Or find a new enabler - with stunning speed. The downside to that is they do it by talking you down and getting sympathy as a poor abused parent of an unloving child.
I shrug it off. 
She most probably is. You should feel rage and betrayed and sad. But please let go of the guilt because you’re not being selfish. It’s a hard lesson to learn, but sometimes you just can’t love some people ‘just because you should’.
Just because she is your mother doesn’t mean you have to allow her to be a part of your life or be a part of hers. She is toxic and if you do wish to succeed in life, you’re going to have to make some hard choices. The main one being whether to cut your mother out of your life or not. You will have twinges of guilt if you give her the boot, but that’s because you’re a good person. However, you will have to stay strong. If you aren’t strong enough or don’t want to cut her out completely, you MUST set boundaries and then follow through on them.
The whole thing is completely fucked up and I’m sorry you’re dealing with it. 
As Dan Savage might say, DTFMA (Dump the Fucking Mother Already).
ETA: And while not wanting to dump every sordid detail of your personal life on coworkers is a good instinct, giving them a heads-up that you’re worried about a personal issue that day might be helpful. “Sorry if I’m distracted today–I had to deal with family medical emergency this morning. I may have to ask for more clarification than usual.”
Easy (temporary stopgap) Fix: Stop telling your mom when important shit is about to go down for you. If she doesn’t know, she won’t feel threatened, and she can’t sabotage (consciously or unconsciously).
Permanent (really emotionally hard) Fix: Let her fall. If she calls you about having taken pills and she reaches your voicemail, then tough noogies for her, and I bet she’ll call an ambulance pronto. She can’t bug you if she’s dead, can she? So she’ll call the hospital and soldier on so she can come back and make you feel more guilty for not answering your phone.
If you can get away, she’ll find someone else to cling onto. I promise. You will feel like a terrible person for a while (depends on personal circumstances) and then suddenly one day you’ll feel so very light and free and optimistic. It’s a wonderful feeling.
Wow. That sucks. I feel for you. Here you are doing everything right and you get thrown a shitty curveball, by your mother of all people. That truly sucks. I’ve just had a similar thing happen to me (actually its recurring). My sister just keeps reaching out. She’s been doing this all her life, the result of making one bad choice after another. And I’m always there. And now she’s sick and has just dialed up the sob story. This costs me greatly both financially and emotionally. I’ll be having a good day and the phone will ring (caller ID blocked) and I get a half hour of me wanting to put a bullet in my head. Now, she is pretty sick, very sick actually, so I can’t just blow her off. But the toll it takes on me is massive. I relay all this simply to share how I’ve chosen to deal with it. I stop and remind myself that there are a bunch of people, e.g., single mothers or fathers working two and three jobs who live paycheck to paycheck and don’t have a moments free time. That is their life. and they do it. Why, because they choose to do it. So, I try to recalibrate and remind myself that I don’t have to do what I do for her. But I choose to do it. and I’m actually glad I’m able to be there for her. I don’t know if that will help you, but it helps me. A lot.
That said, I commend you for both being there for your mother and taking the path you are educationally/professionally. You’re doing well by yourself and not allowing what your mom laid on you to last another generation. Keep it up the good work.
If you don’t play it too often, or for pity - a small bit of honesty often does work in situations like this.
The problem being, that with train wreck relations, you can only take your mother (sister, brother, spouse) to the hospital so many times before your job loses patience.
Good luck and stay strong.
It’s worth emphasizing here: Yes, if someone is talking about suicide, you certainly can call an ambulance or the police to intervene. In most places, reporting that you feel someone is an imminent danger to themselves is grounds for having them involuntarily hospitalized in a psychiatric unit (usually for at least 72 hours). That sounds like exactly what the mom in this story needs.
Unfortunately, sometimes people who make suicidal gestures like this DO succeed in accidentally killing themselves because they went just a little too far. It’s sad that it could come to that, but I think the OP needs to accept that he cannot save his mother from herself. Only she can make the choice to accept help and try to recover from her mental illness.
Thank you for all your thoughts! I have to go to bed because it’s an early morning, but I just want to say I got the job!
Totally nailed it. I start early next month!
Congrats!
How fantastic!! Congratulations! 
That was a great (well-written) OP and an even better conclusion to the story. I cheered out loud at the end.
Good luck with the job.
Congrats.
You* can* divorce your family. I used to just expect that my sisters would go through my cell phone contacts while I was asleep and call my friends and ask for money. I used to expect that I’d get called while I was at work because someone ran out of gas or money and should be expected to just drop everything to help.
I walked away. It was hard at first, I felt so guilty that I wasn’t there to be there for my family. That’s what family is supposed to mean, right? To be there when needed.
Can you remember the last time that your birth mother (asumption about the relationship) was there for you without drama?
That time that my uncle raped me at age 14, I told my mom. Her response was “Don’t tell your father, it will cause family problems”
I left 5 users and I’m much happier now. I still get calls at times because someone needs money right away, emails that I’m an evil person because I don’t care. Voice mail is my best friend. They can have their drama and suicide attempts. I don’t bother to call them back, I figure that if they can remember my number, they can remember how to dial 911.
Just walk away. Its a very liberating feeling.
That’s amazingly excellent to hear! Congratulations! You should be extremely proud of yourself - you did a great job under very difficult circumstances. Good for you!
Hooray for you and your awesomeness! You didn’t back down in brutal circumstances. I’m so glad the job worked out for you.
Oh, congratulations! That’s wonderful.
Now, hunker down. If she’s anything like my Mom she will promptly develop a list of utterly desperate needs that will neatly equal the increase in your income. If you get a nice place to live it will immediately become impossible for her to stay where she is and she’ll have to move in with you. If you have good food, her oven will break and she’ll need to share meals with you.
And if you manage to resist all of that she will up the drama and the desperate cries until you miss so much work that you lose the job.
Do. not. fall. for. it.
Set the boundaries as I described above, and under no circumstances get yourself under any financial obligations to her. If you start giving her $500 per month she promptly begin to bounce checks and need an extra $250 to take care of it.
You earned this, it is yours, you have a right to a reduced level of stress. She will feel desperate to get your stress level back up,and do anythign to achieve that. Let her ramp up as much as she wants to. Observe, like an audience watching a show rather than as an obligated participant.
And if you find that you have trouble enjoying it, then please find an experienced social worker who can help you talk it out.
Fly, be free.
Listen to TruCelt
And under no circumstances should you tell your mother the date of your first day of work. Dissemble, and if you can’t, lie and tell her it is 5 days before it actually is. That way her regularly scheduled meltdown will happen at a time more convenient for you to deal with it.
Better yet, don’t tell her anything about the new job. When you know she might sabotage you, why would you give her more ammunition to use against you?
Congrats on the job!
Awesome! I actually called it.
I’m with the others. Your mother doesn’t need to know you got a job, when you start, what your hours are, where you’re working, what you do nor where you live. Seriously.
And resist the urge to answer the phone - just let it roll over to vmail and then don’t check the messages until you’re off work and have the patience to deal with it. Your friends will text you anyway. And if your job requires you to take unknown caller calls, well then get a work mobile and keep the backup phone for your mother.