There’s an oft-cited statistic during the holiday season that suicide rates go up around Christmas. That isn’t true; what is true is that right after the holiday season, there is an uptick in suicide rates. Particularly as the semester starts up again and college students go back to their woefully understaffed mental health programs at school, the long stretch after Christmas accentuates feelings of hopelessness and futility that lead to suicide.

I am not a mental health professional; I’m just a guy who’s lived the feeling of dread at thinking about life stretching out ahead, who’s spent far too long turning the idea around in my head, considering it from all its angles. If these descriptions are sounding familiar to you, you owe it to yourself and the people who care about you to secure a lifeline.

But as mentioned, mental health resources are stretched desperately thin in many areas of the country, particularly at colleges and universities. And there are the additional wrinkles of insurance and cost to consider. If, for those reasons or others, professional mental health services are unavailable to you, you still have some options.

The Suicide Prevention Lifeline website has a large number of free resources which cover ways you can help yourself, or if you’re concerned for the safety of a friend, they have lists of warning signs and good practices for taking care of them. And, of course, there’s the Suicide Prevention Lifeline itself, 1-800-273-8255.

Another crucial step is to remove straightforward methods of suicide from your environment. The big one is firearms; gun ownership is one of the biggest risk factors for suicide. If you own a gun and have considered suicide, you should consider asking a close friend to keep it for you until you can secure treatment.

Similar advice applies if you have easy access to potentially lethal medications; in my case, I refused a prescription for beta blockers because of their life-threatening interaction with alcohol.

Unfortunately, the most widespread category of potentially dangerous medication is undoubtedly opioids, abuse of which is itself a risk factor for suicide.

The most important step, though, is to build a support network for yourself. Letting people in on how you’re feeling is hard. There’s no natural segue into a conversation about suicide; we don’t like to talk about it. It will be uncomfortable and emotional, but it’s also critically important.

Just by having the conversation, you will discover how much the people around you care and want to help, and that on its own can make the difference.