Behavioral Addiction

What Is Behavioral Addiction?

The game, bet, purchase, or feed was supposed to fit around your life. Now sleep, money, work, or relationships suffer. Behavioral addiction describes a rewarding activity that becomes difficult to control and continues despite meaningful harm. Frequent or passionate involvement alone is not enough to identify a disorder. The important questions concern control, priorities, and how daily life is affected.^[1][2]

How Does Behavioral Addiction Differ from Ordinary Behavior?

Many potentially problematic activities are also ordinary sources of pleasure, connection, achievement, or entertainment. Someone may spend many hours gaming, think often about a hobby, shop frequently, or have a strong sexual interest without having a mental disorder.

A diagnosis generally requires a pattern that causes serious distress or disrupts daily life. Someone else disapproving of a hobby or sexual choice is not enough. An assessment considers the person’s circumstances, cultural background and other possible explanations. Giving an ordinary behavior a disorder label can also cause harm, so those distinctions matter.^[7]

Loss of Control as a Possible Sign of Behavioral Addiction

Impaired control means more than making a choice one later regrets. It can involve repeated unsuccessful efforts to reduce or stop, difficulty following self-imposed limits, or continuing automatically despite a genuine intention to do something else.

For gaming disorder, the World Health Organization looks for difficulty controlling gaming, gaming taking priority over other activities, and continuing despite harmful consequences. The pattern must seriously disrupt daily life and would normally have been present for at least 12 months.^[2][8]

When the Behavior Disrupts Daily Life

The clearest concern is what the behavior is costing you. Health professionals may call this “functional harm” or “impairment.” In everyday life, it can mean:

• Debt
• Relationship breakdown
• Missed work or school
• Sleep disruption
• Deteriorating mental health
• Neglect of daily responsibilities

Time spent is relevant but not decisive. A demanding job, competitive hobby, caregiving role, or temporary project may occupy many hours without impaired control or significant harm. Conversely, a behavior occurring less often may still create severe consequences, for example, a short gambling episode involving unaffordable losses. Gambling severity can also fluctuate, so a recent reduction does not erase earlier or continuing harm.^[5]

When an Activity Is a Strong Interest

Strong interest is usually flexible. A highly engaged person can often postpone the activity when needed, meet responsibilities, and continue to experience benefits without serious recurring consequences.

A 2020 online survey of 10,668 adults recruited through social media across China illustrates why engagement and disorder should not be treated as the same thing.^[9] Researchers identified a “high engagement, low risk” group whose members scored highly on thinking about social media and using it more, but reported little mental distress.^[9]

Conflict with life and using social media to change an unpleasant mood were more closely connected with distress.^[9]

That study was cross-sectional, meaning it measured behavior and distress at the same time. It could not establish whether social media problems caused distress, distress encouraged use, or other factors influenced both. People joined through social networks during the pandemic and answered questions about themselves. The researchers used one questionnaire to measure the problem. Those choices limit how well the results describe people outside that group.^[9]

Impulse-Control Disorders

An impulse-control disorder involves repeated difficulty resisting an urge to do something harmful, even when doing it feels rewarding at the time. That can look similar to an addiction. A professional needs to understand the whole pattern before deciding which diagnosis fits.^[3]

Compulsive sexual behavior disorder, for example, is classified in the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision (ICD-11), as an impulse-control disorder rather than as a disorder due to addictive behavior. Its placement remains debated, and it was not included as “hypersexual disorder” in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).^[6]

Obsessive-Compulsive Problems

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) involves recurring thoughts that feel beyond a person’s control, called obsessions, repetitive and excessive behaviors, called compulsions, or both. The term describes a particular disorder. It is not simply another name for any repeated behavior.^[10]

Repeated behavior can have different explanations. The word compulsive describes behavior that feels difficult to resist, stop or delay. Sometimes a person repeats an action to deal with distress. That can happen in several conditions, so the word alone does not tell you whether someone has OCD or an addiction.^[11]

Compulsive sexual behavior disorder is a separate condition from OCD. An assessment also checks for other explanations, including unusually elevated or irritable moods with increased energy, the effects of alcohol or drugs, medication changes, and conditions affecting the brain. These possibilities can change what care the person needs.^[6]

Which Behavioral Addictions Are Recognized Diagnoses?

