Safety

Getting help now

WITHSTAND does not monitor crisis status and does not dispatch emergency services. Nobody reads this page as it is opened, and no session is watched by staff in real time. If someone is in danger, contact local emergency services yourself.

These are the same reviewed resources the app carries. The app stores them on the device, so the list opens with no network and no account.

United States

• For immediate physical danger, call emergency services now: 911.
• 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call 988, or text 988. 988lifeline.org

Japan （日本）

• 生命の危険が切迫しているときの緊急通報です。119番（救急・消防）、110番（警察）。
• よりそいホットライン：0120-279-338／24時間・無料です。チャットやSNSでの相談もあります。
• #いのちSOS：0120-061-338／24時間・無料です。
• あなたのいばしょ チャット相談：24時間365日・匿名・無料です。電話が難しいときに、チャットで 相談できます。 talkme.jp

Anywhere else

Contact your local emergency services. For a directory of helplines by country, see findahelpline.com. WITHSTAND does not guess at a hotline number for a country whose resources it has not reviewed.

Who WITHSTAND is for

Adults, 18 or older. Age is self-attested at sign-up and is not verified. An account credibly belonging to a minor is suspended pending review.

Peer presence covers behavioral addictive urges and unwanted habits. The specific behavior differs from person to person; what they share is the shape of the difficult window, and members choose their own focus inside the app.

The peer session is not designed for, and is not adequate care in:

• intoxication or overdose;
• severe physical withdrawal;
• immediate danger of self-harm;
• violence or abuse emergencies;
• psychosis or severe disorientation;
• medical emergencies.

In any of those situations, use the resources above. The app’s immediate help screen stays reachable throughout, including for people it cannot otherwise serve.

What WITHSTAND does not claim

• that it prevents relapse;
• that it treats addiction;
• that it produces clinical outcomes;
• that it replaces therapy, sponsorship, mutual-aid meetings, or emergency services;
• that a human peer will be available when you ask;
• confidentiality beyond what the privacy page describes.

How a session is constrained

Anonymous peer sessions carry only a fixed set of signals defined by the server. Members cannot use them to send free-text chat, voice, video, images, or links. That removes the usual routes to grooming, solicitation, harassment by message, and identity exposure, and it is why an anonymous peer cannot ask you for contact details in the first place.

Personal Circle has one narrow free-text field: each person chooses one display name for an invited, mutual relationship. The name has length and format limits and cannot be edited after the connection is created. Personal Circle still has no chat, direct messages, public profiles, photos, or links. Do not put contact details or identifying information in the name. A member can mute requests, end the relationship, or block the other member; if a name is inappropriate, the member can also contact support.

Peers are asked to stay present, follow the safe action the requesting member picked, and leave safely if they become triggered. They are asked not to diagnose, not to give financial, medical, legal, or religious directives, not to claim professional qualifications, not to promise future availability, and not to form an exclusive relationship. Everyone acknowledges this guide before their first turn as a peer.

A member may meet a previous peer again, but cannot choose, follow, schedule, message, or monitor them, and matching limits how often the same two people meet.

Peer load is capped rather than encouraged: a limited number of sessions in a row, a limited number per day, one Watch window at a time, and no penalty for declining or for resting.

Truthful availability

The app never implies a person is coming before one has accepted. There are no invented names, no simulated presence, no AI substitute presented as a person, and no fabricated availability numbers. When no peer accepts before the timeout, the app says that no one is available yet and offers breathing, your plan, closing access, another attempt, and immediate help.

Reporting, blocking, and what a reviewer sees

Report and block are reachable during a session and afterwards, including a session started through Personal Circle. Blocking is mutual in effect: a blocked pair is never matched again.

A human reviewer sees report metadata, the session’s signal timeline, connection events, how many distinct members have reported the account before, blocks, roughly how old the account is, and coarse device risk signals. A reviewer does not see your Recovery Plan or your check-ins. Automatic restrictions triggered by patterns of abuse are reversible and recorded.

Reports, blocks, and safety records outlive an account that is deleted, attached to a record that no longer identifies anyone. Deleting your account explains exactly what that keeps and why.

Limits of this page

This page describes how the product works. It is not clinical guidance, and it is not legal advice. If you are working with a therapist, a physician, a sponsor, or a support service, WITHSTAND is meant to sit alongside that, not in place of it.