If you're past the point of overwhelmed and into desperate (mental health)

You’re not alone. These last few days have been hell, and the future does not look good.

But please, please don’t give up. If you’re in a crisis, the US National Suicide Prevention Lifeline:

Is there for a reason. It’s there to help.

Update:

In Canada

If you are in crisis, call 1-833-456-4566 or visit crisisservicescanada.ca. First Nations people and Inuit can also call 1-855-242-3310 or chat at hopeforwellness.ca.

To learn more about suicide prevention, visit Centre for Suicide Prevention at www.suicideinfo.ca.

Helplines and crisis contacts - Centre for Mental Health (credit @Tamsin_Bailey)

And remember

Remember, you can take a break for today, or a little bit longer if you need. Unplug for a bit, talk to someone you trust, or hug a pet. Take care of yourself, the rest of us can hold the line.

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Thank you for this. This really has been a week from hell, and we need to remember that some of us are feeling it especially hard. :heart:

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If you are in the UK

The Samaritans (UK and Ireland):
Call free on 116 123
Email: jo@samaritans.org
They are not a religious helpline, despite the name

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Good idea to include help lines from other places other than the US… Who else is from non-US places who can include this sort of info from their home countries? @Wanderfound? @LutherBlisset (Germany? Austria?)? @kingannoy (Netherlands?)? Why am I now forgetting every Canadian we have here?

[ETA] I know there are a couple of Brazillian members - @BakaNeko and @lanika?

Thanks @tekna2007!

Anyone else from anywhere else?

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@nimelennar

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Updated!

I wanted to do the US first, because it was the biggest audience.

Added Canada and quoted @the_borderer up into the main post for greater visibility.

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Oh, I get that and figured other places would get added.

this is a great idea, BTW, so thanks for doing it.

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In then Netherlands you can visit the website 113.nl for general advice and web chat or call them on: 0900 0113

They also offer some (Dutch language) advice for people that think someone they know needs some help.

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Thanks for contributing!

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In Brazil you can count on CVV

If you do not have access to Internet, you can dial 188.

You can also go to the Centros de Atenção Psicosocial (CAPS) and ask for help. The CAPS are present in every city of Brazil (or should be present) and are part of SUS, our universal healthcare service.

Some universities have free or affordable psychological services (serviço de psicologia aplicada, SPA). Unfortunately these services are available only in the capitals or in major cities.

Some examples:

http://www.psicologia.ufrj.br/index.php/instituto/atendimento-psicologico

http://www.fafich.ufmg.br/psi/graduacao/servicos-de-psicologia-aplicada-spa

http://www.ufrgs.br/psicologia/orgaos-auxiliares/clinica-de-atendimento-psicologico

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Here are some more UK helplines which are more focused on a single group of people

Campaign Against Living Miserably - Mens suicide prevention line
London: 0808 802 58 58 - 5pm–midnight
Nationwide: 0800 58 58 58 - 5pm–midnight
Webchat: https://www.thecalmzone.net/help/webchat

Childline - helpline for people under 19 years old
0800 1111

Silver Line - Older peoples helpline
0800 4 70 80 90

Switchboard - LGBT+ focused
0300 330 0630 - 10am-10pm every day

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Beratung per Telefon:
0800/111 0 111
0800/111 0 222
116 123


Beratung per E-Mail
Update 2021-09-11:
ts-im-internet[dot]de = Link ist tot
Aktuell:
https://online.telefonseelsorge.de/content/mailseelsorge
Registrierung (Mailadresse) erforderlich. Antwort nach maximal 72 Stunden. Dafür Betreuung durch eine/n festen Anspechpartner/in (kann gewechselt werden wenn die Chemie nicht stimmt).


Beratung per Chat
Update 2021-09-11:
chat[dot]telefonseelsorge[dot]org = Link ist tot.
Aktuell:
https://online.telefonseelsorge.de/content/chatseelsorge
Registrierung (Mailadresse) und Terminvereinbarung erforderlich.


Update 2021-09-11:
Jetzt auch per App (Android, Apple). Erklärvideos und Links zum Download auf der Webseite.