The words people use when seeking help do not always match the diagnosis they receive. Health professionals use manuals to define conditions. Two commonly used manuals are the American Psychiatric Association’s DSM-5 and the World Health Organization’s ICD-11. They do not classify every behavior in the same way. The comparison explains why a familiar “addiction” label may need a more careful assessment.^[8][3]

Other repetitive activities, including eating, stealing, shopping, sexual behavior, or internet-based activities, may cause genuine problems. That does not establish that each activity is a distinct addiction. Grouping different behaviors together too quickly can obscure their causes, consequences, and appropriate treatments.^[7][3]

How Behavioral Patterns Can Become Hard to Control

There is no single explanation for every behavior that becomes hard to control. Researchers study how rewarding experiences, reminders of an activity, ways of coping with feelings, and other mental health problems may contribute. Similarities with substance addiction can help researchers ask questions, but they do not make every repeated behavior an addiction.^[3][13][6]

Learning and Reward

Rewarding outcomes can strengthen the actions associated with them. In gambling, rewards may include money, excitement, or relief from an unpleasant mood. Researchers propose that learned connections between gambling and positive feelings can help maintain the behavior, but evidence about these associations remains limited.^[3][13]

A cue is a reminder associated with a behavior. Gambling advertisements are one example. Models propose that learned cues can attract attention and reactivate urges or familiar actions. A review of gambling research found too few studies to be sure how much these reminders contribute. This is one possible explanation for urges, not something that has been established for everyone.^[5][13]

Research has identified differences in brain structure and activity among people with gambling disorder, including findings involving regions related to reward and decision-making. However, studies have not always found the same direction of activity, and comparisons cannot determine whether such differences preceded gambling problems, resulted from them, or reflect other factors.^[7]

Emotion Regulation

Emotion regulation means recognizing and responding to feelings in workable ways. A rewarding behavior can become a learned strategy for escaping anxiety, loneliness, boredom, shame, anger, or depressed mood.

Using an activity to cope does not automatically make it an addiction. Assessment considers whether the behavior becomes difficult to control, displaces other priorities, and continues despite significant harm.^[2][7]

A sexual medicine review similarly reported that sexual behavior may become a learned response to negative mood states. It emphasized examining triggers, emotions, thoughts, relationship context, guilt, shame, and the nonsexual purposes the behavior may serve. These factors can inform treatment without assuming one universal cause.^[6]

Co-Occurring Conditions

A co-occurring condition is another health problem present at the same time. Gambling guidance recommends assessing coexisting mental health and substance-use concerns. Assessment of compulsive sexual behavior likewise considers mood, anxiety, substance use, trauma-related, and personality disorders. The relevant pattern needs to be assessed for the specific person and behavior.^[5][6]

Studies that followed people over time found links between later internet-use problems and earlier depression, attention difficulties, social anxiety or hostility. Some followed participants for up to two years. Among adolescents, family conflict and limited rules around internet use were also linked with later problems. These findings are reasons to ask about the person’s wider life, rather than focusing only on screen time.^[7]

A change in sexual behavior may happen alongside an episode of unusually high energy or irritability, a condition affecting the brain, alcohol or drug use, or a medication effect. Tell the professional when the change started and what else changed around that time. They need to consider these possibilities before deciding whether compulsive sexual behavior disorder fits.^[6]

Gambling guidance from the United Kingdom’s National Institute for Health and Care Excellence identifies medicines that may affect impulse control, including some Parkinson’s disease medicines called dopamine agonists and aripiprazole, a medicine used for psychosis. If you are concerned about a possible medication contribution, discuss it with the relevant prescriber rather than changing medication independently.^[5]

What Can Affect the Risk of Behavioral Addiction?

Risk factors increase the likelihood of a problem but do not guarantee that one will develop. Protective factors may reduce risk or help recovery, but they do not make someone immune.

