{"id":75106,"date":"2016-07-07T09:52:44","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T09:52:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2016\/07\/07\/r-u-there-crisis-text-line-provides-new-lifeline-for-troops-and-veterans\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T14:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T14:18:00","slug":"r-u-there-crisis-text-line-provides-new-lifeline-for-troops-and-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/off-duty\/2016\/07\/07\/r-u-there-crisis-text-line-provides-new-lifeline-for-troops-and-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"R U there? Crisis Text Line provides new lifeline for troops and veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The man texting with <\/span>Zachery Deuyour was texting with <\/span>was wrestling with feelings of isolation and extreme loneliness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“At first he didn’t want to talk. He was very blunt and one-worded. Very closed off.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deuyour didn\u2019t know who the man was, and the man didn\u2019t know anything about him, <\/span>The men knew nothing about each other, but it didn\u2019t take Deuyour long to figure out the guy was a veteran. Soon the man revealed he was actually <\/span>retired from the Navy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He’d lost contact with a lot of the friends he’d made in the military,” Deuyour said.\u00a0The man had served so long he didn’t know how to relate to civilians, much less make new friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deuyour knew he could help. And for the next 45 minutes, he did exactly that, one text at time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s all part of a new text-based counseling service, first designed for teens, that\u2019s now <\/span>become a confidential lifeline for anyone, including for troops and veterans in crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dubbed Crisis Text Line, the free, confidential service was created by Nancy Lublin in 2013 while she was leading a nonprofit organization for adolescents that often found itself on the receiving end of texts asking for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That reached a tipping point, she said, when the group got this text: “He won’t stop raping me. It’s my dad. He told me not to tell anyone. R U there?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We realized we had to build something to help these people in pain. So, we launched Crisis Text Line.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since then, CTL counselors have logged more than 19 million text message exchanges helping about 500,000 people and counting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All those seeking help have to do is text the word START to 741-741 from anywhere in the U.S., anytime, about any type of crisis. That text is routed to a live, trained, volunteer counselor usually working from a laptop or desktop computer from their home \u2014\u00a0or wherever \u2014\u00a0using CTL’s texting dashboard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not therapy, or ongoing counseling, but helping those in trouble move from what Lublin calls “a hot moment to a cool moment.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, as word has been getting out about the service, those in the military community\u00a0\u2014\u00a0everyone from active-duty troops and their families to retired combat veterans \u2014\u00a0are taking advantage of the text line in increasing numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the service is confidential, it’s impossible to know exact numbers, but using keyword analysis of text exchanges, CTL’s data experts estimate conversations involving military personnel and veterans have jumped 33 percent since 2014.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We’re kind of amazed so many military people are finding us. And we’re glad they are. I guess I’m just a little embarrassed as an American that we’re not taking better care of our own people, especially the people who served us,” Lublin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While only a small fraction of the total text messages are believed to hail from those in the military community \u2014\u00a0currently 2.4 percent, or about 12,000 per day\u00a0\u2014\u00a0they are wrestling with some of the most intense problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an exclusive data scrub of Crisis Text Line conversations for Military Times, those believed to have a military background are wrestling with depression, anxiety, substance abuse and thoughts of suicide in far greater numbers than most texting in for help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the most frequent issues of military and veteran texters, however, are problems of sexual and physical abuse, financial woes, and issues with housing and homelessness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The financial problems really surprised me,” Lublin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared to other Crisis Text Line exchanges, military and veteran conversations are one-and-a-half to almost four times more likely to include the following issues:<\/p>\n\n\n\n