I volunteer as a suicide crisis text line / web chat responder. AMA!

Hi all! I occasionally see some AMAs here coming from fellow crisis responders, but noticed they're often people who take calls. Most suicide and crisis hotlines offer a website chat or SMS feature too (that's me!), and figured it might be helpful for some folks to hear about the unique experiences of someone who works in my position. For example, I'm often accused of being an AI chat bot, and generally receive a lot more "prank" conversations due to the more anonymous/impersonal nature of communication. I often find that because they can't hear my voice, and because I'm limited in what texting style/language I'm allowed to use (has to be kept strictly professional), many people I connect with find me to be cold or distant, and it can turn them away from support.

To give a little relevant background, I'm 25F, been working there for multiple years, and I am based in North America. (keeping info vague to avoid NDA violations, lol). When someone reaches out to us either through a webchat button on our website or by texting our SMS number, they get connected to a trained volunteer such as myself, who works remotely from their computer to send and receive messages from the texter. Our conversations are timed, number of messages are tracked, and we are monitored for how long messages are + how long we take to respond. We often take on multiple conversations at a time.

Please feel free to ask me any questions you might have about mental health crisis work in general, too! I'm more than happy to chat about anything related to working suicidal folks and helping them navigate some really hard topics related to their mental health. Take care everyone!