Venting I have said it before and I'll say it again

[Konnsz]

Suicide Hotlines are absolute bullshit. Literally NPC responses for serious topics from people who barely care about you.

They will constantly ask if you are in danger and if you want to killyourself, and if you give them enough reasons they will send the fucking police on your house.

it's so bullshit how they are wired, i can't even look up useful information because they have spam all over the internet, if you ever say something or search something you get immediately spammed with the crisis hotline.

It's like a friend that is constantly there because they feel morally obligated to be there, and it makes everything so much more annoying and limited. pretty fucking similar to the whole clinical system.

"You can't self-Diagnose your depression, it has to be a professional" give me a fucking break, So you are telling me I must risk my privacy getting breached just to have a paper and have "depression" and be taken seriously?
yeah, let's assume my attempts did not exist at all, let's assume my tiredness that last all the day, how I wake up tired, all of that means nothing.

but no, I'm not depressed because I don't have a paper that says I have depression.

If I say something wrong i get a risk of getting locked up, if they misinterpret it I get locked up as well.

the whole mental health and suicide hotline crisis are just retarded at this point

I can't imagine how it must feel to have only those resources available... knowing how innefficient they are.

 

[Saturn_]

I had the police called on me once when I was 13 from one of those text hotlines. What was awful about it was that I was complaining to the person on the other end that one of my parents had been neglecting and abusing me. Then the police were called, and the same parent was the one to answer the door! Then they left without any sort of preventative action taken. Gee, that sure couldn't have opened me up for further abuse and humiliation. Not at all. Absolutely genius.

 

[wisteria3]

Yup, it's like talking to a bored employee who is only interested in not being legally responsible for your death. The most annoying part to me is how it's plastered everywhere. "Help is available!" as if they think it actually solves anything

by the way I have tried a "warmline" run by peer support and found it much better, like actually talking to a real person (although some of the people are a lot better than others) except you can't really talk about suicidal thoughts since they're not "equipped" for it

overall I think the liability issues are the problem… if therapists and hotline employees weren't so concerned with not being liable for your death, then we could actually speak freely and it would help so much more in my opinion

 

[Ash]

I think it depends where you are, the legislation in the country, which one you ring, your mindset at the time of the call, whether you click with the person you speak to, etc etc etc. It's not one size fits all from either side of the phone line and sweeping generalisations don't help anybody.

 

[Georg]

Never talk to anyone about your CB plans if you are serious about it. Friends and family neither.

 

[Roadrunner]

Never talk to anyone about your CB plans if you are serious about it. Friends and family neither.

I couldn't agree with more. Unless your not 100% serious about, never discuss it. Take that secret with you.

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

Yup, it's like talking to a bored employee who is only interested in not being legally responsible for your death. The most annoying part to me is how it's plastered everywhere. "Help is available!" as if they think it actually solves anything

by the way I have tried a "warmline" run by peer support and found it much better, like actually talking to a real person (although some of the people are a lot better than others) except you can't really talk about suicidal thoughts since they're not "equipped" for it

overall I think the liability issues are the problem… if therapists and hotline employees weren't so concerned with not being liable for your death, then we could actually speak freely and it would help so much more in my opinion

Liability is 100% the problem. I know someone who worked at a hotline before and they were frustrated sometimes because the rules required them to speak a certain way, to minimise the risk of being held liable if they shared too much personal information or gave advice that would be considered bad. So really all they could do was try to signpost/refer people to other organisations.

A lot of the people on the lines want to help, or to be more real and personal, but their hands are tied by these stupid regulations. If these liability rules were done away with, and volunteers could speak openly without being warned that they have responsibility for a strangers life and may be held accountable if they can't prevent every single suicide. These rules just prevent honest communication and impede any sort of progress in the mental health field, because they encourage defensive practices and lying out of fear of detainment. Obviously, some places are more trigger happy than others, and some organizations don't follow this maxim.

OP, I agree with you wholeheartedly that the whole diagnosis system is a load of rubbish. Most people don't know, but the same questionnaires used to diagnose the vast majority of mental illnesses (with some exceptions, of course) are easily accessible online, as well as the criteria for what scores would constitute a diagnosis. It's a lot less scientific and objective than it's made out to be.

A person can very easily complete these questionnaires at home, and find out if they meet the criteria for depression, anxiety, bipolar, etc. I have no idea why this day and age the exact same evidence you'd be providing to a doctor is not seen as valid if you obtained it yourself. Perhaps, it would be different if there were other diagnostic methods involved, but having been diagnosed with "mental" stuff many times, I can confirm that it literally only involved those quizzes.

I had very obvious PTSD for years but it was really only acknowledged by anyone after I took one of those damn 5 minute quizzes in the psychiatry waiting room. It's such bullshit when your suffering is obvious, but others want a piece of paper to "prove it", as if check boxing the same symptoms you're experiencing somehow makes them more real or valid? If people don't take your depression seriously because of that, they are just ignorant.

 

[willitpass]

Every experience I've ever had with hotlines has been rather useless. My biggest pet peeve is when mental health professionals just repeat back what I've said to them and say "What I'm hearing is you're going through XYZ, that must be so hard", and that's all I've ever gotten from hotlines. I used to tell my therapists not to do that to me because it angered me so much, but you can't tell a hotline not to say that because that's almost all they're allowed to say. Then they give a random coping skill that is usually not even accessible in the moment and hang up. I've been told to eat a brownie, paint, shower, and my all time favorite: go on a walk even though they knew I was a young female and it was midnight. If you want to be bored out of your problem by mundanity it works, but I've never found benefit in what they've said.

 

[LaVieEnRose]

They are manned primarily by a bunch of premed students trying to meet the volunteering requirements so they can impress admission boards with hoooooooow compassionate they are.

 

[martinso67]

I knew some people on the internet who it helped them talking to an anti suicide Hotline.
It's useful for people who are lonely in a sense that they want some human to talk to. Like a superficial conversation at a retail store.

 

[UKscotty]

I think it depends, if someone is calling, they probably don't want to die but don't want to be in pain anymore. People over a phonecall are very limited in what they can do, other than listen.

As for calling medical services or police, they sort of have an obligation. If someone doesn't want help or intervention they have the choice to just not call the helpline. It just feels a little to call a helpline then be unhappy when they try and help.