I have always felt my daughter chose this forum because she was looking for information on how to ctb. You don't get that kind of practical information from a helpline, I don't think. I have always felt that helplines are about listening ánd trying to make sure someone doesn't ctb. That wasn't what my daughter was looking for, so she wouldn't call a helpline.
im so sorry for your loss
many who have experienced the mental health industry have found it to be extremely coercive and leading to more suffering. if i could talk to a clinician for free and I absolutely knew my privacy would be protected no matter what, that it would not result in forced treatments, it would be anonymous, and that it wouldn't make my financial situation worse, i probably would seek support. but in many countries there are many exceptions to privacy that allow breaches, anonymous help lines can triangulate people and record calls and let clinicians in training get credit for hospitalizing people, and calling such lines is likely to lead to expensive forced care.
i'm probably 50 percent likely to commit suicide in the next year after losing my best friend, and probably would seek professional support if it were more private and less expensive and less likely to result in forced care. If I had professional support that was private free and non-coercive, I'd probably be 40 percent likely to end my life in the next year instead of 50 percent.
988 and suicide hotlines are great for people who want to cry out for help and genuinely don't really want to die and have no experience of how awful the mental health system can be. Those lines can find the person crying out for help using geolocation data and records associated with the cell number, drug thr caller, hold them against their will, and try to make sure they feel better in a financially ruinous manner but will get the caller the help they want.
For people who are intent or genuinely on the fence about dying regarding suicide and want emotional support without coercion and without forcibly being dragged into a costly system, they aren't helpful. 988 documents everything, they regularly send police or counselors to take people away, and locked hospital stays can be financially calamitous and lead to homelessness.
The mental health industry has certain ethical rules with a "our way or the highway" attitude and a lot of people, like me, opt out. I actually don't need 988 taking records of why I am calling, doing suicide assesments of me every time I call, and potentially locking me up. I do wish I could anonymously talk with a counselor about my grief without being subject to religious proselytizing and without fear of being locked up or forced on drugs. There really isn't an option. I don't like lying, I am suicidal, and anyone I talk with is either going to redirect me to clinicians, call 988, or try to religiously convert me. The government has given the mental health industry and religions a monopoly over such matters and those are my options and I choose neither.
It's unfortunate that the government doesn't recognize that in creating all sorts of rules making the mentally ill second-class people and allowing mentally ill people to be subject to a degrading system that it makes a large number of mentally ill people unwilling to involve themselves in such a morass.
The US government: "We are the government and care about you. Suicide isn't the answer. Please call 988 so we can send police, lock you up, and bill you for your involuntary stay which will be many tthousands of dollars and possibly more money than you will earn in 6 months working an average US job. You will be placed on drugs that are at least 15% more effective than a placebo and given a lifetime mental health diagnosis that will prevent you from owning guns, hunting, or becoming a pilot, as well as limiting you in many other ways. You will be placed on a list of mental
defectives illness people. If you can't work while you are involuntarily hospitalized, and become evicted and lose your job, we will help you by allowing you to call 988 again once you are homeless so you can be remedicated."
Also the US government: "Why are so many men not getting help for depression and committing suicide? We need more awareness! Let's put up billboards with 988 on it!"
Suicide existed before SaSu and people find out how to die when they want to die. I may end up committing suicide or may not commit suicide, but SaSu makes the process less horrendous. It probably doesn't change the liklihood of that I'll commit suicide and the likelihood I end my life in the next 10 years is probably closer to 75 percent.
I wish pro-lifers, and I'm not sure you are one, would focus on trying to make mental health options with fewer exceptions allowing privacy to be broken, fewer economic costs for those who utilize the services, less of a likelihood of loss of autonomy, and more of a disconnection between seeking mental health services and consequences from the government in other aspects of civil personhood.
The government is able to access psychiatric records in a variety of situation. There are many government forms that ask about mental illness. There are government databases. Psychiatric issues can be asked about during custody hearings. The regulations that exist cause people to avoid help, not SaSu. Many of us are very lonely and don't seek clinical care and would if we could do it without the threat of involuntary locked care. Part of the problem is a diagnosis is needed to deal with how things are billed, but a diagnosis also has a legal impact too. If regulations were different, it would not stop all suicides but it might stop some of them.
But the government and psychiatric industry absolutely do not care about how patients feel as it formulates it ethics rules, which mostly exist to placate the public with things that sound nice, but have horrible secondary effects, and make people pleased with the mental health industry. If I could go through a regulated process to try to end my life, I would start it if I knew there would be no forced care and there was some chance it would be allowed and then there could be safeguards. I come to SaSu because religous peopkle say suicide is always evil, impacting legislation, and so I do not have that option. If there were a lawful process for suicide and I applied and they rejected it, I would probably accept that if it were a fair process. But there is no approved method for suicide for someone like me in my country and if I seek help there's a 90 percent chance I'll be locked up, given a huge bill, forced on drugs I don't want, and have to lie to get out before eventually ending it.
I'm sorry if this is a lengthy or insensitive response, but I wish the people who rallied against SaSu (and I'm not sure.if you are one of them) realized they would prevent many more suicides if they tried to make it so the rules of the mental health industry cared less about sounding nice and pleasant and were more tailored to patient concerns, even if the rules ended up making some in the public uncomfortable or made their industry look bad. That is the low lying fruit to reduce suicide, not awareness months, billboards, and more commercials about a hotline that will forcibly drug people and gives clinicians in training experience credit. Instead of the industry taking a hard look at how it alienates people, it keeps cheerleading for more awareness (at huge financial cost to the public that accomplishes nothing) and creating bogeymen to blame, like SaSu and social media and whatever else is the latest trend. All of these things do make clinicians look good and continue to be lucrative, however, so there's a vested interest in upholding this status quo.
in other countries the situation is not as bad, some have free healthcare and things like Samaritans that will never report a caller, but there is still no way to get care without losing control, autonomy, and having financial and civil risks in almost all countries.
all of this is probably meaningless in a way. again, im sorry. :-(
