Overview
What if the most powerful suicide prevention tool we have… is time?
In this groundbreaking episode, suicide prevention expert Dr. Gergö Hadlaczky shares insights from science, strategy, and lived experience about how creating time—even just a few minutes—can change the trajectory of a suicidal crisis.
We explore the rapidity of suicidal crises, how emotional intensity and suicidal thoughts often pass with time, and why time-buying can often help people win the internal debate around living or dying.
Time gives people a second chance at life and a fighting chance to survive.
Rapid-Onset Suicidal Crises: Why Time Matters
Many suicide attempts are not long-planned—they arise from short-term emotional crises. Studies show:
Up to 1 in 4 suicides occur within five minutes of the decision to act.
Emotional surges often come with impulsivity, cognitive constriction, and overwhelming psychological pain.
The autonomic nervous system can only sustain emotional overload for a limited time; intensity often peaks and then passes, much like a squall at sea.
This rapid onset highlights the urgency of timely, calming interventions—even a brief pause can mean the difference between life and death.
Creating Time and Distance: A Life-Saving Strategy
One of the most powerful, evidence-informed strategies in suicide prevention is the concept of “time-based prevention”—creating space between a person in crisis and a potentially fatal action. This strategy doesn’t require prediction (which we are still far from perfecting); instead, it focuses on practical, compassionate interventions that buy time, because in that time, lives can be saved.
Lethal Means Safety: A Starting Point
The most well-known form of time-based prevention is lethal means safety, reducing access to tools that someone might use in a moment of crisis. For instance, building bridge barriers or improving safe firearm storage (e.g., locking guns and storing ammunition separately) slows down access to highly lethal means and has been shown to decrease suicide deaths.
These measures don't remove rights — they create pause, offering a person the vital minutes or hours for suicidal intensity to pass. Studies have consistently shown that people who survive a suicide attempt rarely go on to die by suicide, underscoring how intervening in the moment can change the course of someone’s life.
But It’s Not Just About Means—It’s Also About Building Moments
While means safety is critical, most effective suicide prevention strategies also buy time in other ways:
Safety Planning: Structured conversations that guide people through identifying warning signs, internal coping strategies, social supports, and ways to restrict access to lethal means. Think of the Safety Plan as a time extension plan.
Community Helper (also known as Gatekeeper) Interventions: When trained peers, colleagues, teachers, or friends pause to say, “Are you okay?” and listen deeply, they often help slow down a person in crisis. These moments create connection, and connection creates time.
First Responders as Time Creators: In Sweden, as Dr. Hadlaczky shares, first responders are trained to stay with a person in crisis long enough for the suicidal intensity to subside. Most people who eventually meet with clinicians are already past their peak moment of danger. It's the time in between — on the bridge, on the call, or on the floor of a home — that often makes the difference.
Time is a Doorway
When we buy time, we’re are:
Giving the suicidal person a chance to win the internal debate between despair and hope.
Allowing their environment to shift: perhaps someone reaches out, a problem resolves, or a new option appears.
Creating distance from any catastrophic event allows them to put the painful experience into perspective.
Inviting meaning-making—reframing suicide not only as a crisis, but as part of a bigger existential question: “How do I want to spend my time?”
As Gergö shares, “The role of suicide prevention is not to answer life’s biggest questions for someone, but to help them live long enough to answer them for themselves.”
Means Matter: Why Time and Distance Work
The Role of Ambivalence and Time Buying
Many people who experience suicidal thoughts don’t truly want to die; they want to end unbearable pain.
This internal conflict, known as ambivalence, fluctuates over time. Thoughts of self-harm may come in waves. By slowing down the process—giving time to feel, think, breathe—people often regain clarity and connection.
Drawing from the work of Dr. Ursula Whiteside, we talked about:
“When emotions are on fire, we help people surf the urge. That’s what time does, it gives them space to wait it out.”
Thinking of Crisis as a Time-Limited Squall: Emotional Intensity Always Passes
We liken suicidal crises to emotional squalls: temporary, intense storms that feel overwhelming in the moment.
Psychoeducation around “urge surfing” helps individuals understand:
Crises don’t last forever.
You can expect the intensity to peak and pass.
Don’t make major decisions during the squall—wait for calmer waters.
Research Spotlight: Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA)
Dr. Hadlaczky and others, including researchers like Dr. J. John Mann, are using EMA to measure suicidal ideation, stress, and affect in real time. EMA helps:
Capture fluctuating thoughts and emotions throughout the day
Identify biological and environmental triggers
Inform smarter, time-sensitive interventions
These breakthroughs offer promising pathways to predict and interrupt suicide risk as it unfolds.
About Gergö Hadlaczky
Dr. Gergö Hadlaczky is a suicide prevention researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, one of the world's leading medical universities. His research focuses on community and systems-level suicide prevention, time-based interventions, and advancing early-warning systems for suicide risk. He is a strong advocate for global collaboration and the integration of science into practice and policy.
Show Notes & Resources
Ursula Whiteside – Stop, Drop & Roll https://www.sallyspencerthomas.com/hope-illuminated-podcast/16
Call to Action
Time is our ally.
Time-buying strategies are not reserved for professionals. Everyone of us can:
Slow things down by listening without judgment
Offer presence that says, “You’re not alone, and this moment will pass.”
Whether in schools, workplaces, or faith communities, every moment of connection can become a moment of protection.
If you or someone you love is struggling, remember: you don’t have to act on every thought. With time, things can change. Urges pass. Hope returns.
Let’s invest in research and implementation of time-informed interventions, then educate ourselves and our communities on time-buying practices.