For gambling disorder, risk is shaped by personal and social conditions, the availability and design of gambling products, and wider commercial influences. WHO describes gambling harm as a public-health concern that reaches beyond people who meet diagnostic criteria.^[4]

Reviews have linked gambling problems with impulsivity, substance use, emotional disorders, family addiction problems, conflict, and lower social support. Many studies measured people at only one point in time or included only people already seeking treatment. That makes it hard to tell what came first or whether the findings apply to people outside treatment.^[14]

Studies of gaming problems have used different definitions, questionnaires and groups of people, which helps explain why their results differ. One treatment review found gaming problems more consistently associated with being male. That finding does not mean only boys or men can have gaming disorder, or that gender itself causes it.^[12]

Gambling guidance discusses practical supports such as financial advice, reducing access to gambling sites and marketing, supportive relationships, peer support, and early attention to harms. These are care options, not proven protection against every behavioral addiction.^[5]

In gambling recovery research, greater social support and stronger participation in peer support were associated with abstinence (no gambling), although the direction of that relationship could not be established. People doing better might participate more, or another factor might influence both participation and recovery.^[1]

How Common Are Behavioral Addictions?

Research estimates answer a specific question about a specific group. A percentage of people who gamble is different from a percentage who have gambling problems. The research term prevalence means how common a condition is in the group and time period studied.

Estimates vary with definitions, questionnaires, cutoff scores (the scores used to count someone as meeting a threshold), age groups, countries, recruitment methods, and timeframes. A self-report screening questionnaire is not the same as a structured clinical interview, in which an assessor uses set questions to evaluate symptoms and diagnostic requirements.^[7][9][15]

Gambling Disorder Estimates

A 2024 systematic review searched research published from January 2010 through March 4, 2024. It identified 380 representative samples across 68 countries and territories and combined 366 samples to produce its overall estimates. Most samples came from high-income countries. The search dates describe publication coverage, not a single shared survey year.^[16]

The review estimated that 1.41% of adults worldwide were engaging in problematic gambling, or about 14 per 1,000 adults.^[16] Researchers adjusted the combined results to account for population size. The uncertainty range around the estimate was 1.06%–1.84%, reported as a 95% confidence interval.^[16]

Separately, an estimated 46.2% of adults had gambled in the past 12 months.^[16] That counts participation, not gambling problems. Someone who bought a lottery ticket and someone struggling with gambling losses could both be counted as having gambled.^[16]

The researchers combined results from different studies. They did not assess everyone with one identical diagnostic test. The score used to count someone as having a problem can change the resulting estimate.^[16][13]

For example, a separate treatment review included people with a gambling-disorder diagnosis or scores of at least 5 on the South Oaks Gambling Screen or 8 on the Problem Gambling Severity Index. These were rules for choosing studies for that review. They are not scores you can use by themselves to diagnose yourself.^[13]

Gaming Disorder Estimates

A review combined 61 studies conducted before December 3, 2020, with 227,665 participants in 29 countries.^[17] It estimated gaming disorder in 3.3% of participants, with a 95% confidence interval of 2.6%–4.0%.^[17]

The estimate fell to 2.4%, or about 24 per 1,000 people, when researchers used only the 28 studies whose participants better represented the populations being studied.^[17] Its uncertainty range was 1.7%–3.2%.^[17] This difference shows why the way researchers choose participants matters.^[17]

A further statistical adjustment lowered the estimate to 1.4%, with an uncertainty range of 0.9%–1.9%.^[17] This calculation, called “trim and fill,” explores how results might change if the available studies give an incomplete picture. It is an adjusted research estimate, not a directly measured rate for the United States.^[17]

The studies involved different ages and countries, recruited people in different ways, and used different questions to identify problems. Combining a different selection of studies can therefore produce a different estimate. None of these figures should be treated as a current U.S. rate or a percentage of all gamers.^[17]

For an individual person, WHO’s gaming-disorder requirements concern difficulty controlling gaming, gaming taking priority over other activities, and continuing despite harm. The pattern must seriously disrupt daily life and normally last at least 12 months. A research percentage cannot tell you whether you meet those requirements.^[2]

Internet and Social Media Estimates

Research on problematic social media use uses different definitions and questionnaires. High engagement should not be confused with impaired control and harm. The distinctions above matter more for an individual assessment than applying a percentage from a selected sample to everyone.^[7]

How Do Clinicians Assess Possible Behavioral Addiction?

Assessment asks what is happening, how long it has been happening, what harm it causes, and what else might explain it. A screening questionnaire can identify concerns, but a score should be interpreted alongside the person’s circumstances and daily life.

Control and Priority

A clinician may ask whether the person can delay, limit, or stop the activity, whether attempts to change have repeatedly failed, and whether the behavior increasingly takes priority over sleep, relationships, school, work, health, or other valued activities.

