experience with suicide hotlines?

[hoping to lose hope]

Has anyone rang them up?
To me I cannot see them being useful unless someone is unsure and worried they may impulsively kill themselves.
Why would you ring one up if you wanted to die and knew they can send the bobbies over to your apartment?
If you had no one to talk to it would make sense.
Are they just a huge waste of money to fund?

 

[darksideofthebright]

To me I cannot see them being useful unless someone is unsure and worried they may impulsively kill themselves.

I think that really is when they come in handy, because many people just haven't been able to gain access to the roots of their thoughts and feelings, and so as SI kicks in, they become panic and need to talk to a stranger with little emotional investment.

With that being said, I think out of my 5 times calling the Samaritans, only one of them was useful, and in the middle of the conversation, there was a terrible connection and after the phone disconnected, I just went into panic attack mode. The other 4 were just terrible, because at the end of the day, the majority of them are volunteers without enough knowledge and resources to help.

There definitely needs to be more training though, but I do know some people with good experience with these hotlines. It's like therapy, trials and errors and more often than not, it comes down to luck.

 

[signifying nothing]

Rung in to the Samaritans (uk) a few times when really desperate. They don't quite work as you fear, otherwise no one that felt suicidal would call them.

Good when you just need to know there's someone sat there on the other end of the line with you, listening even if you don't say a thing. And you dont need to be suicidal either, I think that's a big misconception.

 

[hoping to lose hope]

Rung in to the Samaritans (uk) a few times when really desperate

I wonder if it would be fun to do that work even if it is free. I might look into it.

 

[signifying nothing]

I wonder if it would be fun to do that work even if it is free. I might look into it.

I confess I have also been on the other end of the line, as a Samaritan, for a few months about 8 years ago. It is interesting, but can also take a mental toll, which is why I had to stop.

 

[OopsIdidntwanttodie]

my experience sucked. before i actively started looking into killing myself, i tried really hard to seek help. i would turn to the suicide hotline/ chat and always feel like it was for nothing. one told me they couldn't help me and hung up. i never have been calmed down or reassured. they just said that if i was suicidal they'd call the cops on me. on the suicide chat it's clear that they use a script. at first i really tried to explain myself but it seemed like they didn't care. i began to experiment and reply with yes or no to see if they would actually try to get to the bottom of my situation. they didn't. so i ended the chat. i texted a crisis hotline once and got a better response, but that was one out of the many times i tried to reach out. i can see why people can easily tell others to call a suicide hotline. they don't know how it actually sucks because they've never called it themselves. its a sad reality for us people that try to help ourselves :(

 

[k75]

I've had bad experiences the few times I tried. (In US)

First, I wanted to do the textline, but they demand you use an actual cell and not an app like textnow with a fake number (it's blocked somehow), and I was not comfortable with that.

Then, the hold times were absurd. Both calls, it was well over an hour wait. I'm pretty sure the only way they actually help anyone is by boring the suicidal thoughts out of you beforehand. I mean, you'll probably have either calmed down or killed yourself before you get to talk to anyone.

The one time I actually got to talk to someone, it wasn't helpful. He didn't even try to pretend he wasn't reading from a script. I could have been talking to him about breakfast for all the interest he showed. He only had short, canned responses. I ended up in tears, very obviously hysterical and not trying to hide it, and I told him to just forget it all, I was getting off the phone. And all he said was, "ok." And he hung up on me.

 

[Meretlein]

I am not engaging with anyone who thinks they have to right to send agents of the state to forcibly confine me for what I may or may not do with my own body, life, and person.

 

[Ghost2211]

I don't see it being too useful. It's basically like talking to people in this group but the hotline people can call the police on you, they basically read off a script, and they can't respect your wishes to do what you want with your body. it's basically going to be a bunch of people telling you that everything will get better and everything will be OK.

 

[LUNANYX]

I've called once before when I was seeking for help. The lady I was on the phone with was not very comforting... :( In the end I felt worse once I hung up the phone

 

[Konjac]

I can't speak on the phone but I've tried text services... never found them useful. As other people have said, all the replies just feel scripted. Not genuine at all. Plus the wait times of at least an hour aren't any help for someone on the verge of suicide lmao.

