Over on the Robert Enke thread there was a little diversion, prompted by my comment that throwing one's self in front of a train is not the most admirable manner of committing suicide, because of the trauma it causes the train driver (and the people who must survey the scene and those who must clean it up). erwin rightly pointed out that a person committing suicide is not in the right frame of mind to consider such things rationally. And I hasten to add that I'm not condemning Enke for killing himself or the manner in which he did.
But it brings to mind the question of what the least harmful ways of suicide might be.
Suicide is a subject I'll be contemplating a lot over the next few weeks. Around Christmas, it will be the 25th anniversary of my mother taking her life. I don't resent her for what she did, though I wish all manner of details had been different; that her clinical depression might have been treated, that I'd not have moved to London and be close to her, that... oh, loads of things.
Her method was to drive to a secluded beach (500 metres from where I live) and inject herself with insecticide. A quick, peaceful way to go, apparently. I don't know who found her body, by now black, a few days later. My brother, then 16, had to identify her because our stepfather couldn't handle doing so. In 25 years, my brother only once alluded to the experience (and we very rarely talk abut her suicide). The poor guy; I can only imagine the trauma of that.
Anyway, her method of suicide was not too selfish; only the people who found her and my brother were affected.
Hanging is horrible on the person who finds the body; just the image of a body hanging of the rafters must be profoundly shocking. Ditto cutting one's wrists (my mother, who tried that a few times, told me that bleeding to death – or near death, in her case — is rather nice).
I suppose an overdose of medication or carbon monoxide poisoning is not to bad on the person who finds the body. Preferably a stranger, I think.
I imagine that if I was ever driven to suicide (and I can't see that I would be), I'd aim for something that looks accidental. Less trauma for those left behind, I suppose.
But it brings to mind the question of what the least harmful ways of suicide might be.
Suicide is a subject I'll be contemplating a lot over the next few weeks. Around Christmas, it will be the 25th anniversary of my mother taking her life. I don't resent her for what she did, though I wish all manner of details had been different; that her clinical depression might have been treated, that I'd not have moved to London and be close to her, that... oh, loads of things.
Her method was to drive to a secluded beach (500 metres from where I live) and inject herself with insecticide. A quick, peaceful way to go, apparently. I don't know who found her body, by now black, a few days later. My brother, then 16, had to identify her because our stepfather couldn't handle doing so. In 25 years, my brother only once alluded to the experience (and we very rarely talk abut her suicide). The poor guy; I can only imagine the trauma of that.
Anyway, her method of suicide was not too selfish; only the people who found her and my brother were affected.
Hanging is horrible on the person who finds the body; just the image of a body hanging of the rafters must be profoundly shocking. Ditto cutting one's wrists (my mother, who tried that a few times, told me that bleeding to death – or near death, in her case — is rather nice).
I suppose an overdose of medication or carbon monoxide poisoning is not to bad on the person who finds the body. Preferably a stranger, I think.
I imagine that if I was ever driven to suicide (and I can't see that I would be), I'd aim for something that looks accidental. Less trauma for those left behind, I suppose.
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