Updated 24 October 2026
If you're thinking about ending your life, talk to someone now. Call Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000, or Lagos Lifeline on 0700 000 6463. Both are free and answered 24 hours a day, and Lagos Lifeline is open to callers anywhere in Nigeria. If you'd rather type, message Lagos Lifeline on WhatsApp on 0909 000 6463. In immediate danger, call 112, or 767 in Lagos, or go to the nearest hospital emergency unit.
Suicide is preventable. Thoughts of suicide are a sign of deep pain, not weakness, and with support they can ease. If you're worried about someone, ask them directly whether they're thinking about suicide. Research finds that asking doesn't make suicidal thoughts worse. Then listen, help them stay safe, and help them reach support.
If you're struggling right now
You don't have to work out the whole future today. Focus on getting through the next few hours:
- Tell someone how you feel. A friend, a family member, a faith leader, a colleague. You don't have to explain everything.
- Call a free line that's open now. Safe Place Nigeria on 0800 800 2000, or Lagos Lifeline on 0700 000 6463 (WhatsApp 0909 000 6463). Someone there can talk you through the moment, and Lagos Lifeline's counsellors can also help you make a safety plan.
- Get to a safe place, and be around other people. A friend's house, a busy room, anywhere you won't be alone.
- Put distance between you and anything you could use to harm yourself. Hand it to someone you trust, or leave the place it's in.
- Stay away from alcohol and drugs while you feel like this.
- If you feel you might act on the thoughts, call 112, or 767 in Lagos, go to the nearest hospital emergency unit, or ask someone to take you.
If you've made a safety plan, now is the time to use it. If you haven't, the section below explains how to make one when you're calmer.
Warning signs to take seriously
There's no checklist that can predict suicide, and not everyone shows signs. But many people do, and signs are most worrying when they follow a loss, a painful event or a big change. Take these seriously, particularly if they're new or getting worse:
- Talk: saying they want to die, feel like a burden, or have no reason to live; feeling great guilt or shame.
- Feelings: hopelessness, feeling trapped, unbearable pain, or being unusually anxious, agitated or angry.
- Behaviour: withdrawing from people, saying goodbye, giving away important things, taking dangerous risks, drinking or using drugs more, sleeping or eating much more or less.
- A sudden calm or relief after a long, low period.
Several of these together, or any talk of death, is reason to ask. In men, depression can show up as anger, irritability or drinking more rather than sadness; our guide to checking on your guy friends has words you can use.
How to help someone
- Ask directly, in private. "Are you thinking about suicide?" Research consistently finds that asking doesn't increase suicidal thoughts.
- Listen without judging. Don't argue, preach or tell them how lucky they are. Let them talk.
- Don't promise to keep it secret. Say you care too much to keep it to yourself, and that you'll help them get support.
- Help keep them safe. Ask whether they have a plan. If they do, or you think they're in danger now, don't leave them alone, and help put things they could use out of reach.
- Connect them to help. Call a crisis line together, help them book a doctor or therapist, or go with them to a hospital emergency unit.
- Check in afterwards. A message the next day, and the days after, matters.
Our guide to how to ask the question goes through this step by step, including what to say and what to avoid.
Making a safety plan
A safety plan is a short, personal list you write on a calmer day, for use when thoughts of suicide come. In a crisis it's hard to think clearly; the plan does the thinking for you. A widely used approach, developed by the psychologists Barbara Stanley and Gregory Brown, works through these ideas in order:
- noticing your own warning signs that a crisis is building
- things you can do alone to calm or distract yourself
- people and places that take your mind off things
- specific people you can ask for help, with their numbers
- professionals and crisis lines you can call
- making your surroundings safer while the risk lasts
- the reasons you have for living
UK guidance from NICE and the NHS suggests making one, ideally with a professional, and keeping it with you. In studies, safety plans were linked with less suicidal behaviour, though not with fewer suicidal thoughts, so use one alongside other support, not instead of it. Lagos Lifeline's counsellors can help you make a safety plan on a call. Our guide to making a safety plan before you need it walks you through each step.
What raises and lowers the risk
There's rarely a single cause. Many things can add up:
- A previous suicide attempt, which WHO describes as the strongest risk factor of all.
- Depression, and problems with alcohol or drugs. In a survey of adults in 21 of Nigeria's 36 states in the early 2000s, mood disorders were the condition most closely linked with suicidal thoughts and attempts. Our depression guide explains what helps.
