Were you committed involuntarily? I won't even begin with my experience with involuntary commitment. That is my fear of calling the actual crisis line, because the one time they did come - and I called them on my own, and they decided to send a team out - they almost forced me to go to the hospital even though it was a fairly calm conversation up until the point they asked me to rate my suicidal feelings. They were more an 8, but I've been through too many powerless situations, so I said 7, but even with that they were pretty serious about me going to a hospital an hour away on the other side of town. I basically had to plead my case in front of my parents and them to give me 24 hours to think about it (because my parents were for it, and through messed up circumstance,i.e. my experience with involuntary system they were my guardians - and they told me they had to come back. They came back the next day and I forget even what I said, but all I was worried about was not being forced to go to the hospital and I didn't end up going.
I felt a little bit betrayed though, because a year earlier a crisis team had come out and they were very grounded and helpful - maybe because I still had a state agency I was working with, but it is a strange situation. The crisis lines are only helpful if you know how to get help over the phone, and the crisis teams don't always sit down with you to talk things out and 'stabilize' you in the home.