themutedtrumpetRemember, 988 is always there for you ❤️
So, I have a question. Were you reaching out because you were experiencing a personal emotional crisis and looking for support, or were you simply trolling a crisis line?
Do you think that I’m not in crisis right now?
I don’t have enough information to form an opinion about that, so rather than form a baseless opinion, I’m asking about your intent.
My intent is that I would LOVE HELP. I have reached out for help multiple times and not found it. Please tell me where I can get help and not be terrified and want to die anymore? Please tell me how I can find help where I’m not terrified of the “kindness” of having cops spirit me away to the fun place where they call me a girl and blow vape smoke in my face and rape me if I’m really unlucky.
I want to preface my reply with a couple of things.
Everything I have said and will say is in good faith. If I suggest something, the only intent is to help. There are no secret meanings.
I struggle with severe depression and suicidality, and I am a 988 user. I am very sensitive to the issue of unwanted, potentially deadly “help” showing up after reaching out.
Okay. I got the impression from your initial post that you might have been trolling 988 or doing something else other than seeing help. The impression was reinforced by the counselor appearing to get the same vibe.
I have had the experience of trying to communicate something to a therapist/social worker, being misunderstood, and finding that multiple people are misinterpreting me in the same way. Do you think it’s possible that you may have been expressing your emotions and need in a way that someone else might interpret as hostile?
On the subject of staying safe from interaction with police, I am conflicted. I think it is appropriate for a crisis counselor to call 911 as a last resort. If someone is in such an intense crisis that she cannot/ will not consent to the help she needs to save her life, then brief involuntary treatment is probably the right thing.
Even if I need hospitalization, accepting help getting to it has risks. The crisis counselor may want to call an ambulance to take me. If so, the cops may respond to ensure that the paramedics are safe. We all have our own thoughts about that part. I choose to avoid that kind of involuntary interaction. I turn off my location service and connect to the chat over a VPN.
The most important part is to never be hostile, you can’t be angry about being sexually assaulted in inpatient care or express any symptoms of ptsd or you deserve no sympathy and should just kill yourself.
It appears to be the latter.
“Appears to be” yeah how dare I reach out for help. I should be grateful for the “help” I got. I’m a huge ass fucking faker because I’m not brave enough to walk into traffic.
hazelYou established in another post that this help line is unable to provide the support you’re looking for. If you strongly feel that this is the case, and if you are sincerely seeking support, stop contacting 988. Continuing to do so is a waste of your own time and the staff’s, and further increases the wait time for others attempting to use the service.
The help line is unable to provide any help. They don’t hire therapists, they don’t hire trained people, they hire people with psych BAs that read a script and call the cops the second you go off of it.
But no one wants to hear this. Everyone wants to feel good about themselves when they post a 988 ad or say “there’s no stigma in asking for help.” But there is, 988 is a joke.
If that’s your OC then you didn’t ask for help, you blasted off about politics. You didn’t say “I” even once.
Yeah, the current political situations where the Vice president of the United States is saying that people like me are terrorists has nothing to do with my mental health. The fact that I am terrified of saying anything about wanting to die because really, that’s all the do, is wait for you to say something that lets them end the call and call the cops.
I was in fucking crisis. I’m still in fucking crisis. There is no help. 988 is a fucking ad campaign and no one gives a shit. If I ever do get the courage I’ll shoot myself in front of vibrant headquarters and then maybe then someone will fucking listen.