UK crisis phone lines experiences?

[TimeToTalk]

Can anyone give their input on experiences with UK suicide prevention / mental health phone services? I'm in such an awful state and I need to talk to somebody. Not sure whether to ring the Samaritans, Papyrus, CALM or a different one. Any replies really appreciated.

 

[TessB]

My mental health service gave me a crisis number and I did need to call it last year.. I found it confusing to start with as I was in a complete state but the first person I got through to was like a pager service essentially fielding calls and paging a mental health worker to call me. At the time that made no sense to me I thought I'd called the wrong number.
Then this guy did call me back quickly though.. and actually it was good. I was sitting outside a train station crying in my car and the guy did talk to me and got me to drive home and they then send people to your house to check on you. This is SE UK I'm in, it may differ elsewhere.

 

[Konjac]

In my experience, you can be on hold for a while depending on how busy they are when you call. I don't use them too often because of that, but I've gotten through a couple times and they were quite nice. They usually just let me vent for a bit and then we end up having a chat until I've calmed down enough to hang up. From what I've read, it can be a bit of a mixed bag, but if you do end up getting a bit of a dickhead on the other end you can always just hang up and try another place. Most of the workers just want to help. It's worth a try, they're good for when you just need someone to speak to.

Warning: they can potentially call the police on you if you say you're suicidal with active plans to end your life. Anything else they'll keep confidential, but if they think you or someone else is at risk of serious harm they usually escalate things. It's usually safe, just don't go saying things like 'I have a bottle of pills right next to me and I'm going to down them right now no matter what you say' lmao.

 

[wonderworld]

i have phone anxiety so i prefer using texting services, i use Samaritans text and the mix text, they can be a bit repetitive after a while but in the moment its better to talk then hold it all in.
the only time I've called in crisis is my local mental health crisis line similar to @TessB, i found it useful as i was speaking to mental health trained professionals and they could look up my notes from my community mental health team which i found useful instead of explaining my whole life story,

mortal of the story you're not going to know until you try, the thing is in recovery you have to try a bunch of stuff they might not help but finally you will find one that will help you.

 

[LittleJem]

I personally call the Samaritans at least once a day. Today was a terrible day and I called them five times. I feel guilty about it, but I am really struggling to cope. I find it calms me a bit, and it's good to have someone on the phone who will just listen, and in general I have found the volunteers do just listen and don't judge and don't tell me what to do. I have probably only spoken to two out of hundreds of volunteers who are trying to be pro-life or are judgy.

For me, I much prefer the Samaritans to having a therapist. They are there when I need them - like if I am not coping - they listen with kindness and humanity - which has not been my experience with therapists, and I also don't think anyone can help me, so all I want is for someone to be with me while I am suffering. TLDR: I love the Samaritans.

ps at risk of being a phone line addict, I'd call all of them!

 

[KuriGohan&Kamehameha]

Samaratins are pro-choice, which I think is a plus if you want to be able to share your thoughts honestly and not fear getting sectioned at the end of the call. Their policy is to be a listening ear no matter what, so that may be beneficial to you if you are afraid about being able to safely open up about ctb thoughts. I have no experience with the others.