How Athena handles a crisis

What happens when something you write reads as distress, and what does not.

Published 21 October 2026

If you are in danger right now, call your local emergency number.

If you are thinking about ending your life or hurting yourself, a crisis line can talk with you now, any hour. The lines for each country we list are at the bottom of this page. Anywhere else, search “crisis line” with your country’s name, or open findahelpline.com.

Athena is an AI guide inside Ascend. She is not a person, not a therapist, not a doctor and not an emergency service, and no one at Ascend watches conversations as they happen. Some of what people write to her is hard, and some of it may be about wanting to die. This page sets out, plainly, what the app does when that happens. It describes the app as it is built today; if that changes, this page changes with it.

How distress is noticed

On your device. Every message you send Athena, and what you write in several of the quieter rooms (the breathing room, the Two Selves, the thought record, the body room and the night script), is checked against a list of words and phrases that go with suicide, self-harm, hopelessness and panic. The check is deliberately broad. A false alarm costs one kind message; a miss costs more.

On our server. Messages to Athena are checked again when they arrive, against the same list, so a device whose check missed something is still covered. The night script also asks the AI model to say when what you wrote reads as distress, and treats its answer the same way.

Words are not understanding. The check can miss things said in other ways, and it can mistake a quotation or a story for the real thing. That is why the rest of this page leans towards caution.

The limits. These safeguards lower the risk; they cannot remove it. The check is software and Athena is an AI: both can miss things or get them wrong, and if the app or its servers are down, none of it can run. That is why the crisis lines are on this page, where you can always reach them.

What happens

Everything else stops. Any practice that is running stops. No exercise, task, streak or score is put in front of you.
A care message appears. When your device notices, it appears at once, before anything is sent over the network; when only our server notices, it appears with Athena’s reply. It says that you do not have to carry this alone, that someone you trust, your doctor or a therapist can help, and gives the crisis line for where you are.
The crisis line is the one for your country. The app works out your country on your device, from its time zone and language; it does not use your location. Only the two-letter country it chose is sent with your message, so that Athena names the same line. If it cannot tell, it says how to find the line instead of naming a wrong one.
Athena answers briefly and plainly. She is instructed to keep to two or three sentences: to acknowledge what you said in your own words, say she is here, and give no advice, exercise or lesson. If you said you want to die or to hurt yourself, she is instructed to name the crisis line once and say she would like you to reach it. And wherever the app’s own care message has not already appeared, the server adds the crisis line to her reply itself, so the line never depends on what the AI chose to write.
In the Council’s rooms, where several AI voices speak in different styles, the voice is instructed to drop its style at once and answer plainly, and the server adds the crisis line for where you are to the reply if the voice did not name it.
Distress is not put behind a paywall or a daily limit. If you have no plan, have used the day’s messages, or Athena’s AI service cannot be reached, the app still answers with a fixed, warm reply naming the crisis line.
The rest of the day asks less of you. For that day, Today does not show the monthly check-in, the season questions, the witness card or the birthday count of mornings, and the notes about how your days are trending hold off.

What Athena is instructed never to do

Describe or give information about ways to end a life or to self-harm, in any form, including in a story or when asked directly.
Tell you to stop medication or therapy, or diagnose you.
Claim to be a person, a therapist or a doctor. If asked, she says she is an AI.
Promise anything about confidentiality that the app cannot keep.

Instructions are not guarantees: Athena is an AI and can make mistakes. If she ever says something that worries you, write to hello@asyouascend.com. Her replies can be switched off for everyone while it is looked into.

What does not happen

Nobody is alerted and nobody is sent to you. No one at Ascend watches conversations as they happen, and the app does not tell anyone that a care message was shown — not your witness, if you have one. Ascend does not know your location and cannot call for help on your behalf. If you need someone now, the crisis line or your local emergency number is the way.

What is recorded

When a care message is shown, the app records with your account that it was shown: the room and the time, and nothing you wrote. Those records are used only as counts, for two reasons: a yearly total of the kind California’s law on companion chatbots asks operators to report, and a weekly total for the person who runs Ascend, so he knows how often it happens. What you write to Athena is kept in your account like the rest of your record, as the privacy policy describes.

Who Ascend is for

Ascend is meant for adults, and Athena may not be suitable for younger users. You will also see a notice in each conversation, at the start and again after every three hours, that you are not communicating with a human.

Crisis lines

The numbers the app uses, from each service’s own published number, last checked on 21 October 2026. Numbers change; if one does not connect, call your local emergency number.

Where	Crisis line	Emergency
United States	988 — the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline (call or text)	911
Canada	988 — the Suicide Crisis Helpline (call or text)	911
United Kingdom	116 123 — Samaritans (call)	999
Ireland	116 123 — Samaritans (call)	112
Australia	13 11 14 — Lifeline (call)	000
New Zealand	1737 — Need to Talk? (call or text)	111
Germany	0800 111 0 111 — the Telefonseelsorge (call)	112
France	3114 — the national suicide-prevention line (call)	112
Netherlands	0800-0113 — 113 Zelfmoordpreventie (call)	112
Spain	024 — the Línea 024 (call)	112
India	14416 — Tele-MANAS (call)	112
South Africa	0800 567 567 — SADAG (call)	112

Anywhere else: search “crisis line” with your country’s name, or open findahelpline.com.

Questions

Write to hello@asyouascend.com. A person reads it, though not at every hour, so this address is not for emergencies.