How Do You Know When You're In Crisis?

[scout86]

It is so interesting that this thread has come up again in my alerts. I forgot about it completely.

Me too!

I mean all the psychotherapist's answering machines say, "If this is an emergency, dial 911."

Actually, my T's voice mail doesn't say that. I've only called him a couple of times. Maybe 3. Only got the voice mail once. What it says is that he can't answer the phone right then, but to leave a message and he'll call back as soon as he can, for sure by the end of the day. And it sounds very sincere. I definitely believed it. Although, in that situation, I didn't need him to call me back, so just left a message and told him I didn't need him to call back.

I have a lot of doubts about it...but we'll see. Maybe it will help me gain some additional skills so I can manage a future crisis. I am trying to keep an open mind.

You have a great attitude. If you can hold on to that, how can you possibly lose? I hope it goes well!

 

[Changing4Best]

When you seriously think about suicide for more than 5 minutes and you know you cannot stop yourself or save yourself from doing it.

When you cannot carry on your normal daily routines to such an extent as to be hungry and not feed yourself or be able to go to work at all or to take care of yourself.

 

[Hope4Now]

@SheilaKathy, thanks for your response. I like how concrete you've made it. Sadly, by this criteria, I live in crisis mode of one sort or another most of the time. But I suppose that is what I always feel like. I suppose that acknowledging it is a good thing! A step toward getting out of crisis. Toward making other choices. Hmmm.

 

[DogwoodTree]

Sadly, by this criteria, I live in crisis mode of one sort or another most of the time. But I suppose that is what I always feel like.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Might not be "all" the time, but quite often. Hm.

 

[Tinyflame]

I've tried hard to ask for help & to help myself. The former it seems my voice is not audible enough, or I'm not worth helping I guess. The latter I come up short, no matter what I try. So I don't really know how to define a crisis either @Hope4Now . Not really sure if it would be a crisis for me to not be here. However, I know you have your H, not sure if you have kids or relatives. I hope you will err on the side of caution & prudence, give yourself self-care even if foreign for the sake of your H/ family(?) & self. Don't be afraid to ask for help or support, xox. :hug:

 

[Hope4Now]

Not really sure if it would be a crisis for me to not be here.

Excuse me?
Yes. It would be a crisis. I know that.

The former it seems my voice is not audible enough, or I'm not worth helping I guess. The latter I come up short, no matter what I try.

Yes, I hear this. Both issues, but especially the first. I need to be louder about what I need, even if I don't know what I need. Just THAT I need. Perhaps this is what my therapist means when he tells me I need to learn how to take up more space in the world.

I hope your voice can get louder too, so you can get the support you need.

I will be cautious and prudent. I have a new strategy that I started on Monday. So far, it's working pretty well! Yay.

Thanks. Peace to you.

 

[desiderata310]

Turns out I've been stuck in a really deep dark hole for several months now punctuated with several moments of crisis. Only I didn't recognize them as such because I couldn't figure it out. When my therapist started making sure that I had the local and national suicide hotline and THEN said, But please know you can also call me ANY TIME... I think at that point I had been in crisis for a while and still didn't really "get" it.

 

[Hope4Now]

@desiderata310 , yeah. I get this. Same deal with me. That's why I started this thread to begin with. I would like to be able to figure out that I am in crisis without someone having to point it out to me...ever so subtly so that I miss the signals. I wondered for months why my therapist said I could call him any time. LOL! I just thought he was being nice.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

I define a crises when I think of ending my life. I made a suicide attempt and got scared and called an ambulance.

When I first started therapy, my world crashed around me as I realized that all of my life I had been living in illusions so I called crises lines and they did not help me. I went to the ER a few times and got some real help.

When I am overwhelmed I go back into therapy for a tune up. It was a learn as I go with me. Excellent thread.

 

[Tinyflame]

Dear @Hope4Now , :hug: . No, I don't really have anyone. Except I have to watch my sister's dog when she's on vacation. (No, it's not, I'm not, preferable or a positive to her life).. I've stopped even bothering looking t my phone messages or e-mail. It feels like a nightmare I can't wake up out of.

However, I'm glad you can call your T, or your H is helpful (hopefully). Also, I read about your puppet-therapy. :tup: My mom did that with her little adopted (terribly abused) sister, though she was quite little herself.

I think maybe paying attention to not sleeping/ nightmares, eating, zoning out etc, maybe those are for-warnings.

I am pulling for you, xox. :hug: :hug:

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I'm re-reading this thread and I'm sort of shocked at the fact that others haven't had crisis moments like mine.

The squeaky wheel does indeed get the grease. If I didn't have my crisis moments, I never would have received the treatment that I did.

Joey is right, when you're in crisis, you KNOW it. There is no time to sit around and ponder the intellectual intricacies of what a "crisis" is. Think about it this way. Someone is having a major heart attack. You don't sit around and wonder if its bad. You simply KNOW its bad, you call 911 and you get help. Yep, its the same sort of deal with a mental health crisis. Otherwise, you're symptomatic and need help.

I think the greater problem is someone thinking they don't need help until they're in crisis mode. I see this a LOT....people "poo-poo" hospitalization or treatment programs because they're "not that bad". Uhm, you don't need to be knocking at death's proverbial door in order to get high intensity treatment, but that is the common belief out there. I think that's why so many people suck it up and deal, because they think they can do it all until things reach crisis level. Better to be pro-active and get help before you're in crisis. Because the truth is, if the crisis is bad enough, you can be sectioned and have no say in your freedom anymore. You don't want to get to that point.

 

[Friday]

You know... I have almost answered this maybe a dozen times. Both in the first incarnation, and the second. It's a question I struggle with.

I know a crisis after the fact. Rarely in one. Mostly, I think, because I'm busy. It's only afterwards, once things have calmed down, that I'm able to look back and go "Oh. Well, that was bad, wasn't it?"

Thing is... Once I'm actually able to see that XYZ is seriously in the Realm of Very Bad Things? I'm okay. Shrug. Crisis has passed. So it's time to sort out what's wreckage & what's salvageable. Sort of like depression. I almost never know when I'm depressed, either. It's only afterward when I'm like... Oh. Sleeping for 6 months? Absolutely zero interest in anything? That's probably depression, huh? Oops. Well, I'm better now!

When I'm edgy? I'm getting close to crisis, & need to rein myself in big time, while I've still got a shot at it. Because once I'm there? f*ck. I'm lost till I come out of it. If I come out of it. But I'm edgy all the damn time (exaggeration), while crisis is pretty rare.

I'm still not super-clear on what other people consider crisis. I know I've worried people / they've thought I was in crisis when I'm fine, & am just having a hard time. 2 weeks puking my guts out due to anxiety, and locked in flashbacks 10 hours a day, and nightmares whenever I do sleep? Shrug. Not that bad. It sucks, and I hate it, but it happens. I just need to not be around people so no one else freaks out and makes it worse. Or, even better, do be around people who breathe a little clarity & light into my life. Dark weighs less, then. <grin> Or a quick smack upside the head. Even better, that! ((Now if we could only somehow combine the two... ;) ))That was last month. Lost 2 & 3 weeks in Feb/March for similar if different. I'm used to it, and things can get much, much worse. That's not crisis. That's just things sucking.

For me, in crisis, I am out of my damn mind. I don't break very often, but when I do it tends to be hard and fast. I haven't done that lately, although I've been further off the Rez than I've thought I was. Vexing, that.

But once I've reached crisis? It's too late.