diff --git a/Modules/faulthandler.c b/Modules/faulthandler.c
index c17ffd8..27f7c4e 100644
--- a/Modules/faulthandler.c
+++ b/Modules/faulthandler.c
@@ -911,6 +911,13 @@ faulthandler_fatal_error_py(PyObject *self, PyObject *args)
 }
 
 #if defined(HAVE_SIGALTSTACK) && defined(HAVE_SIGACTION)
+
+/* GCC 5 may optimize this as a tail call, which will
+   result in an infinite loop, not a stack overflow */
+#ifdef __GNUC__
+#pragma GCC push_options
+#pragma GCC optimize ("O0")
+#endif
 static void*
 stack_overflow(void *min_sp, void *max_sp, size_t *depth)
 {
@@ -924,6 +931,9 @@ stack_overflow(void *min_sp, void *max_sp, size_t *depth)
     buffer[4095] = 0;
     return stack_overflow(min_sp, max_sp, depth);
 }
+#ifdef __GNUC__
+#pragma GCC pop_options
+#endif
 
 static PyObject *
 faulthandler_stack_overflow(PyObject *self)