
How One Teen’s Suicide Attempt Led to a Life-Changing App
Episode 2 | 5m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
Hannah and her brother are saving lives by creating a digital panic button.
In this short documentary, mental health activist Hannah Lucas shares the story of her chronic illness diagnosis and the struggles with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation that came with it. After a startling suicide attempt, she and her brother decided to develop an app for people who are struggling to reach out to loved ones when they need help.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback

How One Teen’s Suicide Attempt Led to a Life-Changing App
Episode 2 | 5m 10sVideo has Closed Captions
In this short documentary, mental health activist Hannah Lucas shares the story of her chronic illness diagnosis and the struggles with anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation that came with it. After a startling suicide attempt, she and her brother decided to develop an app for people who are struggling to reach out to loved ones when they need help.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
How to Watch Out of the Dark
Out of the Dark is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, and Vizio.
Providing Support for PBS.org
Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipHANNAH: When I was younger I was definitely a really happy kid.
Super active.
Really energetic.
My life revolved around sports, but it was sometimes extremely competitive.
Like I just remember they made little kids watch all of these videos on mental toughness.
MAN: You channel your emotional energy into a direct attack.
HANNAH: And like telling us that mental toughness was just sucking everything up and you're not allowed to have emotions and so I had to appear so strong for everyone.
But sometime in high school I was at a volleyball tournament.
COACH: Hey, let's go guys, come on let's go.
HANNAH: And I was absolutely killing it.
And our team won and it was like we did it guys, woo!
But then at the end when we were shaking hands with the opposite team, I passed out.
GIRL: Oh my gosh, is she ok?
HANNAH: And then it just happened again.
GIRL: Did she pass out?
What happened?
HANNAH: And again.
GIRL: Is she ok?
Hannah?
HANNAH: And I couldn't stay conscious.
GIRL: Hannah, wake up.
HANNAH: The doctors didn't know what was going on, I didn't know what was going on, my parents were freaking out.
It was really, really terrifying.
I was finally diagnosed with a mysterious chronic illness that no one really knows how to treat.
After this diagnosis I just felt so out of control of my life.
I went from an athlete to someone who couldn't even walk some days.
And that made the perfect environment for me to spiral into really bad depression and anxiety.
CHARLIE: When Hannah's health started to change it was just really scary.
Watching her fall so fast.
I didn't really know what was happening because we didn't talk about depression especially as a family.
And I thought that when she was struggling I was helpless.
HANNAH: My depression got so bad that I just didn't feel like participating in life.
So one night, I waited until everyone went to sleep.
Wrote a little letter, stuck it on my bed and yea.
My mom, she found me, handful of pills, mouthful of pills and the horror in her eyes is the reason I vowed never to let myself get that low ever again.
So that very night, I had this random thought that was like, I wish there was a button to press that would tell everyone that I'm not ok. And then a week later I told my brother about it.
CHARLIE: She just came up to me and she's like, "I have this really cool idea for an app and I think that you could help me.
I just want a button that I can press that sends a message to people that I know."
And I was like, "Ok, let's go!"
So I taught myself how to develop and create apps that summer.
It was really empowering knowing that this was a way that I could help her.
I was making the app just for Hannah, not really for anyone else, we thought that we would get like five other downloads, so I was so surprised when thousands of people started downloading it.
HANNAH: So far we have over 100,000 users and I never thought I'd say that.
There was one review where a mom said you "saved my daughters life."
She pressed your button instead of jumping out of her bedroom window.
And I was like, damn.
Struggling with mental illness has completely altered the way I see mental toughness.
Now I see mental toughness more as knowing it's ok to reach out for help.
I'm still fighting depression and anxiety, but I'm getting better and better each battle.
- Science and Nature
A series about fails in history that have resulted in major discoveries and inventions.
Support for PBS provided by: