Discussion We all agree that suicide prevention hotlines are pretty much useless, right?

[Laowaiboss]

Most suicides and suicide attempts being driven by three factors : emotional, financial and psychological distress.

What's even the point of suicide prevention hotlines ?

If I am struggling emotionally I need support from the people I know.

If I am struggling financially I need a place to sleep and food to eat.

If I am struggling psychologically I need help from a medical professional.

How is some volunteer telling you good words at the end of a phone line supposed to help with any of this ?

 

[Soulless Angel]

because it makes them feel better, it allows society to feel like they are helping, the mantra I hear most.. is talk, talk through your problems, because that solves everything right? thats why there are the *hotlines8 too allow you to talk, to allow them to talk you out of it,
Its not about us, and our struggles and our wish to end our own lives, its about allowing society to feel like they are helping, even though they know in realty it does nothing, (unless you are an attention seeker of course!)

Bull shit, its all bullshit!

 

[Manaaja]

Well said.

I feel like they are more meant for people who are "just overreacting". What I mean is a teen that had her first break-up and is sad might get help from them and calm down and realize that life goes on and they can get a million other boyfriends and their ex-bf wasn't even that good. But if it's, for example, a woman who has been suicidal her whole life, then a single phone call often does nothing.

No one ever thinks "I'm suicidal because I'm not talking on phone with a stranger".

 

[Shu]

No! Of course not! I called them from *67 saying "I'm not doing it today but I have a plan and nobody can stop me" cops showed up at my house three hours later. If I did have a plan that day, they wouldn't have got to me on time. Honestly I've been homeless a lot in a lot of the times I've been to psychiatric hospitals was because I needed somewhere to chill shake back and get my mind right (also get medicated sometimes it does help) before all that you could just go to the emergency room and tell them you're having suicidal thoughts. The emergency room is going to do the same thing at the suicide hotline will you end up in a psych unit.
But yeah I think suicide hotline is kind of useless. You can just call 911 the same exact thing will happen if you tell then you're suicidal.

 

[befree]

Not only useless, but also risky. I have heard of cases where people ended up in psychiatry after they called those hotlines. And even if you block your phone number, they still find out who you are.

 

[Insomniac]

Most suicides and suicide attempts being driven by three factors : emotional, financial and psychological distress.

What's even the point of suicide prevention hotlines ?

If I am struggling emotionally I need support from the people I know.

If I am struggling financially I need a place to sleep and food to eat.

If I am struggling psychologically I need help from a medical professional.

How is some volunteer telling you good words at the end of a phone line supposed to help with any of this ?

If they were only useless, I'd be content. But they are in fact also emotionally damaging to say the least.

 

[callme]

Volunteer programs aren't helping, judging by the Samaritans UK and all the reports of people using them over the years. It's a rare case of care being taken by the medical establishment but as expected, very bad execution. Indeed you could be understood more by a willing volunteer who knows nothing, instead of a doctor with an agenda (and which one isn't), except when the volunteer wants to use it as a sex phone as has been times again and before. Either that or "others have it worse".

I don't feel they are more than a check against rising statistics without doing anything. Almost like a "smoking kills" sign on a pack of cigarettes

 

[waitingforrest]

I honestly think that talking to a chat bot is more effective. At least it won't call the cops on me.

They all act like the hotlines are a magic cure. But hotlines don't make me feel better, it just feels so fake, like forced empathy. Even so, the system is so shit that the hotlines are always clogged up.

And pretty much anyone can just sign up if they pass the background check and the training. No wonder why so many hotline employees are so ineffective.

And some centers record calls to use for training. Those fuckers, I don't want my breakdown to be studied. Confidential my ass.

 

[Dot]

Volunteer programs aren't helping, judging by the Samaritans UK and all the reports of people using them over the years. It's a rare case of care being taken by the medical establishment but as expected, very bad execution. Indeed you could be understood more by a willing volunteer who knows nothing, instead of a doctor with an agenda (and which one isn't), except when the volunteer wants to use it as a sex phone as has been times again and before. Either that or "others have it worse".

I don't feel they are more than a check against rising statistics without doing anything. Almost like a "smoking kills" sign on a pack of cigarettes

Samrtns u.k vluntrs d/ nt us th phne-lne as sx-phne - th oppste = th/ cse
Slf ws Samrtns vluntr & apprx 30% of phne clls wre callrs mastrb8ng dwn th phne whlst pretndng thy wre suffrng

Samrtns = thre 2 hlp ppl wh/ r ovrwhlmd & hve no1 2 tlk 2 or d/ nt wnt 2 tlk abt c.t.b w/ ppl thy knw

Wll nt pretnd thy r perfct bt thy d/ hlp mny ppl - jst nt evry1

2 mch prssre = pt on thm thgh 2 b mrr thn thy r capble of b-ing - thy r ppl wh/ r thre 2 listn - nt m.h. prfssnls

 

[StrangePossum]

I don't think the concept is entirely useless...Like, if someone is feeling suicidal for the first time and really doesn't know what else to do in the moment, or genuinely has no one else in this world to talk to, maybe it does help to talk to a volunteer about it. But I hate how people act like it's THE solution to suicidal thoughts. Thinking about suicide? It doesn't matter if it's because you're poor or homeless or being abused or genuinely just done with the world, just call the hotline and everything will be better! Not to mention that a lot of them won't hesitate to call the cops on you, like that isn't just going to be humiliating and degrading and might literally kill you if you're not white.

I stopped using those hotlines because I realized that they were just a band-aid solution. It might make me feel a little bit better in the moment, sure, but I would wake up the next day feeling just as shitty as I did before. Maybe the volunteers have good intentions, maybe they do genuinely want to help people, but most of the time it's not like they can actually do anything substantial to improve your life.

Suicides in the US have increased by 30% since 2000...clearly having all these hotlines isn't helping much, if at all.

 

[FuneralCry]

I personally see them as being useless. A hotline does not fix any problems or take away what is causing people to be suicidal in the first place. To me, talking would not help anything. I wish we lived in a society where our right to die is respected, in a world like this, wanting suicide can be perfectly rational.

 

[houseofleaves]

they are more meant for people who are "just overreacting". What I mean is a teen that had her first break-up and is sad might get help from them and calm down and realize that life goes on and they can get a million other boyfriends

+++++, this is a very valid point

 

[Dot]

Slf hd grwn mn brk dwn & cry on phne bcse thy dd nt fl thy cld d/ tht n.ewhre els

 

[Kurinoy]

I never got the help I needed when I called them...

 

[souljah222]

i mean nobodys forcing you to call them. and im pretty sure it helped someone out there, even if its less than 1% of all the people calling there, so why not

 

[stupid little girl]

Oh, absolutely. I texted one once and it did nothing for me. No real or actual help. No plan to help me feel less suicidal or to better my life. The people who work there are all unpaid, unqualified volunteers who are doing pointless work to feel better about themselves and put it on their resumes.

 

[Hurt]

Never called a sui hotline because I have already make up my mind but it's OK to call if you feel the need. Maybe it helps.

 

[sorrynormal]

because it makes them feel better, it allows society to feel like they are helping

Basically, and these hotlines are staffed by volunteers, not even fully credentialed clinicians. Not sure that would make a difference but it goes to show you how much contempt modern society has for those willing to call a suicide hotline. The powers that be know it doesn't help, they just don't care enough.

Calling a hotline is a great way to get an inexperienced naive volunteer to send armed men to your house and get thrown in a psych hospital. Even Marsha Linehan herself has said that there is zero evidence that hospitalizing suicidal people prevents suicide.

Yet the system marches on. I feel like it's an open secret the entire mental health industry is full of shit.

 

[ilikepink]

i've tried using them several times and i'd say, 90% of the time they don't even answer. i guess it does work though. i feel so stupid and pathetic using them that it makes me embarrassed to even be suicidal in the first place.

