Discussion Have you ever called a hotline?

[booplesnoot34]

I want to hear your stories. Did calling help or harm you?

I come to you with this article as framing.

Suicide Hotlines Bill Themselves as Confidential—Even as Some Trace Your Call

They can trace your call. They can track you down. They can send the police. They can throw you in the mental hospital. The article covers horrific stories and it's terrifying.

Even worse, here's a quote about the effectiveness of these barbaric actions:

"Nevertheless, Andrews acknowledges mounting research showing that psychiatric hospitalization seems to be extremely suicidogenic. "When suicide researchers talk about elevated risk, they're talking about three times, four times, and sometimes ten times," says Andrews. "When we talk about inpatient treatment, it's exponentially larger."

After being psychiatrically hospitalized and treated, people become dozens or even hundreds of times more likely to kill themselves—even if they were never suicidal before. But Andrews believes more studies are needed to understand what this evidence truly means. "The lack of data is troubling. We hospitalize people at risk of suicide, even though we don't have any evidence that hospitalizing them is particularly helpful."

This is a US-based article but please do share your stories regardless of nationality.

 

[pinkribbonscars]

Im too terrified to call but I've tried the text hotline and chatline. I always withdraw because its a huge wait time. What a joke.

 

[love_peep]

I thought about calling there, but after reading the reviews, I abruptly changed my mind about doing it, since there will be more problems than benefits later

 

[NambaSutra]

Yes but telling people to call in websites, newspapers, videos, politics, and anything else mainstream avoids lawsuits and angry people. That's the main purpose.

 

[Chara]

I want to hear your stories. Did calling help or harm you?

I come to you with this article as framing.


They can trace your call. They can track you down. They can send the police. They can throw you in the mental hospital. The article covers horrific stories and it's terrifying.

Even worse, here's a quote about the effectiveness of these barbaric actions:

"Nevertheless, Andrews acknowledges mounting research showing that psychiatric hospitalization seems to be extremely suicidogenic. "When suicide researchers talk about elevated risk, they're talking about three times, four times, and sometimes ten times," says Andrews. "When we talk about inpatient treatment, it's exponentially larger."

After being psychiatrically hospitalized and treated, people become dozens or even hundreds of times more likely to kill themselves—even if they were never suicidal before. But Andrews believes more studies are needed to understand what this evidence truly means. "The lack of data is troubling. We hospitalize people at risk of suicide, even though we don't have any evidence that hospitalizing them is particularly helpful."

This is a US-based article but please do share your stories regardless of nationality.

Am nonverbal. Called one and got hung up on within less than thirty seconds. Was legitimately TRYING to verbally speak. Worst part is they knew someone was on the other line. Just was too much for them to wait for someone to try and get the words out. Too much effort. Between that and a so called friend blaming for being hurt really bad, made the rash decision to try hanging again. Gave self brain damage. Holiness clearly did a great job!! Granted, if had been warded again instead, would probably have gone running into open traffic so... Who knows? Maybe by being impatient, the pro forced lifers prolonged life and it was all planned from the start. Scary to think about.

 

[theboy]

Yes
Not bad but they dont give to me a good solution

 

[Hollowman]

Hell no

 

[SilentSadness]

Obviously locking someone up for no reason will never help them, especially which such poor and inhuman treatment. I have called a hotline in the past and it was unhelpful. It seems more like a proof of concept than a solution to any problem. I also think it's disgusting to lie about confidentiality.

 

[glendaaa]

I've tried once and they directed me to a mental hospital. I ended up going so I guess it was helpful.

 

[day]

I use the text hotline pretty often. Of course I'm careful as to what I say and I feel I have to tiptoe around being suicidal but sometimes when no one else is there it's nice to have a text from someone that "cares" even though it's their job.

I tend to think it helps but being that they don't help you when you're actually suicidal and they'd rather put you in the ward is kinda scuffed.

Overall I mean it's not a bad thing to try to help those who are suicidal and it should definitely exist however I believe it's heavily flawed.

