Suicide.pkSmall things that genuinely help
Free, guided exercises you can use right now. No signup, no judgement. Built on evidence-based techniques. Take what helps.
Daily mood check-in
One tap. Stored only on your device, never sent anywhere.
Calm breathing
A guided 4-7-8 breath to settle a racing mind. Two minutes.
5-4-3-2-1 grounding
Come back to the present when anxiety spikes, using your senses.
Muscle relaxation
Tense and release each muscle group. Reduces anxiety and aids sleep.
Worry journal
Get the heavy thoughts out of your head and onto paper.
Worry time
10 minutes of allowed worry, then let it go. CBT-backed technique.
What your result actually means
Reading your PHQ-9 score
How the 0-27 total is built, what the five severity bands mean, why the same person can score differently in two weeks, and the single most important thing the number cannot do.
The instrumentThe nine questions, one by one
People answer item 8 wrong more than any other. A plain walk through all nine items, the two-week window, and how to score honestly when life has an obvious reason to be hard.
Your scoreMinimal, mild, moderate, severe
Why 10 is the number clinicians watch, what changes between one band and the next, and why a band describes symptoms rather than a person.
Ruling things outIs it depression, or is it your thyroid? Nine things that look the same
Anaemia, thyroid, vitamin D and B12, diabetes, sleep debt, grief, burnout, medication side effects and plain exhaustion all push a PHQ-9 score up. What to rule out before you accept the label.
SafetyQuestion 9
The ninth item is the one item that matters regardless of your total. What it is asking, why it is scored separately in practice, and what to do in the next hour.
The instrumentPHQ-2, GAD-7, HADS, BDI, EPDS
A short field guide to the instruments you will meet: which screens for what, which one a Pakistani clinician is most likely to hand you, and why more than one is often used together.