 

[wait.what]

Yeah, they're worse than useless, particularly in the U.S. where a 911 call sends armed cops to your house alongside the fire department and the EMT's. U.S. cops shoot and kill a LOT of mentally ill people, as well as their dogs, their relatives, and their neighbors. So much so that "suicide by cop" is a recognized thing. If you want the high probability of death that a gunshot wound to the chest provides, but find it distasteful or impractical to shoot yourself, then suicide by cop may be an economical and convenient way to get your ticket punched. The "iF eVeN oNe LiFe iS sAvEd" rhetoric doesn't really fly here, because a hell of a lot more than one life has been lost to idiot hotline volunteers who thought they were "helping."

Really, hotlines exist to make neurotypical people feel better. They get to feel satisfied that "something is being done" about the fact that so many are living intolerable lives, but nothing really is. It's a form of security theater, much like making everyone take off their shoes in airports. One guy 20 years ago managed to smuggle a bit of C4 into an airport by putting it in his shoe, and we are still doing that silly-ass shoe removal thing to this day.

 

[stoiccactus]

Yes 10000% that it is theatre. How many websites (google, tiktok, etc) immediately just dump you to a suicide hotline and gatekeep content from you. How many of those make a donation to the hotline?
Also calling them creates a record somewhere that I am sure is bought and sold as any other piece of data is.

 

[DPJ187]

I've just spent the last few days circling the drain, using all the services in could to try get some help. So the phone lines, while well meaning are less than useless. How many times I've heard if you call your doctor he will be able to help you. How? Can he score me some N or some SN? No I thought not. After spending so long struggling finding this site and community has definitely helped me so much, finding advice and others who share my feelings on things have been so much better than any call to the doctor ever could. Does anyone have any N or SN sources? I cannot PM yet but hopefully soon.

 

[Marktheghost]

Is there such thing as a suicide hotline in Britain? As far as I know, the only thing remotely close is the Samaritans.

 

[okaoki]

i called them once , she tried to inject her beliefs to me by saying "what happen to my soul if i CTB , "We" don't go to heaven or hell but wander endlessly." sorry for my english.

 

[TEJESHWI]

Most suicides and suicide attempts being driven by three factors : emotional, financial and psychological distress.

What's even the point of suicide prevention hotlines ?

If I am struggling emotionally I need support from the people I know.

If I am struggling financially I need a place to sleep and food to eat.

If I am struggling psychologically I need help from a medical professional.

How is some volunteer telling you good words at the end of a phone line supposed to help with any of this ?

MANY OF SUCIDE IS BASED ON THE ABOVE.IT DEPANDS UPON THE FATE OF YOU

 

[savoytruffle]

Suicide hotlines make me see white from anger. I called one once when I was 17 and they sent cops to my house. Genuinely maddening they still exist, shaking from anger as I'm typing this

 

[Niko66]

They only work so people who can't be fucked to help or give any thought on the matter can just copy paste their number and feel great about what a kind person they are.

It's the trifecta of dismissing your problems:

-Go seek professional help (also much so more useless than they think)
-Copy paste hotline number
-Just work on yourself

 

[Worndown]

A tornado hotline would tell you to seek shelter. A flood hotline would tell you to seek higher ground. A suicide hotline will tell you to not do it. It is short term phone intervention at best.
That you called the hotline makes it seem like you have doubts about doing it. It is all they have to work with. There really is no solution.

 

[stoiccactus]

An example of what I'm talking about:

Suicide hotline shares data with for-profit spinoff, raising ethical questions

The Crisis Text Line’s AI-driven chat service has gathered troves of data from its conversations with people suffering life’s toughest situations.

www.politico.com

Suicide hotline selling your data to some vendor who then re-sells it to ad tech companies who use it to target you with ads for mental health services or whatever shit they want to sell. It's all part of the late capitalism adtech meat grinder designed to commoditize your very existence (or lack thereof) into a few bucks.

 

[its-about-time]

The large or national hotlines have been useless for me, really even more damaging. There is an in-person 24/7 crisis center in my town that IS very helpful though. That's what every town needs. You can talk to them on the phone too but they'll want to send a taxi to bring you to the center, or they'll drive out to wherever you are to chat. It's scarier to talk in person at first but way more effective at getting support etc.