Has anyone tried these mental health lines?

SHOUT does seem to be struggling in the last couple of years. I was not doing great around the time it first became available and it was generally quite quick to respond, but I've heard from you as well as others that it's slowed right down. The other trend I've seen with it is that other organisations are having 'text lines' that are actually just the shout number but telling you to use a different initial message (e.g. a longstanding one which I think might actually get you a different team is young minds telling you to text the number YM). I somewhat wonder how much support they are providing to shout to accommodate the increased traffic, or if they are just using shared SHOUT resources.

It is also true that some of the other long standing text or whatsapp or online message formats are going. And of course when it comes to phone lines I think we lost Papyrus last month. It's a real shame as someone who struggles with phone calls at the best of times, and particularly when I'm not doing well. 

To be honest I heard using SHOUT felt like talking to an AI? It's not AI, it is real people, but the responses are so scripted it might as well have been. 

I did also see that with Young Minds using the Shout text line. 

There does not seem to be much realisation that adults cannot always speak on the phone regarding mental health due to a host of factors. I think there is more understanding now about it, but not enough. 

I think that the influence of big pharma in the past has not helped, as many of these things can induce inter-generational trauma as side effects of medication that can be genetic and can only manifest as mental health issues 2 or 3 generations later - my Mum had a very traumatic childhood from various sources, same with my Dad, who was younger than her, yet despite his own very harsh childhood upbringing, outlived her by several years in 2018 - Mum had severe post-natal depression after I was born in 1970 and developed other mental health issues as time went on, as she could not cope with life, but every GP she went to just prescribed her pills for every one of her mental health ailments without saying that she was “mad” and sending her to a mental health facility - she was mentally and emotionally unstable for most of her life, which caused my Dad’s own mental health struggles after his father and his brother died in quick succession, where he was twice admitted to mental hospitals, but Mum very quickly developed Alzheimer’s and passed whilst in a care home in 2009 - I believe that all of the big pharma medications given to her for decades caused her Alzheimer’s and prompted her early passing in 2009, ironically from sudden heart failure where it was reported that she had collapsed into a nurses arms in the care home and died in the ambulance from the care home to the hospital where the paramedics in the ambulance had to pull over to try to save her - Dad had a lot of both mental and physical health problems before his passing in the care home and it is reported that on the morning of his passing, he had taken to the bed, with no interest in his usual activities and passed that afternoon, at which point, as their only child, I was immediately informed here in the U.K. and had to make arrangements to travel to Rural Ireland at short notice 

I think that the influence of big pharma in the past has not helped, as many of these things can induce inter-generational trauma as side effects of medication that can be genetic and can only manifest as mental health issues 2 or 3 generations later - my Mum had a very traumatic childhood from various sources, same with my Dad, who was younger than her, yet despite his own very harsh childhood upbringing, outlived her by several years in 2018 - Mum had severe post-natal depression after I was born in 1970 and developed other mental health issues as time went on, as she could not cope with life, but every GP she went to just prescribed her pills for every one of her mental health ailments without saying that she was “mad” and sending her to a mental health facility - she was mentally and emotionally unstable for most of her life, which caused my Dad’s own mental health struggles after his father and his brother died in quick succession, where he was twice admitted to mental hospitals, but Mum very quickly developed Alzheimer’s and passed whilst in a care home in 2009 - I believe that all of the big pharma medications given to her for decades caused her Alzheimer’s and prompted her early passing in 2009, ironically from sudden heart failure where it was reported that she had collapsed into a nurses arms in the care home and died in the ambulance from the care home to the hospital where the paramedics in the ambulance had to pull over to try to save her - Dad had a lot of both mental and physical health problems before his passing in the care home and it is reported that on the morning of his passing, he had taken to the bed, with no interest in his usual activities and passed that afternoon, at which point, as their only child, I was immediately informed here in the U.K. and had to make arrangements to travel to Rural Ireland at short notice