Psychological consultation hotline 24-hour toll-free hotline number

1. Beijing Psychological Crisis Research and Intervention Center hotline: dial 800-810-1117 from a landline (completely free), dial 010-82951332 from a mobile phone (only local call charges are charged), 24 hours on duty, and can handle emotional distress and suicide crisis intervention for all groups of people；

2. 12355 National Youth Service Desk Psychological Hotline: Available 24 hours a day, all ages can call it. In addition to psychological counseling, it can also provide legal consultation and rights protection related services, completely free of charge.；

3. National Life Education and Crisis Intervention Hotline (Hope 24 Hotline): 400-161-9995, 24 hours toll-free, specially designed for emotional crisis and suicidal tendencies intervention, and the operators have received systematic crisis intervention training.

Maybe your hands are shaking so much that you can't even press the screen accurately. It doesn't matter. Just try two more times. If the line is busy, call another number. You can always get through. When I was doing volunteer psychological services in the community, I saw too many people holding their mobile phones and hesitating for half an hour before they dared to dial the first number. It was so normal - they were afraid of being called hypocritical, afraid of privacy being leaked, and afraid that the other party would be impatient if they called. I understand all these concerns.

You can rest assured about privacy. All official psychological assistance hotlines have strict confidentiality agreements. Unless you explicitly say that you want to harm yourself or others immediately, the operator will not ask for your real name or specific address, nor will they reveal anything you say. You can even make up a pseudonym to chat with them, which is absolutely fine.

Of course, I have also heard many people complain, saying that the operator would only say "I understand you" when calling, which would not solve the problem at all. This is indeed an unavoidable current situation in the industry: the staffing of different hotlines varies greatly. Some operators are senior counselors who have been doing cases for more than ten years, while others are volunteers who have undergone short-term systematic training. If you are unlucky and encounter someone you can't talk to, just hang up. There is no need to feel embarrassed or deny your feelings - originally talking is to find someone who makes you feel comfortable. Just change it and no one will blame you.

I had a visitor last year who suffered from postpartum depression. My husband was away on a business trip, and my mother-in-law always thought she was "too busy." She stared blankly at the fruit knife on the bedside table at three o'clock in the morning. By some mistake, she dialed the Hope 24 hotline. The eldest sister who answered the call was a mother herself. Listen to her I cried for more than 40 minutes. I didn’t persuade her to be generous or say, “All mothers are like this.” I just cried with her. Finally, I told her, “If you feel really uncomfortable, just put the baby in the stroller and sit downstairs for ten minutes. Don’t worry about anything. The sky won’t fall.” She later told me that it was that phone call that brought her back from the brink.

You don't have to be "suicidal" to call these hotlines. You really don't need to set a threshold for yourself. I received a request for help from a college student before. He lost five games in a row that day and had a fight with his roommate. He also remembered that his mother was sick and hospitalized in his hometown. He felt very useless. He sat in the playground bleachers and blew in the cold wind for two hours. No one said anything, so he dialed 12355. The operator chatted with him for half an hour. Finally, he hung up the phone and went to buy a bottle of iced Coke. He felt that it was not that difficult. You see, even if you are just feeling overwhelmed and want to talk to a stranger, you can still call them. These hotlines are not emergency rooms that only "severe" people can enter, but a safe haven that you can hide in at any time.

If the national hotline cannot be reached, you can also search for the official psychological assistance hotline in your city. For example, 962525 in Shanghai and 020-81899120 in Guangzhou are both free 24 hours a day. The local hotline has a higher connection rate, and can also connect with public welfare consultation and offline psychological service resources around you, which is more convenient.

In fact, it's just like the 24-hour convenience stores you can always find when walking on the streets late at night. You don't have to buy anything expensive. It's perfectly fine to go in to warm up and drink a hot drink. When you really can't hold on anymore, just dial a number and try. You'll never have to do everything alone.