The USA suicide hotline is terrible and shouldn’t be promoted.

.;.;.tldr: if you are contemplating suicide, reach out to a friend or family member or a therapist or anyone else before you reach out to the USA suicide hotline because they will hang up on you after 5 minutes of talking and tell you to kill yourself.<br><br>Most of you educated folks have seen that 3 digit national suicide hotline number plastered everywhere lately (9-8-8). I’m so sick of it honestly. This is literally a national emergency, people kill themselves at an alarming rate, some statistics indicate that 50% of us will have suicidal thoughts at some point in our lives. Our government has a responsibility to help these people.<br><br>I was in crisis one time and called and I thought “wow, finally, God bless America, this is going to help so many people in need.”<br><br>So the very first time I had a crisis, I used it. I called the number. It was very late at night, the sun wasn’t up yet. It says all over the website that it is a 24 hour service but being aware of how the government operates, you never know if these types of claims are true. To my pleasant surprise, a human picked up on the first ring, no new call center nonsense. And whoever it was on the other end sounded very pleasant and very nice. She was Black and very sweet and had a very kind tone. She was very patient with me and let me ramble on. I told her all of my problems, my life story, why I needed to end it, etc. She listened patiently and responded every minute or so to show she was paying attention. She didn’t interrupt me at all and sounded very empathetic and sympathetic. <br><br>After five minutes of talking to her, she said, “I’m going to get some help.” So of course, being a typical American, I assumed she meant she was getting a supervisor or another person to help her in the conversation. We all have had experiences in customer service where they say that and it’s usually bullshit but I was in a vulnerable state and hoping for anything that would help me. <br><br>So she puts me on hold for 20 minutes and then hangs up on me. I don’t know what the fuck just happened. I give them the benefit of the doubt. Maybe the line went bad, maybe they accidentally hung up. I call back. I get a new representative. I ask the new rep what happened to the last lady I talked to. She says she doesn’t know but she can try to help me. I am furious but am trying to communicate this without yelling. I ask to speak to a supervisor. She says she will at the same time she hangs up on me. <br><br>It had been an hour since my original phone call. Someone from the suicide hotline calls me and tells me she is a supervisor. I ask her why they keep hanging up on me. She tells me that when the representative says she’s going to get help she’s actually calling the cops. This is the reason they hang up on you. Because they don’t want you to know they are sending people to your house to potentially murder you. I lose it, and I yell at her. I tell her that is the most horrific, disgusting, deplorable thing I have ever heard. The supervisor says, “welp, fuck you, I’m trying to help you. Go kill yourself then.”<br><br>I am absolutely amazed at how these people get their jobs. I am not a Christian but I pray that these people burn in hell for eternity. If you are in crisis, do not call the suicide hotline.