 

[Moon Flower]

Has anyone rang them up?
To me I cannot see them being useful unless someone is unsure and worried they may impulsively kill themselves.
Why would you ring one up if you wanted to die and knew they can send the bobbies over to your apartment?
If you had no one to talk to it would make sense.
Are they just a huge waste of money to fund?

Unrelated to the topic but I love that gondola image

 

[hoping to lose hope]

Unrelated to the topic but I love that gondola image

Only meme character left that normalfags have not destroyed.

 

[Moon Flower]

Only meme character left that normalfags have not destroyed.

The normies poison everything they touch

 

[SanJunipero1]

I agree that they're good for impulsive people, lonely people and people who don't understand what's happening to them but otherwise no I think for the rest of us they do more harm than good. Between the wait times, the times where I've had to console the volunteer because my story was too sad (WTF) or the times they've just spewed unhelpful platitudes, I've been worse off every time I've called a helpline.
I also think they give the wrong message to the general public, it's just an excuse for people to pass the buck so they don't have to listen to their friends uncomfortable situation. Because the people on the helplines are no more qualified to give help than your man on the street.
If we were all just allowed to talk openly in society about how life isn't always worth living for everyone all the time, things would be a lot easier than being gaslighted into reaching out for help to people who have no help to give.

 

[Throwmyselfaway]

Last time I tried to call one was about 3 years ago. This is in the US. I was placed on hold. While I was on the phone I was actually in the wait for the online. I gave up after 45 minutes on both and just chain smoked.

 

[ecmnesia]

huge waiting lines. huge. not worth the time.

 

[Nyvu]

I had really good experiences with the Samaritans during my stay in the UK. I think I've gone through 5-8 calls throughout my whole visit and I was lucky enough to get some understanding and patient people as I was...well... let's just say difficult to handle at the time. I think one volunteer mentioned to me that they can't really take action even if they have the guarantee that I'm about to hurt myself but I'm not too sure about the validity of that statement, never bothered to check.

So yeah, I definitely have nothing but good things to say about them, sorry some of you had worse experiences.

Also I disagree with some people denouncing the worth of the volunteers in this thread. I think just listening to someone can have a tremendous impact on their well-being, even if those people aren't qualified enough to give you advice or solve your problems they can still do good by just being there. I don't know about others but that's been the case with me for sure. I had times where it felt like I was at my boiling point but just getting it all out on the hotline calmed the tempest so to say.

 

[Sakura94]

Aww, reading Hope's posts cheered me up yesterday when I just joined. Sad she's gone.
I did consider working for the Samaritans part time as a sort of therapeutic method but it probably would have been a bad idea.

 

[BridgeJumper]

Called hotline here
8 times. 7 times number not available, 1 time put on hołd Figured I jump

 

[grungeCat]

I've never called any suicide hotline. I'm afraid they would track me and send police or EMS and I don't have any health insurance.

 

[http-410]

Basically, I made the experience that the decision to commit suicide is respected by these people and nobody thinks it's wrong, which reassured me a lot when I had doubts.

Of course people have a "towards life" agenda and believe every problem can be solved (without suicide), which is very naive.

The last lady I called gave default advice like to watch meditation videos or going to sleep. Of course this was not helpful at all, but they aren't professionals and have no clue how broken people can be.

However, I talked with another person about methods.

Also, the availability is very poor. Our national helpline has no waiting line, so when you call there and they are busy (they usually are), the connection hangs up automatically. Really bad if you're in acute crisis.

I don't know how it works in other countries. But the helpline here at least claims to be anonymous and so far I have always called with a hidden number. Since I don't make "threats", I have nothing to fear, but to be sure I don't call at home and leave my cell phone switched off until I get home.

 

[fixitinpost]

Before, during, and after the time I tried to commit suicide, I tried contacting our hotline. It was impossible to get through, by phone and chat. So I sent them an e-mail. Five days later, I received a reply that read as if written by an AI, including the phrase "few people enjoy the privilege of reaching us". At that point I'd already gotten in touch with the local hospital.

I honestly don't know WTF happened there.

 

[stygal]

I called one once a few years ago at night...the person tried to tell me "how good my life was" and "how lucky I was to be in a relationship"....I told them how much I hated everything and how much my disability hurt me everyday....they had no real answer but "just go on and see". Well, really helpful.