After the gate is closed, Li Yongsheng wants to hide his name and age - including the fact that he is a blind man.
is isolated from the outside world here. His identity is a series of work numbers, and his responsibility is to persuade people to live. After leaving this door, everything they talked about on the phone will be buried secretly.
"Hope 24 Hotline", 400-1619995, homophonic to "stay, save, save me", a life assistance hotline specifically for people who attempt suicide and tend to be depressed, 24 hours a year.
Data released by the World Health Organization shows that suicide has become the second largest cause of death for people aged 15 to 29, second only to road injuries, with nearly 800,000 people dying from suicide every year.
Li Yongsheng is the leader of the Tianjin connection group and the first blind operator in China to engage in suicide intervention.
Li Yongsheng made a metaphor: people with suicide intentions will pass through dark rooms and finally arrive in a dark maze, without the motivation to survive. But they send out a signal of help before entering the next black room.
hotline is the last door. What Li Yongsheng needs to do is to establish a support point and make the final rescue before the system collapses and collapses. "Be their friends, go in and stand with them."
Li Yongsheng answered the call. The picture comes from "March Wind" magazine
01 Character
Li Yongsheng has a pair of gray-blue eyes, which are traces left by optic nerve atrophy . A reporter who has filmed a documentary for him said that he looks like Japanese director Kitano Takeshi .
In the late night wiring room, Li Yongsheng is indeed like a director. Before work, he had to close the doors and windows to ensure a quiet atmosphere and facilitate entry into the role. He shuttles through many scenes, and after each call, he needs time to change roles in his brain.
At 6 pm, Li Yongsheng knocked on the door of the wiring room. This is located in an office building in Tianjin, about ten square meters, two telephones, and two people are on duty. "If you call, then I am your friend. You can say anything. I will chat with you and let's face it together, okay?"
suicide intervention divides the people who attempt suicide into 4 categories, 7 levels, and 26 levels. The 4 levels are mild, moderate, severe and urgent. "When facing students, I usually play as a parent. If it is a campus problem, I will play as a teacher. If the white-collar workers in the workplace call, I will play as a colleague."
picked up the phone, and Li Yongsheng would listen carefully to the other party's ambient voice, and then listen to the other party's breath changes, pauses, and voices. Within 5 minutes, Li Yongsheng was able to determine the risk level and quickly established an intervention plan - among the more than 1,000 high-risk calls before, his success rate reached more than 90%.
"About 5 minutes chatting, I knew I could help him, no problem. He could throw a signal of help, I knew that this person could be saved," said Li Yongsheng.
He remembered a call in the early morning. The caller was a girl. Li Yongsheng could hear that there was a sound of traffic on the other end of the phone and the wind was very loud. He quickly judged that this was a high-risk call-the girl might be on the side of the road or viaduct.
The situation is critical, Li Yongsheng turned up the sound, the volume is about the same as the noisy background. As he expected, the girl stood on the bridge and was about to jump down.
During the chat, he seized the opportunity: "The environment is too noisy now, I want to hear more. Can you find a quiet place? Find a place with few vehicles and can shelter from the wind, let's talk about it." After half an hour of connection, the girl came to the bus stop 200 meters away from the bridge. An hour later, the girl followed his advice and went home. "When she can tell you what she is in her heart, the door to crisis has basically been closed."
Every call is a long tug-of-war, repeatedly pulling in the emergence and destruction of hope.
Li Yongsheng can understand the other party's state: "He has come to this point and I don't know how long he has thought about it. Without the support of his relatives and friends, there is no system of belief. He just wants to end his life and get liberation."
What he wants to do is to establish a "pull system", establish a support point, and open the other party's heart knot."The group of people who can make calls still retain some hope for life. This is their distress signal, and they are still struggling."
Li Yongsheng has his own method: not interrupt the other party when speaking, so that the conversation will continue. Synchronize with the other person's emotions, think about the other person's needs, and soothe the other person's anxiety. "He said this, maybe he was asking for directions. I need to know what kind of help he needs. After he finished speaking, I must connect to his words and help him."
