Discussion Experiences with Suicide Prevention Hotlines & Chat

[DeletedUser4739]

For the hell of it, I decided to try the US National Suicide Prevention Hotline's chat function. There are only 70 people ahead of me for now, for the center that services my zip code. The liability waiver you agree to prior to entering the chat is enough to let you know what a waste of time you're like to find it. I've heard some good, bad an ugly stories about these "assistance" methods before, and I'm curious what people around the site here are experiencing or have experienced when they attempted to reach out. I'll keep you posted if I stay awake and connected long enough to actually chat with someone.

 

[worldexploder]

Haha....the picture of that nurse with a heart next to her. She don't know us! People there are so busy they have no choice but to go by their textbook bullshit and talk to us like we are automatons.

I called once a couple years ago. I was lonely and needed sometime to talk too and drunk. The guy sounded like a douche. Asked me if I was in any danger. I said no. Then he told me to get some sleep.

I want someone who truly cares about me on a personal level. These "professionals" don't convince me that they care at all.

 

[Dog Food]

I called a couple times, got scripted answers, and had them asking where I lived. Tried the suicide chat, was never able to actually wait long enough to chat.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

7 minutes waiting and already only 23 people ahead of me. How do they move people in crisis this fast? If it's anything like my experiences when I called the hotline this fall, that I realized how useless a lot of their efforts are, regardless of intention.

 

[worldexploder]

7 minutes waiting and already only 23 people ahead of me. How do they move people in crisis this fast? If it's anything like my experiences when I called the hotline this fall, that I realized how useless a lot of their efforts are, regardless of intention.

If assisted suicide was legal it would clear up the phone lines.

 

[Smilla]

I wasn't suicidal but I used the crisis text line 741741 and it helped me a year and a half ago get through an immediate crisis.

Wait period was a mere couple minutes and the lady I texted with was not at all condescending. Our "session" lasted about 15 minutes and not once was I asked if I was in danger of hurting myself—it was more like texting with a friend.

Called the suicide prevention hotline last year and was told "talk to your therapist" by a surly man who was extremely condescending. I ended that convo after three minutes.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Haha....the picture of that nurse with a heart next to her. She don't know us! People there are so busy they have no choice but to go by their textbook bullshit and talk to us like we are automatons.

I called once a couple years ago. I was lonely and needed sometime to talk too and drunk. The guy sounded like a douche. Asked me if I was in any danger. I said no. Then he told me to get some sleep.

I want someone who truly cares about me on a personal level. These "professionals" don't convince me that they care at all.

Yeah, they're overwhelmed and grossly under-trained. I got a very cold, bitchy woman (like recognizes like) when my call to the National Suicide Hot was directed to the Pinellas County. Florida center.

Decades ago, I trained as a volunteer at an Alachua County, Florida call center. I think the training was 180 hours...a lot for a volunteer, especially in her late teens. The underlying premise was good listening. This was pre-internet. As much as technology can bring us together, it can further isolate us as well. It's deeply disturbing to me that those who are acting in the same capacity today are not trained nearly as well in listening.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

I called a couple times, got scripted answers, and had them asking where I lived. Tried the suicide chat, was never able to actually wait long enough to chat.

Yeah, insulting scripted answers. I had a better ear from the operator taking my polling opinions on the November elections. No joke.

 

[Smilla]

Yeah, they're overwhelmed and grossly under-trained. I got a very cold, bitchy woman (like recognizes like) when my call to the National Suicide Hot was directed to the Pinellas County. Florida center.

Decades ago, I trained as a volunteer at an Alachua County, Florida call center. I think the training was 180 hours...a lot for a volunteer, especially in her late teens. The underlying premise was good listening. This was pre-internet. As much as technology can bring us together, it can further isolate us as well. It's deeply disturbing to me that those who are acting in the same capacity today are not trained nearly as well in listening.

Yup.