When assessing gambling disorder, a professional asks about repeated attempts to stop, thoughts that keep returning to gambling, gambling to escape difficult feelings, and trying to win back losses by gambling more. They also ask about hiding gambling, putting relationships or opportunities at risk, and relying on others to cover financial losses.^[18]

The DSM-5 diagnostic threshold for gambling disorder includes four or more criteria within 12 months.^[18] The pattern must cause serious distress or disruption to daily life. A professional must also check whether a manic episode better explains the gambling, because that would change the diagnosis.^[19]

A manic episode involves a marked change from someone’s usual mood and activity. The person may feel unusually elated or irritable and be much more active than usual. Tell the assessor about major changes in mood, sleep and energy, as well as the gambling itself.^[20]

Consequences and Severity

Assessment considers the nature and immediacy of harm, not only frequency.

Relevant areas can include:

• Debt, missed payments, borrowing, concealment, or loss of essential funds
• Conflict, broken trust, isolation, or neglect of caregiving responsibilities
• Reduced performance, absence, or lost opportunities at work or school
• Sleep disruption, anxiety, depression, shame, or declining physical health
• Unsafe, unlawful, or nonconsensual behavior
• Thoughts of self-harm or suicide

The American Psychiatric Association describes gambling assessment in terms of the pattern and its consequences: difficulty controlling gambling, chasing losses, concealment, financial reliance on others, and effects on relationships or opportunities. Tell the clinician about other mental health symptoms and medicines as well.^[18]

Context and Duration

A professional asks when the pattern began, whether it happens continuously or comes and goes, and what seems to bring it on. They also ask how it affects different parts of life. For gaming disorder, ICD-11 guidance normally looks for a pattern lasting at least 12 months that seriously disrupts daily life.^[2]

Duration rules should not become a reason to ignore immediate harm. Gambling guidance recognizes that even recent onset or short periods of gambling can produce severe consequences and warrant referral. Suicide risk requires safety support, while debt and financial harms may require practical help alongside assessment.^[5]

Alternative Explanations

A professional also asks about changes in mood, anxiety, traumatic experiences, attention difficulties, alcohol or drug use, medication changes, and conditions affecting the brain. Age, family relationships and the person’s circumstances matter too. You may still need help with the harm even if another diagnosis explains it better.^[5][6]

For children and teenagers, consider school and family functioning, emotional problems, parental conflict, and how internet use is regulated. Time spent alone does not establish gaming disorder: assessment must consider impaired control, consequences, and significant disruption of life. Research also leaves open whether some internet-use problems reflect another mental health condition.^[2][7]

Moral Conflict and Stigma

Distress alone does not settle the diagnosis because its source matters. Moral incongruence occurs when a person’s behavior conflicts with their moral or religious beliefs.

ICD-11 guidance says that feeling distressed only because a sexual behavior conflicts with moral beliefs or attracts disapproval is not enough for this diagnosis. A strong sex drive, consensual sexual choices, masturbation or pornography use do not establish a disorder by themselves. Assessment looks for persistent difficulty with control and serious disruption of daily life.^[6]

A sexual-medicine review describes stronger associations between pornography-use frequency and self-perceived problems among people with greater moral disapproval. Assessment therefore needs to distinguish conflict with values from persistent impaired control and functional harm. Moral distress alone does not establish CSBD, but values and distress still deserve respectful attention.^[6]

What Harms Can Compulsive Behaviors Cause?

Ordinary participation should not be portrayed as inherently dangerous. Concern exists on a spectrum, and the appropriate response depends on impaired control, consequences, and urgency.

Emerging Concern

Early warning signs can include:

• Limits: Repeatedly exceeding intended limits
• Secrecy: Hiding the behavior
• Sleep: Losing sleep
• Coping: Using the behavior as the main response to distress
• Relationships: Experiencing growing conflict

These signs call for honest review and practical changes, even if diagnostic criteria are not met.

People can experience gambling harm before they meet the requirements for a diagnosis. Researchers have studied brief advice and conversations that help people consider change, including among people whose problems are less severe. You can seek help with losses or other consequences now.^[1]

When the Harm Becomes More Serious

More serious patterns may involve accumulating debt, damaged relationships, lost work or educational opportunities, severe sleep disruption, worsening mental health, or persistent inability to change despite consequences.

