Has anyone ever called a suicide helpline? What happens when u do?

I have.

They talked to me. They were very even about talking to me.

They did not make any assumptions or try to convince me otherwise.

They encouraged me to talk about what was going on, offered resources, and mostly an ear to listen.

[goldmaiden]

I call what is called 'Lifeline' here which is not neccessarily a suicide hotline (there is a seperate number) but the have the resources to call in a CAT (Crisis Assessment) team if you are feeling suicidal.

I would strongly reccommend helplines, the people there are very experienced, in my experience, and maybe more than a parent or friend would be to deal with your current feelings.

if you call, will they automatically tell your therapist if your seeing one through the school?

I call sometimes. I have also worked on a hotline taking night calls. They ask for a name. They don't care if its a real one or not they just need to fill in their log of in coming calls - time of call, name repeat caller Y N and description of call.

They listen and talk with the person until they are ready to hang up. Sometimes an emergency comes up where someone gets an active suicidal caller and then they may have to hang up with a person who they know is not active and just needed to talk for a few minutes.

Nothing is going to happen as long as you are not in the process of the suicidal act.

If you are in active suicidal state which is you have made the decision and are in the process. In which case they have caller ID so even before they answer your call they already know the area code and phone number you are calling from. They look on their list of area codes and see what district has that code and they allert that areas emergency services that they have an active suicidal from their area on the line. they give the caller ID information to that areas emergency services and while they keep the person on the line the emergency services are talking to the phone company to get exact location of the home, pay phone or cell phone that the call is coming from.

I didn't realize cell phones can be used to locate people until fairly recently when a person in this area was lost and the local emergeny services (police and so on) were able to use the relay towers to pinpoint the persons whereabouts once they had the phone number. they use a triangle system of which "towers" are being used to relay the call. once they have the three towers they have a real good idea of the area within a mile to a few miles.

Anyway back on track as long as you call before you are in active suicidal state all thats going to happen is like sitting down with your therapist and talking. The only difference is that its not face to face and the person answering the calls is usually a vollunteer not a certified or licensed therapist but if needed they have an on call certified and or licensed professional just a beeper away.

And no they don't tell your therapist unless of course your therapy agency is the the people running that hotline. then the info about the call will get forwarded to your therapist to be talked over with you to make sure you are ok and to have the paper put into your file the therapy agency keeps on you.

[Perna]

I don't know that I would call my college hotline. I'd find one in a nearby city. Colleges can be bureacratic and if they think you have a problem that might cause others distress, could ask you to leave and seek help. I especially wouldn't call it from a dorm or college phone.

I called hot lines when I was first starting therapy, between threapists, etc. as I didn't know how to ask for help, didn't have the "words" yet to express my problems clearly enough to see how to work on them, to "organize" them. I knew I needed help but not what for! Talking about suicide was a very clear "problem" and a nice representation for me of the confusion and intensity of my feelings. I was like a kid holding my arms apart to say I love someone "this much." Usually the hot line would recommend somewhere I could go get help and that was wonderful as it gave me a "goal" and means to get real help and support.

thanks all.. i think i'll figured it out. im just going to hold out till my next session. thanks.

[9874]

I dislike the idea of them being able to track me down. Can I block my no. from appearing on their Caller ID?

Or else I'd go to a pay phone a few blocks down and make sure I hang up before they have a chance to catch me in the act (being on the phone).

No theres no way to block the number. you can call from an unlisted number and it comes up number unknown and the automatic recording tracing follows the call through a network of phone lines and towers. with in three minutes they have your location. Mosat times when I was working the lines we would see on the caller ID caller unknown and pick up and gve a standard "please hold all vollunteers are on calls your call will be answered by the next available person." then wait a minute and pick up and go into the crisis centers information - Hi this is (my name) and this number (stating both numbers - local and the 800 number). We have all kinds of services here so in order for me to better help you I need to ask some questions. (by this time another minute has gone by) Have you called here before? Then keep asking questions based on their answers until the recording locater puts on the computer screen the callers location.

All phone booths have a specific first three numbers. those three numbers tells the location of that phone for example (not true numbers) 123-4567, 123-5678, 123-4321 they are all put with in the same city and block radius from each other. a hot line only needs to keep you on line for one minute which is more than long enough for the worker to type into a reverse (by phone number not name) computer phone directory. most times they do this before even answering the call by clicking the keys on the computer that will automatically do that for them.

So in order for you to go to a pay phone and hang up before they catch you in the act you need to put your money in let it ring once and hang up before they answer the call. And if you are going to do that why call to begin with right. People call because they want help and part of that help is sometimes wanting someone to stop the person. those that don't want to be stopped dont usually make the calls. they set things up so that they are dead before the person even finds the suicide note and so on.

By the way theres such a thing as Luds. even if you hang up the phone there is still a log to the fact that a call was made. maybe not the person who made the call but a time and number called from pay phones are kept on file for a certain amount of time. the police have access to phone company Luds.

telephone companies automatically list the incoming and out going calls from each phone they service. you can see an example of how they use the luds by looking at your phone bill.

See the itemized phone numbers you have called and the time that the call was made and where to?

You didn't call an operator every time you placed those calls. The phone companies computer automatically kept track and saved this information for 30 days.

This is how they know the difference between those local and long distance numbers you call and they print the long distance ones on the bills you recieve.

Pay phones work the same way the phone company keeps luds on every incoming and outgoing calls for a certain period of time.

If someone calls freom a pay phone and just says - I have a gun and am going to shoot myself and hang up. Pay phone numbers are not unlisted. so they automatically comeup on emergency services, click on one button and phone copmpany directory tells location and within a couple minutes that local emergency services (police) have been dispatched to the pay phones location. Then they get a discription of the last person who used that phone from any people hanging around. If the pay phone is located near or inside a business or store the odds are good to great that the person is on that businesses survallance vidio for shop lifters and so on.

Most if not all emergency services and hotlines record all calls both incomming and outgoing. that way the recordings can be used in prosecution of crank callers and when people call while they care being burgularized, abused and whatever other crimes that go on including suicide.

Here in the USA being a danger to yourself and or others is a crime so even suicide hotlines are expected to comply with law enforcement when they need access to proof of if a caller called the lines and what went on during the call. Especially if for example they arrest and transport a bridge jumper to the local ER and they claim yea I called that number but the person on line told me to go ahead and jump or whatever other claims they have against the hotline in which puts the hotline in the hotseat with the law.

the computer age is great we now have the world wide web ...and along with that comes the abilities of locating people so much easier when they are in crisis situations.

[9874]

Whoa, Myself, thank you for bringing me up-to-date on today's technology! I much appreciate your taking the time to describe in detail how it all works!
There have been times when I felt like calling a suicide hotline. Not because I want someone to stop me from doing it. But because I want someone to hear of the internal pain I'm in. The pain that drives me to see suicide as the only way out of the intense pain. When I can express the psychic pain the drive to self-destruct recedes.

You're welcome and know the feeling. Sometimes just hearing someone elses voice on the other end of the phone does alot at chasing away some to alot of the helpless and self destructive feelings and actions away. Which is why even though I know the calls I make are being recorded for trailing and file keeping and so on I still call hot lines when I need to. You might say for me the relief I get out ways the self consciousness I sometimes feel.

[JustAPixie]

I have learned so much!!! I'm a bit scared to call now, but thanks for the info!