experience w/ hotlines

[redpaint]

how it feels to message 988:
recovery is difficult. and i can't afford therapy at the moment so i've been trying to use hotlines. dunno if they help a ton but it's good to vent to a stranger i suppose. it just overall feels robotic and unnatural. i can't bring myself to be honest with the counselors online… i just end up lying and saying that i feel better and i'm stable.
that ant meme truly embodies me in this moment.

 

[timf]

Calling a hotline can be like talking to a random stranger. You might find a spectrum of possible results. While a hotline may vary in effectiveness, you shouldn't run into those who would be angry, mocking, or manipulative.

 

[Renee]

Awe Red paint. I go thought the same. my insurance won;t cover marriage counselling. I told a doctor wouldn't it be better/cheaper than a patient killing them self? They said yes. and changed the subject. lolol cries...

This is really an effed up situation- in 1970 when I was 12 my parents found out I was into girl stuff- Transgender was not invented word yet. They took me to a child psychiatrist. I was sent off to military school 3 years to get reprogrammed as a boy and was in 10 years conversion therapy. I was not cured of being trans, but it did make me very self transphobic. It was like, Ok make it last resort but if worse comes to worse we rather have a dead son than a living daughter.

Back then the next to worst thing a son could be was gay only surpassed by being a sissy, cross dresser, trans, and etc. My father told me I wish tou are not my son, but since you are I wish I could kill you,

 

[Akanea]

how it feels to message 988:
recovery is difficult. and i can't afford therapy at the moment so i've been trying to use hotlines. dunno if they help a ton but it's good to vent to a stranger i suppose. it just overall feels robotic and unnatural. i can't bring myself to be honest with the counselors online… i just end up lying and saying that i feel better and i'm stable.
that ant meme truly embodies me in this moment.

You could be lucky and find an empathetic person or a jerk sadly. HaVe you tried the recovery partner thread? If you need a stranger to talk you can find one there. l'm available myself if you need to talk.

Awe Red paint. I go thought the same. my insurance won;t cover marriage counselling. I told a doctor wouldn't it be better/cheaper than a patient killing them self? They said yes. and changed the subject. lolol cries...

This is really an effed up situation- in 1970 when I was 12 my parents found out I was into girl stuff- Transgender was not invented word yet. They took me to a child psychiatrist. I was sent off to military school 3 years to get reprogrammed as a boy and was in 10 years conversion therapy. I was not cured of being trans, but it did make me very self transphobic. It was like, Ok make it last resort but if worse comes to worse we rather have a dead son than a living daughter.

Back then the next to worst thing a son could be was gay only surpassed by being a sissy, cross dresser, trans, and etc. My father told me I wish tou are not my son, but since you are I wish I could kill you,

Aw that's dark, i hope you managed to get rid of your self hatred now. It's a good thing that mentality slowly change, but people who were born at the time where being gay/trans was worthy of murder suffered so much, even today

 

[MentalStefan]

I called them once (not sure, possibly more times but I can't remember the other ones) and I will never do this again. They kept asking if I feel suicidal. I tried to hide this at the beginning but eventually they gave me so much pressure that I gave up and revealed that I had been feeling sucidal. They notified the cops. Overally It was more like an interrogation than helping. They asked many questions and sometimes repeated low-effort platitudes like "it's never too late" and so on. When cops came they hung up. I didn't expect that. Cops forced me to reveal my sensitive information about history of my mental illnesses, noted something and wanted to put me into psych ward. Local mental hospital is the worst place in the world and I didn't want to be there at all costs. Finally cops "showed mercy" (according to their words) and left me alone.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

I wss a volunteer at one. A lot of the volunteers aren't necessary that clinically skilled and policy forces them to be robotic and distant. In general as far as suicidal ideation goes these services aren't every good for anything but acute crises.

