[Nammu]

I was going though old emails to see what to delete when I found this info.

I dislike using the phone, so when I was having trouble about 6 months ago I emailed to find out alternatives and this is what I got back. I'm not sure where to post this so I picked other.


Thanks for reaching out to us. There are several ways to connect with
person without using the phone. Here's the information:

~~ National Online Chat at this URL: CrisisChat - Chat

~~ National Suicide Prevention Chat Line:
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline - Lifeline Crisis Chat

~~ National Suicide Prevention Hotline:
For Hearing and Speech Impaired with TTY Equipment: 1-800-799-4TTY
(4889)

~~ The CONTACT text service: text “CWC” to 839863,
Monday, Wednesday or Friday 4:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.\

Please keep reaching out to connect with someone because a volunteer is
waiting -
-Fran
Contact We Care Volunteer

[Arethusa]

thanks for the links! I'm sure it will come in handy especially to a phone phobic person such as myself

Will they call the cops though? I always fear that. The last time I called crisis services, they forced me to go to the hospital. They can trace where messages come from.....

[gracez]

Hi Sidestepper and others,

thanks for this post. This is important info to have out there and I wish I had known about it instead of the extra stress of having to research when you're already stressed. I don't have a phone, simply can't afford one, so I was looking for online "chat" options.

Another one that I found is called hopeline.com

As for the question about the cops, I don't know.

[Mapleton]

https://www.torproject.org/

[haier]

Thank you

[Nammu]

I don't know about calling the police. I'm not a tech savvy person so I don't know if it is possible for them to do that.

[newtus]

they tried to call the police on me last year. i wasnt that suicidal i just needed to talk mostly or goto hospital. they phoned police and hospital and then CALLED ME BACK saying they had a bed waiting for me. then i said ok and hung up and didnt answer anymore phone calls. but then the NEXT day they called me back AGAIN and wanted to "check on me" because i didnt show up at the hospital. i dont think ill be doing that ever again...

but one time i did an instant messaging crisis service and they talked to me. just talked. it was ok. they didnt say much. i was practically talking to myself. they were like "how do you feel about that?" or whatever. it was a real person but it was like they had preprogrammed messages. prob some manual or training told them to say neutral things.

[Nammu]

Here is a really comprehensive site w/ tons of help of all kinds. I just stumbled into this while reading a comment to a psych com blog. At a quick glance it looks very good.

http://unsuicide.wikispaces.com/Onli...cide+Help+Wiki

[RedBarchetta]

Personally - I just can't trust anything like that. IPs can be easily traced to ISPs, and the ISP can easily give the physical address of the IP used.. So something like that - safe bet is it there is a way to trace it - assume they are going to.

[mimi2112]

in my state and others, we have what is called a "warm line" it is run by peers. so in the past, especially when i was suspicious( still am sometimes),, i felt ok talking to peers. they are less judgemental, have lived my experience and tend not to over-react;

i would suggest to others to look up "warm line" on your search engine for your state.

[Mapleton]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

Personally - I just can't trust anything like that. IPs can be easily traced to ISPs, and the ISP can easily give the physical address of the IP used.. So something like that - safe bet is it there is a way to trace it - assume they are going to.

Tor is completely anonymizing. You don't have to *worry if you run Tor.

* Well.. unless you do something called endpoint analysis, but that's at an NSA/FBI level, and I have a hard time believing that some random person that wants to end it will warrant that, or if a judge would allow for the wiretap

[newtus]

most people dont know how to do tor though. most dont know what it is. i dont think people know what they are getting into doing TOR...

[Mapleton]

Originally Posted by newtus

most people dont know how to do tor though. most dont know what it is. i dont think people know what they are getting into doing TOR...

I know. Very true. However, if you absolutely have to have a help line chat be anon...

EDIT: Thinking about it, they'd have not so good a shot at figuring out a suicide chat too, if you sat outside a busy starbucks and leeched their free wifi (maybe change your MAC address, if you feel so inclined,) and delete cookies/history after.

[RedBarchetta]

I know all about that, and the public WiFi - still when I say no way to do it, I mean LITERALLY NO WAY, regardless of anything.. As in not even NSA or CIA could do it - forget is it legal to, just from a purely technological point COULD it be done by anyone at all - if the answer is anything other than not one person on the planet is capable of tracing it - it's traced, and therefore, not to be trusted with much. Even a public WiFi is not 100% safe. So for me, I REALLY NEED something that is absolutely untraceable - the kind of thing that even a secrete government group devoted to such things absolutely can not do it.

[mimi2112]

Originally Posted by RedBarchetta

I know all about that, and the public WiFi - still when I say no way to do it, I mean LITERALLY NO WAY, regardless of anything.. As in not even NSA or CIA could do it - forget is it legal to, just from a purely technological point COULD it be done by anyone at all - if the answer is anything other than not one person on the planet is capable of tracing it - it's traced, and therefore, not to be trusted with much. Even a public WiFi is not 100% safe. So for me, I REALLY NEED something that is absolutely untraceable - the kind of thing that even a secrete government group devoted to such things absolutely can not do it.

I wish for that too.

[Rose76]

Thanks. I am really grateful to have an alternative to that main suicide hot line.

In my area, the local guy who is in charge of it wanted to meet me for coffee years ago. I thought that was a little creepy, so I've avoided that number.

In my community, there is a good warm line that I've used. Sometimes, though, no one is available.

Any phone line, or site, can give you a bad experience. It can depend on the person there at the moment. I would never hold one experience against a provider of help.

Sometimes, there are patterns that reflect the training given by a particular agency. Like - The Samaritans, out of Boston, can be effusively warm and sympathetic for a set number of minutes. Then, suddenly, they say they're out of time, and that's it. I would be slow to call them.

I think the people in my state who man the national hot-line deserve a prize for being pretty awful. I was taunted so bad, once, that I ended up cutting my arms in despair, even though I am not a cutter. Never did that before, or since. I ended up in a hospital for 5 days. I was under horrible stress. The person at the help line was unbelievably inappropriate.

Thanks again for more options. Good to know about.

[Nammu]

Rose I'm so sorry you had those bad experiences. I too have had a hard time w/ phones, thats why I looked for the alternatives. Oddly enough my bad experiences had more to do with my hearing impairment, like you aren't allowed to ask them to speak up, enunciate or repeat words, if using relay, well it took to much of their time!(what a trigger!) I'm sorry that guy was in charge he was so inappropriate! I agree about the Samaritans too.

[LoveForMyChild]

Thank you for the information! My daughter would be more comfortable doing that than talking on the phone...what a great resource for her!