A Danish registry study of 1,381 people diagnosed with or treated for gambling disorder found higher recorded depression and criminality than in matched comparisons.^[21] These are associations in a largely male clinical sample, not proof that gambling caused each outcome or a description of everyone who gambles.^[21]

Immediate Danger

In the United States, call 988 or text 988 for suicidal thoughts or emotional distress. Call 911 for a life-threatening emergency.^[22]

Seek urgent support when there is risk of self-harm or suicide, or danger to the person or others. Severe debt and financial pressures also warrant prompt practical support, but they should not be treated as interchangeable with an immediate safety emergency.^[5]

Gambling problems are associated with suicide risk. Tell a clinician or crisis counselor if you feel unsafe, and ask for help making a safety plan. Immediate danger needs emergency support. Financial pressures can also be addressed through treatment and practical help.^[18][22]

What Treatments Can Help with Behavioral Addictions?

Treatment should fit the behavior, the harm it is causing, co-occurring conditions, and your goals. There is stronger evidence for some problems than others. A clinician can explain what an approach is expected to change and how you will review progress together.^[18][12][6]

Gambling Treatment

Treatment for gambling problems can help people manage urges, recognize triggers, protect finances, and repair relationships. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a form of talk therapy, is among the most studied approaches. It helps people work on thoughts and habits connected with gambling. Brief advice, help considering a change, and guided self-help can also be useful. Studies differ in participants and follow-up, so a single success rate would be misleading.^[18][1]

Counseling can work alongside practical financial support and peer groups. Ask what contact is available between sessions, what to do after a return to gambling, and how family members can get support for themselves. No medication is FDA-approved specifically for gambling disorder, although medicines may treat co-occurring depression or anxiety.^[18][1]

Gaming Treatment

For gaming problems, CBT and approaches involving families have shown promise, but research results are mixed. A review found 22 treatment studies that differed too much to combine into one reliable estimate of benefit. Ask how treatment will help with sleep, relationships, responsibilities and control over gaming, as well as time spent playing.^[12][2]

Medication studies have been small and often involve co-occurring depression or ADHD. Ask which condition a medicine is intended to treat and what evidence applies to the gaming concern. Preliminary findings do not establish a medication as a standard treatment for every person with gaming disorder.^[12]

Sexual Behavior and Shopping Concerns

For compulsive sexual behavior, care should address impaired control and well-being without treating consensual sexuality or moral distress alone as disease. CBT-based approaches have shown improvement in some studies, but assessment and treatment goals should reflect the person’s circumstances.^[6][11]

For compulsive shopping, care may include talk therapy and help addressing the effects of spending. Research is stronger for some behaviors than others. Ask what experience and evidence support the approach being offered for your particular concern.^[11]

Practical and Family Support

For gambling, treatment may include limiting access to gambling, addressing debt, and planning for triggers. Support from family or friends can help, and affected relatives may need care themselves. Discuss involvement and privacy with the person and the treatment team.^[18][5]

A return to the behavior is a reason to review the plan and reconnect with support, not proof of personal failure. Identify what preceded it, what harm needs attention now, and what should change in the next step of care.^[5]

Explore Specific Behavioral Concerns

Choose the concern you want help understanding:

Technology and Online Activities

Explore the activity that is affecting your time, attention or relationships:

• AI companion overuse
• Phone use
• Social media use
• Video gaming

Other Behaviors and Relationships

Find information about the specific pattern you are concerned about:

• Gambling
• Compulsive shopping
• Compulsive sexual behavior
• Pornography use
• Food and eating concerns
• Exercise
• Love and relationship concerns

For research figures and their context, explore behavioral addiction statistics.

How to Find Help for a Behavior You Cannot Control

Choose a starting point that fits the current level of concern. You do not need to accept an addiction label before addressing harm. You can explore therapy options or search the treatment centers directory, then ask about experience with the specific behavior and any related health needs.

