Crisis Text Line

I have had to use it a couple of times due to my anxiety and depression. The volunteers are so kind and patient. One spent over a hour texting me and helping me get through my depression crisis. I highly recommend them. I am even hoping to volunteer for the textline.

I was banned from the platform for trying to talk to a teenager who indicated a history of buliimia and anorexia-nervosa about the importance of discussing her eating disorders with her therapist on my first night after training.

It might be concluded that the "fine" people at CrisisTextLine seem to think eating disorders are not as deadly or as medically-serious as suicidal ideation, even though individuals with eating disorders often die after prolonged self-starvation.

Awful platform, terrible people, would not waste time on training or using. I hope their funding dries up and goes to a better organization.

I texted after many nights of not sleeping. After a while I realized that it really wasn't going to do a whole lot for me and I just wanted to stop and try to sleep. I said as much but Sean insisted that I was in a crises. He refused to listen to my pleas. I did not indicate that I'd kill myself. I did not indicate that I was suffering a medical emergency other than lack of sleep. I made it clear I wanted to get off the line and go to sleep. That's it. Sean wouldn't let it go. Then the police arrived and left because I was not in need of intervention of any kind. After which, I started talking to someone else on the live because I honestly felt really harassed and nervous about the whole thing. I wanted to lodge a complaint. Idk. I have no way of proving this but I think it's all one person. I don't think there are supervisors to actually help. I think it's just one moron giving themselves multiple names. I didn't sleep. I feel far worse now.

I tried the Crisis Text Line one evening I was disappointed with it. It seemed like the crisis counselor was working off a script and it just didn't do anything for me. I felt like I was texting to a robot and not a human being.

Honestly this hotline is never really helpful. It's just a bunch of rehearsed phrases that aren't even relevant to my issues. And if I have to leave my phone for a few minutes they end the conversation. But a couple recent experiences have really irked me.

A crisis counselor was more interested in ending the conversation ASAP than helping me. She left me with resources that weren't even available when I called them and she ended the conversation when I told her I just bought 1,000,000 mg of ibuprofen and was looking for a place to take it.

I was also taken advantage of by another crisis counselor that I met in real life. And the next day our mutual friend tried to take advantage of me, too, and when I cried to him for help he outright refused to do anything about it. I reported it to the hotline and no action was taken.

Don't tolerate disrespect from rude and incompetent counselors. The person I spoke too was mean, condescending and said some outrageous things. No texter should have to put up with that. Just remembering him and the things that he said makes me want to vomit.

Be careful and hope you get assigned to a good crisis counselor! If someone is being a jerk, ask to speak to someone else and make a complaint.

Communicating with kindness and having an open mind shouldn't be that hard for crisis counselors to do.

I had two agents back to back close the text conversation after telling them that I was suicidal and thinking of ending my life within the next few minutes and the second agent had been advised at the beginning of the call that the previous agent had disconnected after informing me she did not "have" to close there conversation, asked me a question, and then promptly closed the text conversation without even waiting for a response. She was aware I was not in a safe state of being clearly indicated by the answer and then asked me something only to disconnect within five seconds and the second agent had been informed of such. I have screenshots and am considering suing the company because they should not be allowed to deal with someone suffering a mental health crisis because of obvious dire consequences likely occurring. I think anyone would be appalled if they knew there was a service like this that could be responsible for further contributing to someone ending their life but nowadays a company will do anything to make money. After this review I will be referring the better business bureau of my experience and asking them to please follow up. Shame on you whoever is responsible for this horrific attempt to scam someone out of money at any Personal cost to the individual. Absolutely despicable depraved and abhorrent behavior from a company!

As sad and ironic as it is, I felt more validated and heard reading these one- and two-star reviews about how bot-like and scripted the responses from the counselors feel than said bot-like and scripted responses I got when I used the crisis line. I understand that this isn't supposed to be a substitute for professional help, but it isn't that for me. In fact, I've actually been getting professional help for almost 15 years. I wasn't expecting a miracle cure, but I was at least expecting more than what I could've found with a google search of "reasons not to off yourself", or "validating quote generator". I was at the very least, also, expecting the counselor to check with me and see if their "advice" was actually helpful. It wasn't, and they didn't. They didn't even make sure that I was no longer in crisis. I had reached out due to feeling like I wasn't worthy of anyone's time, but that wasn't what I was trying to validate, I was trying to find ways to invalidate that mindset. The superficial nature of the responses I got made me feel even worse, so I ended up just reaching out to the government funded line once the counselor ended the connection without any warning. Save yourself the time and emotional turmoil and just reach out to 988.

I've included images of my full conversation, and only censored PII. A lot of the PII I had to censor takes out the issues that they ignored, so there is some context missing in that regard. The minimal censoring I had to do for their responses should be a bit jarring though at the very least.

Years ago, I left a review on a bad experience with a mean crisis counselor from this texting line. I still struggle with intrusive thoughts from the horrible things that he said. I can't believe this company let this crisis counselor do what he did. He was racist and cruel. This line doesn't know how to help BIPOC. The CEO apologized to me for his behavior, but that's not enough to make my trauma to go away. I wouldn't recommend this texting line to anyone. Some of these crisis counselors are toxic cowards hiding behind a phone. That mean crisis counselor I had wouldn't have the balls to say things to my face.

