What Happens When You Call 988?

Crisis does not have to be synonymous with self-harm.

I am not a mental healthcare professional. I am not a doctor, counselor, or licensed anything. None of the content on Motherhood Minute should be considered medical advice. Please seek out a professional resource (like the 988 or 911 hotline) if you are distressed.

Photo by Resume Genius on Unsplash

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The car seat would not budge after being anchored in since 2021, and I was shaking it with wild aggression.

I generally keep myself calm, especially around my three-year-old, who was in the parked car behind this vehicle, where I could see her through a lowered window. The Little Mermaid soundtrack played through her Bluetooth headphones (no regrets about that purchase), and she seemed oblivious to her mother’s rage-crying ten feet away.

A few days before this triggering moment, I had been driving to a work event and literally crying to God to please give me a break. Within a minute, my car broke down on the side of the highway. When the mechanic called Monday with a bill that equaled the car’s original selling price, we decided to let it go.

I did not anticipate my child to get sick the day my car needed to be emptied of its toddler crumbs and mommy messes. It was the breaking point; I crumbled.

By the time I handed over my vehicle title and parked the car outside with a sleeping child in the backseat, my nervous system was shot. I was in crisis.

In survival mode, I felt desperate for help and didn’t know what to do. Between the daily pain I felt, the overwhelming stress of solo parenting that had been building like a pressure cooker for weeks, and the day’s specific turmoil, I tried to think of rational options.

Mental health care. What do I do for that? The brain fog was thick to navigate and I couldn’t stop crying.

I opened my wallet and found my insurance card. There was a hotline, but calling it offered me a menu of options that didn’t fit my situation. The healthcare app said they had mental health care options as well: a third-party app subscription discount and an article on stress reduction.

This made me think of 988 but I had never called them before. I felt uneasy.

I called the national crisis hotline and shared with a nice man that I was not suicidal but was definitely in crisis. I shared some of my woes and did a lot of crying. He asked if I wanted to do a guided breathing exercise, and I agreed. It helped me calm down enough to think about the next steps.

I then called my therapist’s office and scheduled an appointment. I spent the rest of the day pulling out any healthy coping mechanism I could think of from the years of therapy and recovery programs I’d been in.

Mental Healthcare Gaps

This all seems simple enough when I write about it in reflection.

1. Identify crisis.

2. Contact crisis hotline.

3. Create a plan of next steps.

But what if we don’t know that a crisis can look different for our lives compared to someone next to us? If we assume crisis is always synonymous with suicide ideation, then how are we able to find mental health care before we get to the point of self-harm?

What if you don’t have the personalized resources I have accumulated in 15 years?

Lastly, how do we go through these steps when we feel like we are drowning in our circumstances?

My interest in mental health advocacy always comes back to this point. How can we navigate our gaps in healthcare? Those gaps in mental health care include the brain fog around who to call or what to do when you are in distress. These gaps are the points between “not okay” and “I want to harm myself or others.”

According to the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, “Ninety-six million Americans, or 38%, have had to wait longer than one week for mental health treatments. And nearly half of Americans, or 46%, have had to or know someone who has had to drive more than an hour roundtrip to seek treatment.”

Thankfully, 988 helped me calm down my nervous system and devise a plan of action. They offered that bridge of care between seeing my licensed counselor and being in distress.

Unfortunately, there are still many setbacks to getting care. Here are a few:

1. We may not understand a crisis does not always mean self-harm.

2. Well-meaning agencies and insurance providers need to structure their available resources in simple ways for someone in crisis to process.

3. Many resources assume individuals already have a diagnosis and set up their lists accordingly. For those who are not okay and want help, navigating alone can be overwhelming while they wait for an appointment.

What can I do to care for my mental health?

As an update, life is still hard but that breaking point did not remain a crisis. In the past, it would have meant turning to a substance or damaging relationships. Thankfully, God has taught me much on this journey. We go on another day, equipped and empowered to breathe again.

I can share that for me, these are steps I have taken. You may find them helpful as well.

• Creating a list or website bookmark of resources (working on this for the website)

• Finding a counselor long before you feel the yellow warning flags turn to red

• Having a support group that you like (recovery, grief, or unofficial groups like friends and family)

• Find security in your identity. Oof, I could talk about this identity in Christ solution for my whole life and still not cover it all. For now, I will say Ephesians 1-2 helped me right out of the psych ward.

What Can I Do Now?

One way to become more equipped with mental health resources and hear from mothers with professional backgrounds is to join us at the 2024 Mental Health and Motherhood Virtual Conference.

Virtual Conference tickets are now available for purchase ❤️

• Watch live or enjoy recordings on your own schedule

• 12 speakers (all moms) with a range of professional backgrounds

• By raising awareness of available resources and the collective need for support, we aim to show that options are available and that you are not alone. Together, we can learn, share, and grow.

Please share this event with anyone who could benefit from better mental health for moms! (A great gift for women in your life as well as for you!)

Thank you for reading!

Chanel Riggle

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