diff --git a/ArtificialAutism/src/main/java/PresentationLayer/DiscordHandler.java b/ArtificialAutism/src/main/java/PresentationLayer/DiscordHandler.java
index 314a2a6b..faff4c29 100644
--- a/ArtificialAutism/src/main/java/PresentationLayer/DiscordHandler.java
+++ b/ArtificialAutism/src/main/java/PresentationLayer/DiscordHandler.java
@@ -109,8 +109,14 @@ public class DiscordHandler extends ListenerAdapter {
                     }
                 }
                 final String contentF = content;
-                new RunnerClient(contentF, mentionedBot, channelName, datahandler, stanfordCoreNLP, stanfordCoreNLPSentiment,
-                        event, username);
+                try {
+                    new RunnerClient(contentF, mentionedBot, channelName, datahandler, stanfordCoreNLP, stanfordCoreNLPSentiment,
+                            event, username);
+                } catch (Exception e) {
+                    e.printStackTrace();
+                    System.exit(1);
+                        //the JDA library wants to keep the program alive even when an error is happening. hopefully this just makes the program crash when an error happens.
+                }
             }
         }
     }