Alle Informationen, Weiterleitung auf die Online-Angebote (und Informationen über Angebote für persönliche Beratung vor Ort):

27/7, anonym, vertraulich, kostenfrei.


International helplines:

Australia (AUS) • Austria (A) • Belgium (B) • Czech Republic (CZ) • Denmark (DK) • Estonia (EST) • Finland (FIN) • France (F) • Germany (auch in Türkisch, Arabisch, Urdu, Russisch) (D) • Great Britain (GB) • Hungary (HU) • Italy (I) • Ireland (IRL) • Israel (IL) • Japan (J) • Latvia (LV) • Lithuania (LTU) • Luxemburg (L) • Netherlands (NL) • Norway (N) • Poland (PL) • Portugal (P ) • Serbia (SRB) • Spain (E) • Sweden (S) • Switzerland (CH) • Thailand (T) • Ukraine (UA)

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In the North East, thre’s also If U Care Share.

I’ve met them, and gone to their suicide prevention workshops. Good and lovely people.

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@FGD135 beat me to it. There are surely more options, but their post contains many good starters.

ETA: Swiss National Helpline provided by them above, 143. Also relevant: cantonal options via ipsilon.ch and info and contact especially for young people.

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Hey @BakaNeko!

Girls, I have depression and anxiety attacks so I’m well versed on Brazil’s mental health care.

Unfortunately my 20 years old son had a mental breakdown in August so I got to see Curitiba’s emergency mental health care approach first hand.

SUS is pretty much like Canada and NHS. It’s public, universal and paid with my taxes. You get a health card number showing ID and address proof. They used to give you the card with the number, nowadays you print it out of the government’s site or just give your name and birth date at reception.

You have two tiers of units: UBS (Basic Healthcare Unit - handles appointments with doctors, vaccinations and forwards you to CAPS, hospitalization etc as needed) and UPA (High priority Healthcare - handles emergency). My son went through UBS, the nurses forwarded him to CAPS but the date was in a week and he was suicidal. I told them that I was afraid of having him for a week at home in his present state of mind, one of us failing in keeping an eye on him and him acting on his urges - so we were forwarded to UPA. In UPA the nurses appraise level of emergency and give you colored paper wristbands according to the level of urgency. It’s always cramped and for low level situations you will wait for hours, but they saw my son quickly, bless them. THEN we had to wait. He was forwarded to hospitalization but you had to wait for the psychiatric hospital to open a spot and prepare a bed for him. He was in 24h care in UPA, but the wait for the hospital can take a week. We simply didn’t know how long we would wait. The doctors and nurses were amazing and kind, bureaucracy was the problem. We were lucky: although he spent a night in UPA (we parents took turns never leaving him alone) his internment was liberated the next day at midday. UPA handled everything my son needed for free, from IV drip with medication to food (four meals a day). Both us parents were allowed in the ambulance with him to the psychiatric hospital. There was another screening there, separated interviews with us and with my son so they can have a more balanced view of what’s happening. He has to read and sign up for voluntary internment and appoint a caretaker. They won’t intern against will.

He stayed there for a month, we had weekly meetings with the staff and two visits a week, so I got to see my son three times a week. He was discharged with forwarding documents to CAPS.

At CAPS yet another screening (yay!) and interviews so they could pair him with the most fitting psychiatrist and psychologist for his diagnosis. There’s two kinds of CAPS, by the way: CAPS AD (Alcohol and drugs) and CAPS TM (Mental health disorders),

My non-emergency mental health care is handled differently. I went to UBS, a nurse screened me and scheduled psychiatrist and psychologist. There’s an app that notifies me on appointments.

There’s government medication distributed inside UPA and UBS and some meds outside the list you have to buy. The list used to be very restrict - one antidepressant, one antipsychotic etc - but in latter years it expanded a lot. The units still have the more restricted meds list but the city has a central distributor of medications (CPM) that handles the new list.

In Brazil all colleges and universities that have a psychology degree must offer affordable therapy by law.

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Lest I forget: if you are a tourist in Brazil and you have an emergency go straight to UPA. Your passport is your ID.

If you need a helpline call CVV and say “preciso de ajuda sou gringo” and direct you to volunteers that speak English.

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Health is wealth

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