Are psychological counseling hotlines really useful?

For groups with needs for emotional first aid and crisis intervention, the formally operated psychological counseling hotline is useful, but its functions have clear boundaries and cannot solve all psychological distress, nor can it replace offline face-to-face long-term psychological counseling.

I have been a public welfare hotline operator for almost three years. I took a call from a senior girl in high school in the middle of the night last week. I listened to her cry for more than four minutes, sobbing and saying that the second model was 30 points lower than the model test line. Her parents took turns scolding her when they came back from get off work. "It's worthless, why not stop reading." She stood by the balcony on the 12th floor and blew in the wind for almost ten minutes. She even raised her feet and thought about which one to step on first. She looked through her phone's address book and didn't know who to call. Finally, she searched for the number of the psychological hotline and dialed it. I didn't rush to persuade her. I first accompanied her to do three rounds of 478 breathing to stabilize her mood. After she calmed down, I slowly guided her to figure out what she wanted to do most at the moment. Finally, she took the initiative to go back to the room from the balcony, go to the refrigerator to get a box of ice milk to drink, and talked to the school's psychology teacher the next day. A week later, she called back to give feedback, saying that she had talked to her parents, and that she had adjusted well recently, and should be able to return to normal for the next mock test. For her, the hotline was the hand that pulled her back from the brink.

But I often encounter people who say that the psychological counseling hotline is useless, and it is even better to complain to a friend. Mostly there are two situations. One is that the requester's expectations are beyond the capabilities of the hotline - I received a call from a man before who called me and asked me for a way to immediately change his cheating partner's mind. I said that I couldn't give you specific decision-making advice and could only help you sort out your current emotions. He hung up the phone on the spot and later wrote in the evaluation of the platform, "What a broken hotline, it's useless." In fact, it's like if you accidentally cut your hand. The first aid kit on the roadside can only help you stop bleeding, disinfect and provide emergency treatment. If you need stitches or follow-up anti-infection treatment, you will definitely have to go to the hospital to see a surgeon. The hotline is the psychological first aid kit. It cannot solve complex and long-term practical problems, and it cannot make any life decisions for you.

Another situation is that some informal hotlines are not properly implemented. When a visitor came to me for long-distance consultation, she said that she had an emotional breakdown and called a privately operated hotline. The operator was only trained for less than a week. After hearing her experience, she opened her mouth and said, "You are just too pretentious. Does this matter?" She hung up the phone and cried all night, who was already in a depressive episode, and almost did something stupid. This kind of unprofessional wiring will not only fail to intervene, but will cause secondary harm to the person seeking help.

Therefore, if you really need to call a psychological hotline, give priority to regular hotlines operated by local Jingwei centers and official public welfare organizations. Most of the operators have psychological counseling qualifications and have undergone systematic crisis intervention training, so they can provide more professional support.

In the past few years of working as an operator, I have never dared to tell people "just call the hotline." It is more like a 24-hour convenience service booth on the roadside on winter nights. When you are shivering at night and can't find the direction, you can go in and drink a cup of hot water. Someone will sit with you for a while and help you point the way to the hospital or home. It cannot directly send you to your destination, but at least it can help you relieve the most uncomfortable energy at the moment and have the strength to move forward.