The National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-MY-RESET offers gambling-specific support.^[23]

Find a Therapist Near You or Ask About Online Care

Ask about experience with the specific behavior, not just addiction in general. In Counseling Today, counselor and researcher Amanda L. Giordano, PhD, writes that “counselors should become informed about the specific nature of the addictive behavior.” Her discussion also encourages consultation or supervision when clinicians need additional expertise.^[24]

That gives you a useful question when searching for behavioral addiction therapy near you: “How do you assess and treat the behavior I am concerned about?” Describe what is happening, such as gambling losses, gaming that disrupts school, or spending you cannot control. Ask how the clinician would distinguish this concern from another condition and decide what help fits.

For online treatment, ask your usual provider or insurer about available services. HHS recommends checking whether telehealth fits the health concern, whether the provider accepts your insurance, and what costs you would pay. An online listing alone does not answer those questions.^[25]

Before booking either an in-person or online appointment, ask:

• What experience do you have with this behavior and the harm it is causing?
• What would the assessment include, and how would we agree on treatment goals?
• Can you see me in the state where I will attend appointments?
• What are the fees, insurance arrangements and options if I cannot afford ongoing visits?
• How would we handle privacy, a failed video connection or a need for urgent support?
• Who could help with medication, debt or family support if those needs are outside your service?

A first-contact message can be simple: “I keep returning to a behavior even though it is affecting my life. I want help understanding the pattern and changing its consequences. Do you work with this concern, and what would the first appointment involve?”

If You Are Unsure Whether There Is a Problem

Consider making brief notes about time, money, triggers, attempts to change, sleep, mood, responsibilities, and consequences. These can help you describe the pattern during an assessment. There is no need to wait for a fixed monitoring period before seeking help for harm. Gambling guidance emphasizes history, frequency, health, and consequences rather than a single day’s behavior.^[5]

Ask yourself:

• Can I follow limits I genuinely intend to follow?
• Is the behavior displacing sleep, work, school, relationships, or health?
• Do I continue mainly to escape distress?
• Have I hidden the extent, cost, or consequences?
• Am I struggling to keep my own limits and manage daily life, or am I mainly distressed because the behavior conflicts with my beliefs or someone else disapproves?
• Could medication, substance use, a mood episode, or another condition be contributing?

If Harm Is Growing

Arrange an assessment with a mental health professional or primary care clinician who will examine what is happening, how it affects your life and what else might explain it. For sexual concerns, look for someone who respects consensual sexual choices and does not assume that a strong sex drive or pornography use is a disorder.^[6]

If Gambling Threatens Finances

Seek qualified financial or debt advice if gambling is putting essential expenses or shared finances under pressure. Ask about practical ways to avoid gambling sites, inducements, and marketing, including blocking tools. Financial support can accompany psychological treatment, and a trusted person can be involved if both of you agree.^[5]

The National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET, connects people and families with local resources for gambling-related concerns.^[23]

Family members can seek help for their own financial concerns and mental health, separately or together with the person who gambles. Ask a support provider how to address your needs and communicate without judgment. Involvement in another adult’s treatment should respect consent and the potential benefits and risks for everyone involved.^[5]

If a Child or Teen Is Involved

Look beyond total screen time to whether gaming is difficult to control, displaces important activities, and disrupts school, family, or social functioning. Ask whether internet use is the main problem or a setting in which another mental health problem is appearing. WHO’s diagnostic guidance and reviews emphasize impairment and context, not hours alone.^[2][7]

If the disruption continues, ask a healthcare professional to assess the gaming concern along with mood, anxiety, attention and family difficulties. Treatment involving families or CBT may help, but research is still developing. Ask which changes you and your child should look for and when you will review the plan.^[7][12]

One German study involved 422 adolescents considered at risk of developing gaming or internet-use problems. They received either a four-session CBT-based prevention program or assessment alone. Symptoms improved more in the program group over 12 months, but the study did not clearly establish that the program prevented more new cases of disorder. The findings do not show how well it treats an existing gaming disorder.^[15]

If Safety Is at Risk

In the United States, call 911 for a life-threatening emergency. For suicidal thoughts or emotional distress, call 988 or text 988, or use the 988 Lifeline online chat. A trained crisis counselor is available around the clock.^[22]

For gambling-related harms, ask for help developing a safety plan, a plan for managing immediate risk. United Kingdom guidance also recommends considering available social support while balancing its benefits and risks with the person’s rights.^[5]

If you are in emotional distress or a suicidal crisis in the United States, call 988 or text 988. Call 911 for immediate danger.^[22]