This also has certain risks. If you are not skilled and one sentence stimulates him, it will not only not pull him out, but will instead anger his emotions and cause his psychology to fluctuate violently.
"Especially for people who want to commit suicide, what he fears most is a burden. Don't die. What will your mother do after you die? What will your father do? He is most afraid of hearing this."
02 The world of the blind
02 The world in front of the blind is not eternal darkness.
Li Yongsheng has been engaged in suicide intervention operators for 7 years. Speaking of his original intention, he said that it is both helping others and saving himself. "After the other party's burden was removed, my burden was also removed. Although I couldn't see it, I felt bright in my heart, the sky was bright, everything felt different."
He was good at capturing the signals of emotional changes, like a ship sailing alone at night, facing the dark sea, he could always accurately judge the direction of the waves. But man cannot survive in pure darkness all seasons, even if he is blind. The feeling of saving a life successfully is hard to describe in words.
Li Yongsheng can feel the difference between day and night. Sometimes, night is not empty black. He went to a blind school to do a survey, and even a person who was born blind was not dark in front of him. He believes that this is the reason for emotional regulation.
"Even if there is no sense of light and is strengthened by the idea for a long time, he will feel "bright" in his mind, because this will make him feel comfortable and make him feel no sense of oppression and suffocation. If there is only a darkness in his mind, he will never be able to get out of it after a long time."
Li Yongsheng is 40 years old, but all his image memory stays before he is 10 years old. Blindness almost uprooted his life.
He will still dream about the spring he spent before his blindness. There is an green train in the village, and there are some stupid trucks on the road with antennas on the roof. There is a row of weeping willows in my hometown, and a green grass by the river, and the trees have buds. He had never seen such a rich green again.
Now, his memories before he was 10 years old are dissipating, he can't remember them clearly, and even his dreams are blurred.
Before blindness, Li Yongsheng was a well-known child king in the village. When he was 10 years old, he was playing in the snow, tripped by something, his face pierced into the snow, his eyes hit the " iron lump " in the middle of the road, and he pumped a piece of land. Blood fell from the snow. He touched it with his hand and realized that his eyes were broken.
The snow on the road is thick and the car is difficult to walk, so it takes a long time to go to a large hospital. His parents took him to a nearby hospital and had eyeball sutures, and he was discharged from the hospital soon after. A relative sighed, it was a good child, and he wasted in this life. "I felt very uncomfortable when I heard this word, why did I get rid of it?"
Li Yongsheng often felt that the eyes were foggy in front of him, and his head seemed to be a "iron hat" on his head. He always unconsciously wanted to take off the "hat" on his head. He became silent, not as lively as before, and loved to stay in a place with few people.
He is becoming more sensitive to sound. He judged the weather and relied on the sound of birds. When the weather is good, sparrows chirp, and when the weather is bad, the birds are flying around, and he thinks there may be a heavy rain. He can even judge the width of the road by sound.
Li Yongsheng still remembers what happened at the age of 12. He and his friends went to someone else's vegetable garden to pick vegetables. After the owner of the garden met, he beat Li Yongsheng. "I think this is unfair. After thinking about it, why bully me? It's because I can't see it, because I'm a burden, I can't do it." The "iron hat" on the head on
All the knots in my heart were burned away by a ball of fire."I can't let others look down on me like this. When I grow up, I will never let others say that I am a useless person. I will definitely live well and I will really live."
Uncle bought a radio for Li Yongsheng, and he connected with the world through his voice. He listened to crosstalk storytelling , and also listened to psychological interview . He knew that blind people could go to blind school, learn massage, learn blowjob and music , and there was hope again.
Once, he called the program hotline and a psychology expert was giving a lecture. He asked, what should I do in the future? Experts say you can be a psychological counselor, which is very suitable for you. Psychological counseling is still an unfamiliar word to him.
