emperos

I didn't want to call the fire department because they've got enough to worry about

Don't think you need a Canadian passport anymore, this mindset will suffice to identify you as one

Unbelievable! This story has strange parallels to the "don't use a stove to heat a lava lamp" story, and I feel that I have learned important lessons from each!

Hey, I also volunteer at a crisis line - not the saw one as OP, but I can provide some other insight. Ours is a crisis line, bot limited to suicide, so we get overwhelmed or anxious people and such too. Like any phone line, we get a fair number of regulars - people who call fairly frequently, sometimes to work through a problem they're having, sometimes to just get someone to tell them the voices aren't real. Some of them I feel like we do help, but others can be abusive and manipulative at times, which can be tough to deal with.

It's pretty rare for us to get a prank call, but they're pretty obvious when we get them and don't pose much of a problem.

The most egregious problem, however, are masturbators - people who will call in to get off. I'm not sure what they get out of it, myself - it doesn't make much sense to me. Being male, I very rarely get those sort of calls, but our female volunteers definitely get them fairly often. Obviously they're gross and demeaning, not to mention a waste of our resources.

Unfortunately, since we're totally confidential, we can't really prosecute or anything - not that we know these peoples' names or where they live anyways. The phone provider we use doesn't block numbers, either, so it's more or less something we have to deal with and confront those callers about.

Honestly, it's very very rare. It's only if someone has the pills with them and won't put them down. That's when we're supposed to hang up, because we're supposed to take care of ourselves first. In reality, a lot of people (myself included) will keep them on the phone and keep trying to talk to them.

As a counselor, my first job is to take care of myself. Because if I hear someone I'm talking to and care about kill themselves on the phone, I'm not in any shape to help the next caller, or the one after, or the one after that. And that's why I'm there. So in a case like that, you have to remind yourself that its their life, their choices and not your fault and not your choice. Which sucks. Its not a good situation hanging up with them and telling them to call back, but it's worse hearing them die...

Hey man,

I'm also a crisis line volunteer. I've had a couple similar experiences - one time, a called seemed to tale the pills and hang up, then a couple weeks later I got a call from someone posing as the dead caller's roommate. Turns out they were the same person, just different personalities. The support I got was awesome, and helped me through a time when I was questioning whether I wanted to keep going with it.

It seems like you're no longer taking calls - if you ever want to talk about some of your experiences or anything, definitely shoot me a PM. Thanks for your time helping so many other people!