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On my machine at work, I say something like, "If you have a clinical emergency, please to go your nearest emergency room, crisis response center, or dial 911."
In terms of that message, an emergency is-- if someone is having feelings that are so intolerable that they believe they might hurt themselves or someone else.
Sometimes clients call because they want to see their psychiatrist sooner than their set appointment. They say that their depression has increased, or they are extremely anxious. They are not having thoughts of harm. I do not consider this either an emergency, or a crisis.
I think have more trouble with the word "crisis," rather than "emergency." I don't really believe that I have ever called T in crisis, except for the time when my father died. A crisis implicates that all events that are happening will lead to a major change in events, for better or worse. If I call T because I have self-injured, or I am having thoughts of self-injury, I don't think this indicates a crisis, since it is something that has been going on for ten years. Similarly, as I indicated in my previous post, I called T because I am not dong so well, emotionally. This wasn't a crisis, either. Our "boundary" is that I can call him whenever I need to. There is a major difference between calling in an actual crisis, and calling just because you need your T to help you a bit in getting through something-- even if it is just as simple as a soothing voice.
I am sure I could manage this by myself. We all manage our emotions without them when our Ts go on vacation. However, I know he's there, so I consider it to be somewhat of a helpful bonus-type-thing that I can reach out to him to make things a little bit easier.
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