I read the book "A Slender Thread" by Diane Ackerman about her experiences working as a volunteer on a hotline—quite a moving book but in the ensuing decades it seems the hotlines have deteriorated in terms of quality training since your experience mimics mine and many others.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

If assisted suicide was legal it would clear up the phone lines.

As I watch my Dad's protracted death, advocating dignified dying may be the next passion the fuels me enough to get through all this. Assuming I can get the healthcare and support I need to get me from here to there. Ten years into this hell, it's not getting better.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Yup.

I read the book "A Slender Thread" by Diane Ackerman about her experiences working as a volunteer on a hotline—quite a moving book but in the ensuing decades it seems the hotlines have deteriorated in terms of quality training since your experience mimics mine and many others.

Thank you for sharing that. I am falling back in love with books lately and I will add this to my list. If I am so fortunate, I would like to write a book on all I've experienced through this since it started around 11 years old for me. I'd love to be able to do one featuring others' experiences as well...and not just "survivor" stories. While they have their value, to purely focus on them undermines the overall nature of this beast.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

22 minutes in wait, it's gone from 70 down to 20. How can they possible communicate with people that fast? How many of them are there? I got the same operator in two out of three calls the night I tried calling this line.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Yup.

I read the book "A Slender Thread" by Diane Ackerman about her experiences working as a volunteer on a hotline—quite a moving book but in the ensuing decades it seems the hotlines have deteriorated in terms of quality training since your experience mimics mine and many others.

A Slender Thread has an orchid on the cover. How appropriate for my screenname and current avatar.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Down to 3rd in line, nearly one hour later. This system is more broken than ever.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

What a fucking waste of time. Anyone care to see screenshots of this? I know many of you have lived it.

 

[Smilla]

Sure! And more infuriating that the powers that be keep using this number as if it's helpful in the least.

 

[Empty RN]

Yeah, they're overwhelmed and grossly under-trained. I got a very cold, bitchy woman (like recognizes like) when my call to the National Suicide Hot was directed to the Pinellas County. Florida center.

Decades ago, I trained as a volunteer at an Alachua County, Florida call center. I think the training was 180 hours...a lot for a volunteer, especially in her late teens. The underlying premise was good listening. This was pre-internet. As much as technology can bring us together, it can further isolate us as well. It's deeply disturbing to me that those who are acting in the same capacity today are not trained nearly as well in listening.

So funny to see Alachua mentioned, I was born there

 

[Morgynnmorgan]

Yeah, they're overwhelmed and grossly under-trained. I got a very cold, bitchy woman (like recognizes like) when my call to the National Suicide Hot was directed to the Pinellas County. Florida center.

Decades ago, I trained as a volunteer at an Alachua County, Florida call center. I think the training was 180 hours...a lot for a volunteer, especially in her late teens. The underlying premise was good listening. This was pre-internet. As much as technology can bring us together, it can further isolate us as well. It's deeply disturbing to me that those who are acting in the same capacity today are not trained nearly as well in listening.

Pinellas county ? I'm here too

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Funny what a small world it is. So, here's my experience. I apologize for the over lapping screenshots. I have nothing to lose and continue to reach out in whatever ways I possibly can that allow me to exist for one more day. My short term goal continues to be to survive at least long enough for my Dad to pass before me. And while he is in the finals stages, modern medicine will do anything to keep the physical body alive--and my Mom/POA will continue on with this course. Hence, my course being protracted. Anyway, here they are.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

The remaining chat screenshots.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Has anyone tried calling Common Ground? I need to returned a call to a local counseling agency. I'm a hot mess the past couple days though, and on the phone it's virtually impossible for me to be understood when I'm like this. I do not need another fucking baker act where I'm forced around unstable dangerous people, while being one myself, with little to no security and zero training. Where I'm taken off meds and put on others with no consultation with any of the doctors who've been treating me for a decade or more in many cases. Where I sleep on the floor in a shallow wood box with a decade old ambulance gurney mattress. Open doors where I can hear large men snoring and fighting through their nightmares, demons, and everything else we're all battling. A perfect setting for a gang rape survivor, who somehow remains compassionate for other people's suffering while drowning in her own. Hoops, hamster wheels, pills, voicemail, charts, "healthcare professionals" ... everything is sending me spinning. I want to scream, "THIS IS MY LAST CHANCE!" I can see my records and it's documented in a clear, yet sanitized manner.

