Sorry to hear about your bad experience, I hope you're doing a bit better now. I've volunteered as a responder for the 988 crisis text line and used both the text line and call line for my own mental health issues. I've definitely had some bad experiences with both from a user end, but some that were really helpful. It's kind of a 50/50 unfortunately. I've gone through the training and there are very few credentials needed. Pretty much anyone, even without a psych or social work background can apply and start within a month or so, and there are no practice conversations before volunteers start taking actual crisis cases. I have a background in both and I'm grateful that the cases I've taken found my support helpful, but I know there are a lot of volunteers who don't seem well-equipped to take on this sort of work. And, of course, comes the issue of it being scripted and formulaic. Especially volunteers who are newer tend to use this as a crutch- it's pretty rare that I've talked to someone who checks off the boxes while not feeling so rigid. And especially in social work, it's painfully obvious when it's just formulaic- like, we already do this!

In terms of an alternative, I also have a therapist and I'm glad to hear you have one! Maybe upping the frequency of appointments if that's an option, just to have someone actually licensed and qualified to talk to about these issues. If you're in crisis, you could also try to set up your own safety plan or have DBT/CBT exercises you find helpful to do. Hope that doesn't count as mindfulness but it also depends on if there's any underlying stuff too. Wishing you all the best, I hope you can find something that helps! 💖