Crisis Text Line vs. Help Texts: Which Is Right for You?

Melissa Lunardini · 27 February 2026

You're lying in bed at 2 a.m., and the weight of the world is pressing down on your chest. Maybe it's a Tuesday afternoon, and anxiety is making it hard to get your work done. Or perhaps it’s four months since your loved one died, and it feels like everyone else has moved on, and you're wondering why you still can't get through a grocery run without crying.

Increasingly, people are turning to text-based support for help.

Two services, Crisis Text Line and Help Texts, both deliver support to your phone. But they do very different things. Understanding which service is right for you depends on what you're facing right now.

Crisis Text Line: Immediate Support for Acute Crisis

Crisis Text Line (text HOME to 741741) provides free, 24/7 crisis intervention. When you text them, a trained volunteer responds within minutes to help you through an immediate crisis.

What Crisis Text Line does:

Crisis Text Line provides a real-time conversation with a trained crisis counselor. It helps with suicidal thoughts, self-harm urges, panic attacks, loneliness, and acute mental health crises, and can connect you to local emergency resources if needed. It's completely free and anonymous, no sign-up required, and available anytime, day or night.

Who it's for:

Crisis Text Line is designed for moments when you need someone now. If you're having suicidal thoughts or are in acute distress, Crisis Text Line provides immediate human connection when you need it most.

The model:

Volunteer crisis counselors who are trained in active listening and de-escalation techniques provide support via text. These are one-time, brief conversations to get you through your immediate crisis.

Help Texts: Ongoing Support to Prevent Crisis

Help Texts takes a different approach. Instead of crisis intervention, it provides ongoing, personalized support to help people avoid reaching a point of crisis in the first place.

What Help Texts does:

Help Texts sends expert-written text messages twice weekly for as long as you need support. Messages provide practical coping tools, validation, and evidence-based care and are written by world-leading grief and mental health experts.

Who it's for:

Help Texts provides consistent support over time for grief, caregiving, burnout, pregnancy loss, pet loss, healthy aging, depression, job loss, and more.

The model:

Every text is written by world-leading experts and personalized to your specific situation: losing a parent to Alzheimer's is different from losing a child to suicide, and the support you receive reflects that.

You can also invite friends and family members who want to help to receive their own texts with tips on how to support you.

Side-by-Side Comparison

When to Use Crisis Text Line

Text Crisis Text Line if you're experiencing suicidal thoughts or self-harm urges, acute anxiety,or overwhelming distress that needs immediate attention.

Crisis Text Line is not designed for ongoing support. It’s for when you need to talk to someone right away. Their volunteers are trained for crisis intervention, not long-term ongoing care.

When to Use Help Texts

Help Texts is not designed for immediate crisis response. Instead, they offer ongoing support, tips, and resources to help you cope with a wide range of life challenges, including grief, caregiving, burnout, pregnancy loss, pet loss, depression, job loss, and more.

Making the Choice

Ask yourself:

Right now, do I need immediate help? → Text Crisis Text Line.

Am I looking for ongoing support? → Sign up for Help Texts.

Could I benefit from both? → Yes. Use Crisis Text Line when you're in acute distress. Use Help Texts for consistent guidance between those moments.

How to Get Started

Crisis Text Line: Text HOME to 741741 (US), 686868 (Canada), or 85258 (UK). No sign-up required. Free. Anonymous. Available now.

Help Texts: Visit helptexts.com/sign-up. Complete a brief questionnaire. Your first text arrives right away. $9.99/month. Cancel anytime.