June 30th, 2017. The day my best friend texted me something that forever changed my life.

“I don’t want to live anymore.”

I never saw this coming. This lifelong friend of mine had succeeded in all areas of his life was seemingly on track to achieve great things. He was the last person I would have suspected to be questioning his own life.

When I received that text, my stomach sank. I had no idea what to do or how to help my best friend. I felt truly helpless at that moment and what made me feel even more anxious was that I was thousands of miles away.

I immediately went to Google and searched “how to talk a friend out of being suicidal.” The first result I found sent me to a suicide helpline, so I called the number to find resources.

The voice on the other end of the line helped with a few questions to ask my friend, and I wrote them down. Yet as I thought about the conversation, it felt like there was all this information describing what could happen but nothing to allow me to know I was taking the right steps to help. My mind was racing, and I continued to search, but I wasn’t able to find much of any information on what to do or how to talk to my friend.

This helpless feeling and position I was in with my friend, is why I created thetadproject.org. I founded a non-profit organization to reevaluate and reconstruct how we talk about getting help for depression and crisis moments.

The immediate goal of our platform is to solve the critical problem that I and many others have experienced when facing a crisis situation with a friend. At TAD, we are helping people find the right crisis help that delivers emergency steps and connects individuals within seconds.

There is a delicate and critical moment that occurs when an individual is under such distress and that time period can sometimes determine life or death. At The TAD Project, we want to bring clarity and practical information to help save lives in those critical moments and beyond.

Whether you are going through emotional turmoil yourself or you know someone who is, the clarity and education around those moments are not where they need to be. The TAD Project is determined to change that. Please support us in taking a proactive approach towards changing the conversation around depression and suicide prevention.

If you have any questions or want to learn more about what we are up to, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Talk. Share. Help.