If you are in a crisis, please call the actual Suicide Hotline and speak to a real person. Or go to the ER. This crisis text line is bogus. It will make things worse for you. I have used them twice, thinking I'll try again after the first horrible experience. Nope, both of them made me want to hurt myself even more. The first time, I was "on hold" for over 45 minutes while they "found someone for me". They kept telling me they were busy, but to keep waiting. I didn't keep waiting. I ended the text. The next time, I did get someone. Despite me sharing in detail what I was going through, all I got back were some generic words and a list of distractions I could do, like drink some water, and a list of (not free) apps I could download on my phone. I shared both of these experiences with a therapist, and they were concerned about this text line and they thought they were bots on the other end. Pretty unethical to play around with someone's safety, by assigning bots that advertise to help you in a crisis. Maybe it depends on your geographical location, what kind of responses you might get from this.

I tried this twice in the past few weeks when I was feeling suicidal and both times I felt worse after texting with them. They were making it seem like my feelings aren't valid. Because I told them I felt suicidal and it seemed they were messing around and not taking it seriously. They don't care when you're in a crisis. I can't remember the persons name but I remember this person was dismissive about how I was suicidal and he/she was making seem like I wasn't really suicidal. It was strange and He/she was dismissive about everything I was saying too. It was horrible and it made me feel worse. It sickens me they acted like this towards someone in a crisis. To make matters worse I texted for a reason. I mean this is why they need to remove this hotline and or shut it down because I was in a crisis. It is not that hard to care about someone for a 10 minutes. I know they aren't trained counselors but still this is ridiculous!

This is Horrible service they should just shut this down I felt mocked! Not professionals with experience.

It feels like you're being rushed as others have said, basically if you're suicidal they'll answer you quickly anything else is awhile. And beyond that it's the same conversation every time and they have went the route of rehearsed and scripted to get through people rather than actually talking to and connecting to people in crisis situations. If you're not actively about to end your life you're sent pre-written scripts until they can get rid of you. I'm sure the volunteers really do care and probably hate how it's set up, but the actual whole system side itself does not care about those at risk.

Last time I was in crisis I tried the Trevor Project chat online and it was AMAZING. They talked to me like a human being and were actually able to help me and I never felt rushed, so it's awesome to know there's a chat option that's actually helpful as calls give me anxiety at the best of times let alone if I'm in a low place. I'm queer so Trevor Project is also good in that area but honestly if you're doing awful and need someone I'd recommend staying clear of Crisis Text Line.

This is almost 2 AM and I have been waiting for Crisis Counsellor to come on chat for more than one hour and 14 minutes and every 15 minutes Robo message show up telling i am still in line - take deep breath - etc., if this is supposed to be addressing crisis 75 minutes are definitely not acceptable. I have sent the conversation for review by FACEBOOK and let us see if there is any one who actually reads it. I think this is a scam. After a long wait like this people will get bored or sleep or worse they suffer consequences of crisis IS THIS A JOKE? IF IT IS, IT IS A VERY CRUEL AND NEGLIGENT ONE

I already wanted to die enough and they don't do anything to help. They say i matter and then continue to give up on me. Counselor after counselor. They dont care.

Two hour wait to be accused of being aggressive and misusing the system, then threatened with suspension.

Responses were very generic and vague. I would not recommend this service at all unless you want to waste your time, have a bad experience, or lose more hope in humanity.

As a volunteer crisis counselor, this organization has good intentions but horrible supervision. The supervisors constantly tell you to rush through each conversation... EVEN WHEN THERE ARE NO TEXTERS WAITING IN THE QUEUE! They rather you finish each conversation within 45 mins than to actually take the time and effort with the texter, who is in crisis. Each texter is experiencing different levels of crisis, so rushing a counselor with the conversation sounds very uncaring.

Update: Isabel's response as a supervisor claims they don't rush the volunteers. Lucky for me I kept the email from last year and uploaded the picture to prove her wrong.

1. Called, feeling suicidal, volunteer told me to be quiet and not curse, despite me wanting to kill myself? I wasnt cursing at him, I was just cursing while I was venting. He then told me cursing was not allowed. I cannot imagine hes been helpful to anybody. He then told me that it would be my choice if I were to hang up and kill myself. Unbelievable.

2. Texted that same day, feeling suicidal, person essentially told me "that sucks, Im sorry" and then said there was nothing they could do to help me.

3. My fiancé called, feeling suicidal and urges to drink again (alcoholic), talked about his family problems, then the crisis center person said that if he wasnt drinking, his parents would love him and all of his problems would go away, and that it was his fault. Never have I wanted to kill someone more.

4. Texted today after losing my place in the chat with RAINN multiple times AND calling them only to get lines that werent even crisis centers. Immediately after I said what I was dealing with, they put words in my mouth and literally said to me how they decided I was feeling about my own rape. What the hell.

There needs to be something done about this. I could have died due to their negligence and no one would have known. I'll be speaking to a lawyer about the legality of this situation.