- A crisis that overwhelms coping, such as money problems, a relationship breaking down, or long-term pain or illness.
- Loss, violence, abuse and isolation. Loneliness is one of several things that can raise the risk.
- Discrimination and exclusion.
Things that protect people include good access to mental health care, close ties to family and community, skills for solving problems and coping, and beliefs, including faith, that encourage connection and seeking help.
Timing matters too. In that survey, the risk of thoughts turning into plans, and plans into action, was highest in the first year after they began. That's a reason to get support early, not to wait.
Treatment and support that help
Treating what lies behind suicidal thoughts is part of preventing suicide:
- Talking therapy. UK guidance says adults who have self-harmed should be offered a structured therapy based on cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), usually over several sessions. For young people who self-harm often, a therapy called dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) has good evidence.
- Treating depression, alcohol or drug problems is part of suicide prevention. If you might need medication, see a doctor or psychiatrist.
- Help in hospital after a crisis. Brief suicide-prevention help in an emergency unit or hospital ward, which links people to ongoing care, has been linked with fewer later attempts.
Therapy on Mytherapist.ng can help between crises: with a safety plan, with what lies behind the thoughts, and with getting through the weeks after a hard time. You can find a therapist who works with depression and low mood by video, voice or chat. It isn't an emergency service, and there's no clinician on call, so in immediate danger use 112 or 767, a hospital emergency unit or a crisis line.
What you tell a therapist stays confidential, with one limit: if they believe there's a real and immediate risk that you'll be seriously harmed, or that you'll seriously harm someone else, including a child, they may need to act. That can mean contacting emergency services or someone who can reach you. Wherever it's safe to, they'll tell you when they're doing this. It isn't a punishment, and it doesn't end your care. Our guide on when a therapist can break confidentiality explains more.
Suicide prevention in Nigeria
Worldwide, about 727,000 people died by suicide in 2021, according to the World Health Organization. Nearly three in four of those deaths were in low- and middle-income countries, and suicide was the third leading cause of death among people aged 15 to 29.
Nobody knows exactly how many Nigerians die by suicide. WHO says Nigeria's death registration data can't be used for this, so any national rate you see is a statistical estimate, and estimates change a lot from one revision to the next. In that survey of adults in 21 states in the early 2000s, about 3 in 100 said they'd thought about suicide at some point in their lives.
Stigma makes it harder to speak up. In one Nigerian survey, about half the people asked saw a suicide attempt as bringing shame on the family. Faith can be a real source of hope and support, and a pastor or imam can be the person who helps someone get care. Our guide to answering family who say "pray about it" may help if faith and help-seeking feel at odds.
Is attempted suicide a crime in Nigeria?
For now, yes. Attempted suicide is still an offence under the Criminal Code in the south and the Penal Code in the north and Abuja, with up to a year in prison. In Lagos it's a lesser offence, and the law directs the court to order hospital care.
Change is under way. In August 2026 the Federal Executive Council approved an amendment to the National Mental Health Act to decriminalise it, and in October 2026 the Senate advanced a separate bill at second reading that would do the same and set up suicide prevention services. Neither is law yet.
WHO says laws like these put people off seeking help in time, because they fear legal consequences and stigma. Don't let the law stop you, or anyone you love, from getting help. Crisis lines and hospitals are there to care for people.
If you've lost someone
Losing someone to suicide can bring a grief that's especially hard, often with guilt and questions no one can answer. A suicide rarely has a single cause, and you're allowed to grieve openly. You can call Safe Place Nigeria or Lagos Lifeline for support for yourself too. A therapist can help with grief like this; our guide to coping with grief and loss is a starting point.
Where to get help now
- Safe Place Nigeria: 0800 800 2000. Toll-free, answered 24 hours a day.
- Lagos Lifeline: 0700 000 6463 or 0201 410 6463, WhatsApp 0909 000 6463. Free, 24 hours, open to callers anywhere in Nigeria.
- SURPIN: 0800 078 7746, toll-free.
- In immediate danger: call 112, or 767 in Lagos, or go to the nearest hospital emergency unit. In Lagos, the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Yaba runs a 24-hour emergency unit; see what to expect at Yaba.
The helpline numbers above were checked against each organisation's own website on 22 October 2026. More numbers are on our helplines page.
This guide is awaiting clinical review. It's based on published research and health guidelines, and we'll update it once a clinician has reviewed it.