 

[pole]

volunteered for one.

thought it was something I could do to give an ear to those reaching out hoping to speak to someone.

however, I quickly realized this wasn't for me. i hated the scripts, how robotic they wanted you to be, it just wasn't genuine and didn't feel right.

I feel for those who feel alone and have no choice but to call a hotline. It's a good start, but it needs improvement.

seems like the whole idea is led by those on the outside looking in who think they know what's best for vulnerable people instead of improving these services by listening and incorporating advice from those actually struggling.

 

[Wyldfyre4948]

I've called a couple times and it really depends on who you get connected to. The people on the phone mostly seem to be reading from a script, but it can be nice to vent. Of course I have also been on the phone with the most dry boring person who was more depressing than anything. That guy had zero emotion and felt so disconnected that it only made me want to die even more. In that case I lied and said I was going to go for a walk and try and collect myself.

 

[pinkribbonscars]

I use the text hotline pretty often. Of course I'm careful as to what I say and I feel I have to tiptoe around being suicidal but sometimes when no one else is there it's nice to have a text from someone that "cares" even though it's their job.

I tend to think it helps but being that they don't help you when you're actually suicidal and they'd rather put you in the ward is kinda scuffed.

Overall I mean it's not a bad thing to try to help those who are suicidal and it should definitely exist however I believe it's heavily flawed.

I don't understand the anti psychiatry/mental health field brigade. It absolutely has its time and it's place for those who wish to be saved. I agree that the mental health system needs a massive overhaul though. There needs to be more research on the causes and more effective treatments. That psychedelics and ketamine are being looked into is great news, but progress is unfortunately slow.

I'm glad you've had success. I've tried getting ahold of chat lines and text hotlines but there's always another person on the line. It's ridiculous you have to wait so long to get help, but the police never hesitate to lock your ass up. I wish we lived in a world that put more funding into social/peer support than law enforcement.

I've used r/suicidewatch as an alternative. The people who had clearly been through shit were very helpful. The people who had never seriously considered gave me canned responses. It felt like a slap in the face. I wish agencies would actively recruite people who have struggled with depression/suicidal ideation themselves. How can I open up to someone who hasn't experienced anhedonia first hand for example? The pro-lifers are the ones who do not understand.

And while I do support suicide prevention for those who want it(the idea at least; the current implementation is garbage), assisted suicide should absolutely be medically prescribed to those with suffering that cannot be ameliorated.

 

[day]

I don't understand the anti psychiatry/mental health field brigade. It absolutely has its time and it's place for those who wish to be saved. I agree that the mental health system needs a massive overhaul though. There needs to be more research on the causes and more effective treatments. That psychedelics and ketamine are being looked into is great news, but progress is unfortunately slow.

I'm glad you've had success. I've tried getting ahold of chat lines and text hotlines but there's always another person on the line. It's ridiculous you have to wait so long to get help, but the police never hesitate to lock your ass up. I wish we lived in a world that put more funding into social/peer support than law enforcement.

I've used r/suicidewatch as an alternative. The people who had clearly been through shit were very helpful. The people who had never seriously considered gave me canned responses. It felt like a slap in the face. I wish agencies would actively recruite people who have struggled with depression/suicidal ideation themselves. How can I open up to someone who hasn't experienced anhedonia first hand for example? The pro-lifers are the ones who do not understand.

And while I do support suicide prevention for those who want it(the idea at least; the current implementation is less to be desired), assisted suicide should absolutely be medically prescribed to those with suffering that cannot be ameliorated.

Couldn't have said it better myself. I think in time as newer people are cycled into politics and the medical field we will have a much better understanding. Also one thing I've noticed about hotlines is they treat every case the exact same. Some people want someone to talk to, some want to explain in depth how they planned it, some people genuinely are in a cry for help. It varies so much that assuming it's all the same is pretty lackluster.

 

[pinkribbonscars]

Couldn't have said it better myself. I think in time as newer people are cycled into politics and the medical field we will have a much better understanding. Also one thing I've noticed about hotlines is they treat every case the exact same. Some people want someone to talk to, some want to explain in depth how they planned it, some people genuinely are in a cry for help. It varies so much that assuming it's all the same is pretty lackluster.

