I’m not the person you replied to but I’ve been passively suicidal for about a decade. I read this article. It seemed a bit prescriptive and patronizing to me. I get the impression that the article is targeted towards people who are acutely suicidal. As someone who’s been chronically suicidal, I’ve noticed that there aren’t many resources that are similar to this for people in my situation. These suicide hotlines seem to be targeted at people who are experiencing acute distress over someone who’s been struggling with mental health for extended periods of time. I’m not going to say these resources are worthless, but they’re worthless to me and I would assume at least a few people who have similar problems. I’ve never felt compelled to reach out or search for resources like this. They’ve always felt insincere, similar to corporate PR speak or celebrity “apologies”. Like these hotlines are there so that people who aren’t suicidal can go “well, we gave them a phone number. We don’t need to feel bad that people are suffering cause we did what we could.” I’m sure these hotlines have helped people and they should stick around. I’m just jaded and cynical.
I asked my wife about suicide hotlines too, she has periods of suicidal ideation and has attempted suicide when she was younger. She said it’s a coin flip for her. They either made her feel more distressed and therefore more suicidal, or they made her slightly less suicidal (enough to not act on it). She said in the moments they helped, they served as a reminder to not provide a permanent solution with a temporary problem. She also hates that phrase but couldn’t find a better way to word it haha.
I’m not sure if what we said will help or hurt in your processing, but those are our honest perspectives