After graduating from a blind school, Li Yongsheng started to massage for blind people. One day, he heard that Disabled Persons' Federation would hold a training class for psychological counselors for the disabled, and teach in Beijing Normal University , and only two or three people were selected in a city. Li Yongsheng was selected. Later, he successfully obtained the second-level psychological counselor certificate and opened his own psychological counseling room.
Once, he went to Changsha to take a psychology course and learned that Changsha had built the Hope Hotline . "I thought it was very suitable for me at that time, and my eyes lit up."
In 2015, Tianjin also wanted to run a Hope Hotline. Li Yongsheng immediately signed up and became the first batch of hotline volunteers in Tianjin.
Li Yongsheng traveled with his whole family. Photo/Respondent provides
In his spare time, Li Yongsheng will also think, if he is not blind, what kind of life should he live? He may join the army, or study a science and make innovative inventions. "I entered this industry because of an accident. Since that's the case, we are not good at anything else. We only know psychological counseling. If we can help others, it is the best."
He often feels that he and the person on the other end of the phone are in two worlds.
In that chaotic and disordered world, at first, he felt like the village chief and helped solve everything. Later, he was more like a knight, and he wanted to help him when he saw injustice. Now, he just wants to be the other party’s friend, help the other party clear the thread of the action, do what he can, "Go in and stand with them."
03 A simulation of life
03 After hearing thousands of stories, Li Yongsheng found that these similar plots have commonalities in life stages and are moved and reproduced in different people.
The first call he received was from an old man. The old man is old and lives alone all year round and is in poor health. He is now cheated by the person selling fake drugs and doesn't want to live anymore.
He found that this is the common crux of elderly seekers. They are lonely, lonely and helpless. Most of the time they live in memories, and they feel panic about the future. Over time, they have psychological problems.
"Relatively speaking, it is easy for the elderly to intervene. As long as he feels that someone is chatting with him and supports everything he says, it is similar to 'The uncle is saying too well', 'That's right', let him feel the sense of identity and he will slowly recover."
Li Yongsheng has also met a middle-aged frustrated person who owes huge gambling debts. The other party thought he was a complete loser and so he soaked a can of sleeping pills in the wine and prepared to drink it. He called the Hope Hotline, hoping that his own affairs could be taken as a warning to others.
Li Yongsheng successfully dissuaded the man. More than a month later, the man's family called the hotline to thank him. Li Yongsheng heard his colleagues say that the man had already walked out of the haze, and he excitedly circled around the chair.
He said that for the operator of the suicide intervention hotline, the most basic principle is to support and respect him no matter what the other party says, so that he can feel sincere and sincere attention. This is the essence of building a trust relationship. "He must feel that I am listening, I care, and I can accept whatever he says."
When he hears his child's troubles, he is most likely to be moved and immersed in the other person's pain.
In reality, Li Yong has two children, one in high school and the other in junior high school. Li Yongsheng still remembers a 13-year-old boy, a single-parent family, whose father is addicted to alcohol and gambling, and the boy is always worried about being afraid. How lonely a child should be when he is hungry, afraid that his father will beat him, and worried that his father will not come back. Li Yongsheng thought of his child.
After answering the phone, he stood up and drank a big glass of water, went out for a while, and let his brain go out for a while before he could get out of the character.
After leaving the wiring room, the outside voice can bring him into reality.
Walking all the way, he could hear the sound of the car's engine. A driver pressed the horn to urge the vehicle in front of him, and the street vendors were shouting. These sounds bring a sense of reality to life.
But not all operators can come out instantly. Those difficult emotions sometimes linger on them. Some operators with delicate feelings are even more troubled. Some people often worry whether their dilemma has been solved? Did he commit suicide again? How is his family?
"He is immersed in this problem every day, which will affect his real life. In the end, some people will not do this job because it is too easy to be moved."
