Telephone support
Telephone support allows you to express verbally what you’re feeling or going through. Sometimes voicing your problems out loud helps you to understand them better, and hearing a kind or supportive voice on the other end of the phone can be really reassuring.
You might like to speak to friends or family members on the phone, but if it’s late at night or you’re not sure who to call, charities such as the Samaritans (116 123) or Childline (0800 1111) can be contacted 24/7 and won’t show up on your phone history, in case you want to keep it confidential that you called them. It can be really useful to hear an impartial opinion, and you may find that you can reveal more about how you’re feeling, knowing that the person on the other end of the phone has no preconceptions or judgements to make about your situation.
Our Urgent Help page has a list of national organisations that offer telephone support for a variety of issues.
What young people have told us:
'Telephone support has helped me talk to other people about my feelings.'
'I think it has helped because I don't have to keep my thoughts to myself and suffer alone.'
'I would definitely recommend other people who need help or just that extra support to phone someone.'
There isn’t much academic research in the area of self-care for young people who are living with mental health issues. We are trying to find out more about what works for different people so we can better advise other young people what to try.
If you’ve tried this activity when you were struggling in relation to your mental health, please let us know if it helped you and how by clicking on the ‘Did this activity help you’ button.