Digital Shoulders

October 2, 2011 7:14 PM

Online (hotline? other?) therapeutic services/life advice/trauma support/suicide prevention?

So the short version is that my life is a mess, I'm (reasonably, but knowing that doesn't help) depressed, dealing with lots of stress and trauma and I don't know what to do about it. All of my options seem bad. I don't have anyone I can really open up to. It'd help to unload on someone, but it'd help more if I could get positive feedback and realistic advice.

I'm considering therapy, but that means a four hour drive every week at the least. I can't do that right now, without going ahead and making the radical changes in my life that I'm afraid I lack the insight to do.

Are there any online services for this kind of thing? Ideally, a knowledgeable, compassionate human being who might have some idea how to help me organize my life in a way that works.

posted by byanyothername to Health & Fitness (7 answers total)

There are a number of therapists who will do phone sessions. I'd look into the option on making the 4 hour drive, which I assume is to Big City, to meet a number of therapists on the same day, and then picking one you can do phone sessions with. Perhaps 3 phone sessions and one drive a month would work. It really depends on the therapist but many will be happy to do phone or a mix of meet and phone.
posted by DarlingBri at 7:20 PM on October 2, 2011

If you are in danger of hurting yourself, please call 911 or a hotline. 1-800-SUICIDE (1-800-784-2433) is the national suicide hotline number, but you can also call local hotlines for places other than you live.

For longer term help (including really working on your issues and organizing your life) yes, a lot of therapists are doing Skype and phone sessions now. Good luck. Posting this question is a great first step in getting yourself going in the right direction.
posted by sweetkid at 7:27 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: LivingWorks resources are available on this site to the left; helplines, crisis centers, and online counseling are available.

Thank you for looking for help. It may not feel like it, but you're being very brave by being open about this.
posted by DisreputableDog at 7:33 PM on October 2, 2011 [2 favorites]

Are you near a university? Universities ALWAYS have counseling services.
posted by TheBones at 7:41 PM on October 2, 2011

There was just an article in the New York Times about online therapy sessions.
posted by misterbrandt at 9:19 PM on October 2, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Hi byanyothername, I agree with the other folks here that it's great you're asking this question.

Here's something else you might find helpful: the MetaFilter Wiki has a page called ThereIsHelp, and it has a good collection of resources (phone numbers, websites, a lot of relevant AskMe threads, books recommendations, and more) put together by MeFites. I think it's organized well, with a handy table of contents worth browsing though.

e.g. the first section includes local and national suicide hotlines and resources; there's a section that focuses on therapy, including some online support resources; and there's a section for depression, including some general advice. There's a lot of good AskMe links there as well: for example, one of the referenced AskMes is "Therapy for the Uninsured and Rural" -- whether or not those exact circumstances apply to you, the situation might be similar enough to be helpful.

(If it seems like a lot to digest at once, just take it bit by bit. If you like checking things off of lists, maybe note which resources/links seem to most interesting to you, then just check them off the list when you look into them (it might be a few at a time, or one or two a day, or whatever you're comfortable doing). You could mark the ones you find helpful and want to revisit; if a particular resource doesn't seem to help much, check it off the list, but please keep trying others.)

Hang in there. I wish you the best of luck and hope you feel better soon.
posted by rangefinder 1.4 at 12:02 AM on October 3, 2011 [4 favorites]

I'm sorry you're having a tough time. There are definitely online therapists. I found one a couple of years ago just by Googling "online therapy" and making sure that the ones I contacted had decent credentials. Mine was moderately useful - certainly more so than face-to-face therapists have been for me. We did end up meeting a couple of times and that did add something, but wasn't essential - so if you do go with someone online you might want to make sure that they are near enough for you to meet occasionally if you do want to. The way mine worked was to have a secure site where I wrote what I wanted to and she read it later and responded, then charged me for the time she'd spent. So it was an exchange of long blocks of text rather than quick responses to shorter comments - more like email or letter contact than a direct conversation. This worked well with the way I think but there there are all sorts of models out there.

Do MeMail me if you'd like to know more or just want to offload to someone.
posted by paduasoy at 3:13 AM on October 3, 2011