Prompt response from Samaratians text service
 

Hey all

At the moment with my particular situation im not sure theres anything that will change the likely outcome but i wanted to put up here that over the past week or so i have on at least two separate days at least had some contact with the Samaratians text service [who have said they will support me if i choose to live or die] and on both occasions i have found their responses to me to be very prompt sometimes within minutes and certainly no later than a couple of hours.im not sure if this is normal or just luck [im sure i used them a few years back and the response was maybe a bit slower] but i wanted to let people know cos there might be people out there this could make a real difference to and for.

The service is based in the UK and their mobile is 07725909090 - i hope its ok to post this.As i say for me i think i might well be beyond any help anyone could speak or give, i am selfish and just need comfort and listening but i hope maybe this can be useful to others too.....

Thanks.

That good to hear. I think it's still a bit hit-and-miss; I've heard of other people having to wait a while, but perhaps the teething problems have smoothed out now.

I know their email (jo@samaritans.org) tends to be a bit slow.

im glad they could support you. they never got back to my text, but they have been very good by email

Texting them helped me very much when I had a couple of terrible days last week and I was out of the house and couldn't phone, though it was a time when I really actually needed to talk to someone, you just can't in a public place, and I couldn't go home.
I prefer the email when I need to explore something though, the texts just really help ground and realign myself.

I remember using their text service over a year ago at some ungodly hour, you're right, they were very responsive.

If you live close enough some also have a walk in service where you can talk face to face.

I usually hear back within twenty minutes when I text them, though it can be longer and on a couple of occassions, they haven't replied. It can be helpful if you're in a public place and experience distress, however.

They are prompt with me most of the time but when i don't get prompt replies i do just think to myself that they are a busy service and will get back to me at some point.

i only tend to use them when i need to and mainly at weekends. i'd rather use them than the crisis team though.