So that leave me thinking about the corpse...how we clean and sanitize it even when it makes NO SENSE. Yet, I'm crazy? Today, any concern I had for the condition in which I leave my body is no longer a concern. This overriding focus on our vessels for all the wrong reasons has helped me realize that my concerns over leaving a corpse that isn't upsetting to others is fucking ridiculous.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Pinellas county ? I'm here too

I'm in Sarasota, but calls to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline from my area are routed to your county's call center. When I chatted, I learned last night it was with someone in Michigan. She gave some deals on how calls/chats are routed in our chat.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

So funny to see Alachua mentioned, I was born there

Small world indeed! I was there from 1994-2002. Huge changes during that time. I left a town I no longer recognized in 2002, and never had a desire to return except to visit friends. All that's fallen away now though. Long gone.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Sure! And more infuriating that the powers that be keep using this number as if it's helpful in the least.

Infuriating and soul crushing. I used the chat this time. The number proved itself useless a month or two ago when I made three call-ins to it.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

So today I reached out to the Common Grounds organization that I was referred to. They could perhaps help me more, if I lived in Michigan!!! In the meantime, the counselor is happy to tell me how everything I'm going through "sounds like." I swear on everything I know and love this system is designed to push us to off ourselves or become part of the business of salvation--not recover, not treatment. Fuck it all to hell.

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Here it is in all its pitiful glory.

 

[gingerplum]

Yeah, they're overwhelmed and grossly under-trained. I got a very cold, bitchy woman (like recognizes like) when my call to the National Suicide Hot was directed to the Pinellas County. Florida center.

Decades ago, I trained as a volunteer at an Alachua County, Florida call center. I think the training was 180 hours...a lot for a volunteer, especially in her late teens. The underlying premise was good listening. This was pre-internet. As much as technology can bring us together, it can further isolate us as well. It's deeply disturbing to me that those who are acting in the same capacity today are not trained nearly as well in listening.

Holy shit! I live in Gainesville!

 

[DeletedUser4739]

Holy shit! I live in Gainesville!

I was there 1994-2002. When I arrived it was a fun, laid back, southern hippy town with a university. When I left, it was a bastion of spoiled brats, indistinguishable apartments, strip malls and a struggling downtown. I miss the old days there. Those were some great times.

 

[gingerplum]

I was there 1994-2002. When I arrived it was a fun, laid back, southern hippy town with a university. When I left, it was a bastion of spoiled brats, indistinguishable apartments, strip malls and a struggling downtown. I miss the old days there. Those were some great times.

Hoo boy, you'd be REALLY sad to see it now. All of the independent businesses on University Ave are being forced out; Leonardo's By the Slice is slated to close this year. That alone leaves me rocking myself in a fetal position.

 

[TAW122]

So today I reached out to the Common Grounds organization that I was referred to. They could perhaps help me more, if I lived in Michigan!!! In the meantime, the counselor is happy to tell me how everything I'm going through "sounds like." I swear on everything I know and love this system is designed to push us to off ourselves or become part of the business of salvation--not recover, not treatment. Fuck it all to hell.

Yeah, the last few screenshots just shows how incompetent those people are. They are like parroting off and spewing off shit that doesn't always make sense and it's infuriating to say the least. Furthermore, they aren't helpful at all like you've said and refuse to acknowledge how broken the system is (I guess they probably couldn't say certain things while on their job or they may lose their job on the spot). This reminds me of how useless counselors and therapists are in general, or at least the ones I've experienced throughout school (including university). Personally, I'm way past the point of ever getting 'help' again as it's useless at best for me and dangerous at worst (involuntarily committed, life made worse, etc.).