A lot of posters here are anti-psychiatry, which is fine, but it's nice to find a kindred spirit who agrees.

There has been significant medical advancements and discoveries for many physical diseases. When it comes to the mind and cognition, advancement is nil. Suicide hotlines haven't been researched much and their effectiveness is unclear, yet they're still being pushed (not to mention the hotlines are understaffed). I hope a more liberal, pro-rights and and pro-choice political shift happens for mental health research and treatment as well. I'm probably going to CTB before that happens tho haha.

 

[FuneralCry]

Never, I don't even see existence as being something desirable in the first place, my wish to die is just a logical reaction to existing in this replusive world filled with endless harm and suffering, I could never see a point to existing here anyway, it's all futile and meaningless.

And I personally cannot stand empty, hollow pro-life platitudes, it would just make me wish for non-existence even more. But I have heard of people getting the police called on them after calling one, it's just so terrible how people cannot even discuss the subject without being treated like a criminal, locking suicidal people up in psych wards despite the fact that they aren't obligated to continue existing here really is so incredibly inhumane to me.

 

[pochii]

I want to hear your stories. Did calling help or harm you?

I come to you with this article as framing.


They can trace your call. They can track you down. They can send the police. They can throw you in the mental hospital. The article covers horrific stories and it's terrifying.

Even worse, here's a quote about the effectiveness of these barbaric actions:

"Nevertheless, Andrews acknowledges mounting research showing that psychiatric hospitalization seems to be extremely suicidogenic. "When suicide researchers talk about elevated risk, they're talking about three times, four times, and sometimes ten times," says Andrews. "When we talk about inpatient treatment, it's exponentially larger."

After being psychiatrically hospitalized and treated, people become dozens or even hundreds of times more likely to kill themselves—even if they were never suicidal before. But Andrews believes more studies are needed to understand what this evidence truly means. "The lack of data is troubling. We hospitalize people at risk of suicide, even though we don't have any evidence that hospitalizing them is particularly helpful."

This is a US-based article but please do share your stories regardless of nationality.

I called once around 2 years ago. I wanted to talk to someone since the only person I could talk to at the time was my ex who hated me. They were talking with me and kept asking where I was. It was pouring and I was out on a balcony of a nearby building. I feel like I wanted the pain to stop but I was too scared and I just wanted to talk to someone to comfort me. I kept not saying where I was and asking if they were able to trace me. When they said a officer is on the way I hung up. They called back twice and one time it was the "chief" but I doubt it. I only picked up the one time to tell them to stop calling. Eventually I got a panicked phone call from my mother and so I got down and came home.

There were police outside. They said they weren't going to put me in handcuffs, but after I handed over what was in my pockets they put me in handcuffs and brought me to the hospital where I was put in psychiatric care or something like that. It was a small room with four beds, a small table, and a TV. All bolted down. Turns out that space we were in wasn't even planned to be anything. It was literally left over space. Nurses would sit at the table with their phones during the night to watch us. Only one of the nurses were nice. I was alone with other kids that I didn't know. One was very loud. We would vote on a movie to watch, to which I wouldn't vote, and they always chose Aladdin. I watched Aladdin 7 times the 5 days I was there. The food was alright actually, I would get fruit loops any chance I could though. After I got out my mother bought a lock to lock me in my room. It was remote controlled and the only person with the remote was my sister who had to stay in the room with me. I couldn't sleep and if I needed to go to the restroom I had to hold it until my sister woke up. I eventually broke the lock and left when it was safe. I ended up going back to the same place for 5 days this time. I actually met someone who went to the same school as me, as well as another kid who tested positive for every drug imaginable (it was wild but he was chill).

