How To Build A Safety Plan for Suicide Prevention
How To Build A Safety Plan for Suicide Prevention

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Sara Abbott shares a practical, personal guide to building a suicide safety plan, using her own warning signs and coping tools as examples. The episode focuses on staying alive through structured support, clear steps and a reminder of reasons for living.

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18:19•11 Sept 2026

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Building a Safety Plan for Suicidal Thoughts with Sara Abbott

Episode Overview

Identify specific warning signs that signal you are moving towards crisis, including thoughts, behaviours and triggers.
Create a list of internal coping strategies you can use alone, such as journaling, naps, walks, colouring, comfort films and self-validation.
Name external supports and safe places, including friends, family, nature spots, coffee shops, car drives and simple distractions like window shopping.
Write down people you can ask directly for help, give them a copy of your safety plan and include professionals, hospitals and crisis lines with contact details.
Add a clear statement about what you are living for and keep multiple copies of your safety plan accessible on your phone, in your wallet and at home.

“The only thing that we care about is that we stay alive or that you stay alive.”

What makes a recovery story truly inspiring? Here, Sara Abbott cuts through clinical jargon and shares her very personal, practical way of staying alive when suicidal thoughts hit hard. Speaking openly about her own recent crisis, triggered by her dog Nova’s hospital stay, she walks through how she builds a suicide safety plan step by step, using her life as the template.

You’ll hear her outline clear warning signs, from thoughts of being better off dead to arguments, family trauma, self-harm, isolation and money stress. She then lays out simple internal coping strategies: journaling, naps, walks, colouring while watching Harry Potter, doing hair and makeup, reminding herself why she stays sober, and repeating self-validating phrases like, “Sarah, you are good. You are loved.” Sara doesn’t stop at solo tools.

She talks about external supports such as texting friends, reaching out to her mum and husband Talon, heading to the mountains or beach, sitting in a coffee shop, going for a drive with comfort music, or wandering around discount shops just for the distraction. She explains how to identify people you can ask for direct help, and why giving trusted folks a copy of your safety plan matters when you’re too overwhelmed to use it on your own.

The episode also spells out how to list professionals, hospitals, crisis lines and when hospitalisation becomes necessary, all while stressing there’s no “correct” way to use a safety plan – the only goal is staying alive. Sara finishes by focusing on reasons for living: her dog, her husband, and “a lot of mountains left to climb,” tying it back to her core values of supporting others and seeking joy.

If you’ve ever wondered how to turn chaotic suicidal thoughts into a concrete, usable plan, this candid, down-to-earth guide might be the framework you build on next.

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