These pains also nourish Li Yongsheng and gave him a preset of suffering.
"In these people, I have seen stories of this and that, and I need to digest their pain and hardships. Just like getting vaccinated, if we encounter the same problem again, we will be very comfortable to deal with it. No matter the past and the future, everything is a repeated simulation of life."
04 Solve the difficulties
He found that the number of calls to the Hope 24 hotline increased year by year. Data shows that as of the end of July 2022, there were 394,509 million calls received, and teenagers accounted for 40%, including more than 5,000 high-risk cases.
In those years, when Li Yongsheng was on duty, he often had only four or five phone calls. Now, the phone is almost uninterrupted. "This can still be called in. More than 90% of the calls cannot be called in (complex)." There are more and more young people calling in
, and the proportion of students is the largest. Li Yongsheng met the youngest person seeking help, only 11 years old.
demand has increased exponentially, while at the same time, operators have suffered serious losses and are in short supply.
According to the Hope 24 hotline data, after the Hope 24 hotline was established in Shanghai in 2012, in order to ensure professionalism, the Hope Hotline requires operators to hold a second-level psychological counselor certificate or participate in the "Practical Crisis Intervention Practical Technique" training, and only after training and internship can they take up their posts.
As of October 2020, there are more than 700 volunteers, including more than 400 hotline operators. A staff member of the Hope Hotline revealed that in 2017, there were more than 700 operators, and in 2022, there were less than 300 operators.
These operators are volunteers and have no rewards. Most people have their own jobs, with teachers, civil servants, and psychological counselors accounting for the majority, and they are connected in their spare time.
In 2015, Li Yongsheng participated in the first training class of Hope 24 hotline. There were more than 350 volunteers at the same time. "Many people left shortly after they were connected, and only about 120 people stayed on the hotline."
Seven years have passed, and Li Yongsheng estimated that there are less than 20 volunteers who insist on staying on the hotline.
People have different reasons for leaving. Some are transferred because of work, some are far away because of moving, and some are married and have children, so time cannot be taken out. But the biggest reason is the high-intensity input and output. Li Yongsheng said that operators engaged in crisis intervention in need strong learning and exploration skills, and constantly absorbing knowledge and conducting a lot of practice is a test of energy.
In June this year, the World Mental Health Report written by the World Health Organization was released, and suicide has become one of the main causes of death in young people. In his speech, UN Secretary-General Guterres said that the world is experiencing a mental health crisis, with nearly 1 billion people suffering from mental illness.
Li Yongsheng also felt the same way. The pace of the city is accelerating, and more sadness is generated. Before those trauma and setbacks can be replenished, new trauma will be filled in.
He has also met hotline dependants - people who have lived on the Hopeline for a long time. "They fight when they are free, and they also fight dozens of times a year, hundreds of times. We never ask his surname or disclose information, but as soon as he calls in, he can hear our voices and say, it's you."
Li Yongsheng never lets the other party hang up, but continues to listen patiently, "The hotline is the hope of this group of people, and everyone's hopes are equal. His reliance on the hotline shows that his social support system is very weak.If the only hope is broken again, it will be a great trauma for them. If we can help, we will continue to help. "
For the huge number of suicides, the hotline is just one part of the intervention. It is difficult to save so many people with suicide intentions.
" Just relying on a hotline for hope is really a drop in the bucket. There are few psychological counselors, and even fewer people study crisis cases. "Li Yongsheng said.
Li Yongsheng said that everyone who attempts to commit suicide will send out their own distress signal. "Our psychology is called "three responsibilities and six changes". They may send behaviors of entrusting people and entrusting things and things, and will change in temperament and other aspects. "
A subtle care, or a trivial little hope, may save a life. "If we were by their side at that time, we would never add any burden to them. Just do a little, truly support them, understand them, accompany them, and make them no longer so lonely, and there would be hope for salvation. ”
Source: Jinan Economic Broadcast fm90.9