Though this time I was transferred to a bigger and more secure place. I was riding in the wheel chair as they pushed me through each checkpoint where they had to swipe their card and enter numbers. It felt like a jail. I was there for 2 weeks. They held me longer than they were supposed to cause they couldn't let me out over the weekend. While I was there I met a guy who was way stronger than me and was very angry and scary, a fight broke out between two girls, I had to eat mash potatoes without any sort of spoon or fork, and I met a good friend who sent me photos later when we were out right before he killed himself. Nowadays death is still scary but only the unknown part. I cut everyday and know how to hide everything perfectly. I tell nobody anything about how I feel and I honestly cant wait to die and know for a fact that I am going to kill myself at some point. Hope this gives a good description of how those places are. It's sorta like juvey or jail except you get to color with crayons and all the nurses are mean.

 

[Forever Sleep]

Kind of unfair me to have voted the way I have- 'yes I have and it was unhelpul'. Still- it was an unpleasant experience. It feels sort of unfair on them because I didn't legitimately call them hoping for help. I had one of those police welness checks and it seemed like the only way they were going to be happy to leave was if I agreed to be put in touch with the crisis helpline. So- really- from the start, I was just trying to get rid of them!

I was obviously a problem by that stage though- being on their system. One lady was nice. She said- 'Don't you think we should talk about these intrusive thoughts you're having?' I wanted to tell her they haven't been intrusive for the past 33 years- it's just how I think! Still- I thought that would get me into further trouble. So- I just kept repeating that I was fine now. That wasn't too bad but they rang back and the second person was far more confrontational- 'Why did you buy sodium nitrite? Think of what your suicide would do to your loved ones.' Then, they made some comment about mental competency. Honestly, the police were nicer! Who knows? Maybe they would have been better if I had actually rung up to get their 'help'. It really wound me up though to be honest. I don't need some stranger to guilt trip me into holding on for my family. I've already been doing that for 33 years. And I don't appreciate my mental competency being questioned!

 

[d3c96524be95]

I had a bit of an issue finding the response to the poll that best fits my case as I didn't actively reach for a suicide helpline, but my psychiatrist did it on my behalf. I detailed my recent experience of being forcibly taken to the hospital after dealing with a suicide helpline here .

My experience corroborates most of the statements from OP: it was definitely not anonymous (they explicitely refused that I remained anonymous when I asked for it), and they will send you the rescue squad on the slightest doubt of SH (even with no real ground), which will 99.99% of the time lead to a forced admission (unless you're immensely lucky as I was). So if you intend to SH or SA imminently, do not call them unless you want to be saved. I must point out that most of my interactions with them did not lead to an escalation, although I gave them rather precise plans. Once you told them about your plans though, they have a foot-in-the-door and I'm unsure how easy it is to get rid of them without going to the hospital.

They will keep your medical record for a ridiculous amount of time (20 years), and you are not allowed to revoke it. Obviously, they won't properly inform you about that. They also shared data with my psychiatrist without my consent. One operator recommended me EMDR therapy during one call which is pseudo-science, so maybe they aren't all as well trained as they claim to be. It felt odd talking to many strangers on the phone about my suicidal thoughts. I don't like to talk too much, especially not about myself, not on this topic, and not with random folks I only know by their alledged first name and voice, who only perform random healthchecks on me. Trust is supposed to be two-sided.

On the upside, my main interlocutor was rather nice, attentive, and willing to help. He was short on actual solutions though (maybe because there aren't many, otherwise I wouldn't be talking to him). He was a trained psychologist. He used some usual psychological rhetoric and tricks I've seen other psychologists use and that didn't work on me, but I assume they could reassure some people looking for such advises. Personnally those cheap argumentative tricks tend to annoy me because it feels like all psychotherapists are just blindly following a senseless argumentation grid they found in their manual, and aren't really considering you as an individual with you own experiences, thought process, …

My opinion on this helpline overall is nuanced: I think it might be helpful to people with low to moderate suicidal or SH thoughts, who are just willing to vent about it to decently trained psychotherapists, or who are looking for an entrypoint to actual medical healthcare. If they start setting up a recurring healthcheck as they did for me, that's no longer a helpline, that's plain surveillance (and as governments, they'll use all the fallacies to justify that surveillance is good for you when it's clealy not).

