour. Contact your local emergency number if you are in immediate danger. Otherwise a crisis line, your doctor, or a person you trust — in that order of speed.
This site does not publish specific telephone numbers, because a wrong number is worse than none and they change. Free crisis lines exist in almost every country. Search for the one in yours, or ask your doctor.
If someone else is the drinker
If you are frightened of them, or a child is in the house and not safe, that is not a conversation for a chat window. Contact your local emergency number or a domestic abuse service. Being the person who loves a drinker is its own situation with its own guides, and what helps is set out here.
What the SI guide will do
If anything on this page appears in what you write, the guide will stop the ordinary conversation and say so plainly, then point you here. It will not diagnose you, assess how bad it is, ask you to rate anything, or carry on as though the conversation were about planning.
Safety replies are never counted against your daily allowance, never shortened, and never withheld. Nothing commercial is ever shown to someone in trouble.
This page is general information, not medical advice, and not a crisis service. Nothing on this site is monitored by a person.