Do suicide hotlines work?

And I've never called a hotline, so I can't help you there, but if you're really feeling that bad where you need to call one, don't hesitate, and try to keep an open mind. More than likely no one will kiss your ass.

If talking to someone is helpful to you, though, you should call a hotline anyway, or a friend. This assumes that you have really good friends with their heads on straight.

You can always email or AIM me me if you like (radiofreealbmuth), I'd be happy to chat with you, having been down this road myself. If I am not on/in AIM email me and we can set a time or something. I am a firm believer in meds for depression so I heartily advise a trip to the doctor.

Do yourself a favor and give them a call. Could be something as simple as the blahs or maybe there's something bigger going on...anyway these people are caring and there to help.

i admire people who work at suicide hotlines.

I don't mean to discourage anyone from calling, I think calling is a good thing, but I understand the doubts one would have about it. I think anyone who can should call a hotline, but if you can't, call or email SOMEONE.

I can imagine a lot of people feel this way, but the important thing to realise is that the people on the other end of a suicide hotline don't actually care very much about you. That's not the point. They're there to provide a different perspective, a sounding board against which to vent your feelings. If they are older, younger, 'not like me' then all the better. When you're feeling suicidal the best thing you can hope for is somebody to talk to who is very much not like you.

There can be an advantage to something like a help line, however, in that they are anonymous and the people on the other end of the phone are trained to listen to and help people feeling the way you are. Sometimes it is helpful to be able to unload your feelings with all the connected baggage with no fear that any of it will "get back to" (or just get to) your loved ones or friends.

I know, for example, that my parents love me very much, and I get along well with them, but there are some feelings and thoughts (relating to depression, etc.) that I wouldn't want to share with them simply because they don't necessarily know how to handle it. (Imagine any parent handling a child telling them some of the things they think about when very depressed.) Similar things can also be true of friends.

If you're thinking of calling because you think it might help, why not? The people answering phones at those places are trained... There's no chance that they won't listen or won't understand what you're talking about. (They've been trained to help with exactly what you're talking about.) The worst that can happen is that it doesn't make you feel better, but you won't be worse off for having called.

If you do decide to call, keep this in mind: If, for any reason, you feel that the person you've ended up speaking to is not helpful or that you'd prefer to speak to someone else (say, if you have a preference for speaking to males or females, or even if you just don't like their voice or whatever), just ask if you can speak to someone else instead. I have done this myself a couple of times, and none of the folks I spoke to ever seemed offended or unable to understand. They just want you to be comfortable and get whatever good you can from the situation.

(If you want to talk more about crisis phone lines or anything related, feel free to email me. I'm not a doctor or a trained counselor, but I have personal experience being on the other end of the phone, and I can offer my experience if it's helpful.)

If you knew how to get yourself out of your depression, you'd have already done it. There's a small chance the hotline person might have more information than you do. In that case, you're ahead of the game. If they don't seem very competant or worthwhile, then you've learned something, too.

Of course there's no guarantee it will work miracles for you. But then again, if you're not drastically suicidal at this point, the cost of failure would be negligible and you'd be no worse off than if you hadn't tried. If you are drastically suicidal, then the cost of doing nothing could be astronomical.

It's totally up to you.