 

[アホペンギン]

I have called once and the person at the other side seemed to not care, as usual. It was a few years ago and i don't plan to do it again

 

[Bioforever12]

called multiple times, only 1 time I felt they actually cared and tried to give actual advice of my problems, which is mostly about my lack of love and inability to get a job. Most of the time they just follow a script and give the same bull shit "breathing" excercises lol and they usually get hung up on mid convo too lol

 

[Unattainable666]

Biggest waste of time .... they are idiots

 

[booplesnoot34]

Am nonverbal. Called one and got hung up on within less than thirty seconds. Was legitimately TRYING to verbally speak. Worst part is they knew someone was on the other line. Just was too much for them to wait for someone to try and get the words out. Too much effort. Between that and a so called friend blaming for being hurt really bad, made the rash decision to try hanging again. Gave self brain damage. Holiness clearly did a great job!! Granted, if had been warded again instead, would probably have gone running into open traffic so... Who knows? Maybe by being impatient, the pro forced lifers prolonged life and it was all planned from the start. Scary to think about.

There may be some sort of assistive device to help you communicate on the phone in general. Do you sign? There's TTY for Deaf people and IP Relay for DeafBlind people, so there's gotta be something for nonverbal people.

 

[Chara]

There may be some sort of assistive device to help you communicate on the phone in general. Do you sign? There's TTY for Deaf people and IP Relay for DeafBlind people, so there's gotta be something for nonverbal people.

Used to be perfectly verbal, this was right after something really bad happened that made the words just stop working out loud. Am not sure what options had been available at the time, but now? Learning sign language is a no go after the failed attempt. Am really not good with hands in general even before, but after it's a whole lot harder. Additionally there's nobody who wants to teach that who is here. Parents are happier now that they can't hear the child they never wanted, have been accused repeatedly of faking it at "therapy" and who is there to talk to in person who not only knows sign language but wants to talk with? Nobody. Have tried as hard as possible but sounds that come out are no longer words anymore despite best efforts. Have really truly tried best. They just don't work anymore.

 

[shantyizlit]

Never even considered it they probably use the same rhetoric as in psychiatry and it would make me sick. No one's going to tell me it's a good idea to commit suicide. No one's going to confirm for me whether my attempt will work.
I'm just not cut from the same cloth as these people that actually want to live their life, I talk to no one about what I really think except on SaSu.

 

[SpeedingThroughLife]

Using anonymous numbers, I have called the suicide hotline multiple times, and each time they wanted to send an ambulance over. They were completely useless.

 

[booplesnoot34]

Used to be perfectly verbal, this was right after something really bad happened that made the words just stop working out loud. Am not sure what options had been available at the time, but now? Learning sign language is a no go after the failed attempt. Am really not good with hands in general even before, but after it's a whole lot harder. Additionally there's nobody who wants to teach that who is here. Parents are happier now that they can't hear the child they never wanted, have been accused repeatedly of faking it at "therapy" and who is there to talk to in person who not only knows sign language but wants to talk with? Nobody. Have tried as hard as possible but sounds that come out are no longer words anymore despite best efforts. Have really truly tried best. They just don't work anymore.

There are assistive devices designed for people with Parkinson's etc. that are controlled with eye-movement.

I've tried once and they directed me to a mental hospital. I ended up going so I guess it was helpful.

how was your mental hospital experience?

 

[deadhead12!]

it annoys me how when you call they ask you all the safety questions and i just wish they would skip them and actually try to be a support and listen not have to go through the stupid help process. obviously if i'm calling the suicide hotline i'm not ok

 

[glendaaa]

There are assistive devices designed for people with Parkinson's etc. that are controlled with eye-movement.

how was your mental hospital experience?

Surprisingly I actually liked my experience. I might be the only one in the world lol. I made friends and we played games and stuff. And I didn't mind the food either haha.

 

[booplesnoot34]

Surprisingly I actually liked my experience. I might be the only one in the world lol. I made friends and we played games and stuff. And I didn't mind the food either haha.

There's a book you should read (or not, people either enjoy it or hate it). Get Well Soon by Julie Halpern. It's about a girl who gets committed and ends up finding friends. It was a fun read when I was a teen but idk how well it holds up.