 

[nozomu]

I only use hotlines that avoid non consensual active rescue, so like Trans Lifeline, THRIVE helpline, and the Samaritans line for USA. Last thing I need is cops showing up :')

 

[SmollMushroom]

I called them once (not sure, possibly more times but I can't remember the other ones) and I will never do this again. They kept asking if I feel suicidal. I tried to hide this at the beginning but eventually they gave me so much pressure that I gave up and revealed that I had been feeling sucidal. They notified the cops. Overally It was more like an interrogation than helping. They asked many questions and sometimes repeated low-effort platitudes like "it's never too late" and so on. When cops came they hung up. I didn't expect that. Cops forced me to reveal my sensitive information about history of my mental illnesses, noted something and wanted to put me into psych ward. Local mental hospital is the worst place in the world and I didn't want to be there at all costs. Finally cops "showed mercy" (according to their words) and left me alone.

That sounds crazy to me... Damn. Looks like they're only interest is to pass things up to the cops so that then they have to deal with the situation however they want.
Where I live it's very different, psychiatric wards don't get you unless you are completely detached from reality. Or unless you pay to enter a private one, but it's picy.
I'm pretty sure my psychiatrist also knows I'm having some bad thoughts and they joke about it.
In my country mental illness is not taken seriously at all, but from what I'm reading now, I'm not sure if that's a bad thing or not.
What a mess of a world we live in.

 

[Renee]

Oh yea the private psyche ward I was in 2 weeks in 2 weeks day student and the bill was $30,000 way back in 1989, but they had great food! lol

 

[dazed_dreamer]

I called them once (not sure, possibly more times but I can't remember the other ones) and I will never do this again. They kept asking if I feel suicidal. I tried to hide this at the beginning but eventually they gave me so much pressure that I gave up and revealed that I had been feeling sucidal. They notified the cops. Overally It was more like an interrogation than helping. They asked many questions and sometimes repeated low-effort platitudes like "it's never too late" and so on. When cops came they hung up. I didn't expect that. Cops forced me to reveal my sensitive information about history of my mental illnesses, noted something and wanted to put me into psych ward. Local mental hospital is the worst place in the world and I didn't want to be there at all costs. Finally cops "showed mercy" (according to their words) and left me alone.

This is absurd. I hate how mental health crises are handled, especially in regards to suicidality when someone is actively attempting. I thought maybe 988 calls would be handled better, but I guess not. I don't understand why there isn't a separate department that handles mental health crises, like trained emergency psychologists and maybe EMTS, instead of cops of all people. The phrasing "showed mercy" is so gross, as if being depressed and suicidal is a crime and the psych ward is punishment. The whole protocol just makes you feel like you're a criminal, or at least in trouble, which is abhorrent.

Oh yea the private psyche ward I was in 2 weeks in 2 weeks day student and the bill was $30,000 way back in 1989, but they had great food! lol

It's insane how you can be forced into treatment, then have to sell your left kidney to pay for it!! I'd honestly consider some sort of intensive outpatient treatment if it wasn't so expensive, and if the reviews of mental hospitalization in general weren't so mixed.

 

[buttonfish]

i used the trevor project textline last night and it felt like talking to an ai chat bot the whole time.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

This is absurd. I hate how mental health crises are handled, especially in regards to suicidality when someone is actively attempting. I thought maybe 988 calls would be handled better, but I guess not. I don't understand why there isn't a separate department that handles mental health crises, like trained emergency psychologists and maybe EMTS, instead of cops of all people. The phrasing "showed mercy" is so gross, as if being depressed and suicidal is a crime and the psych ward is punishment. The whole protocol just makes you feel like you're a criminal, or at least in trouble, which is abhorrent.

It's insane how you can be forced into treatment, then have to sell your left kidney to pay for it!! I'd honestly consider some sort of intensive outpatient treatment if it wasn't so expensive, and if the reviews of mental hospitalization in general weren't so mixed.

Cops answer mental health calls in case they need to shoot someone dead. They don't admit that but that's the reasoning.

Mental health care in America is definitely a racket.