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Ways and means of suicide

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    Ways and means of suicide

    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.

    #2
    Ways and means of suicide

    I think, on balance, an overdose of insulin would be the cleanest and most painless way to go. You'd just drift off into a diabetic coma and die.

    How you'd get hold of some, I really don't know. Realistically, then, probably heroin.

    People in the UK still talk about 'sticking your head in a gas oven,' although this method hasn't worked since the 70s.

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      #3
      Ways and means of suicide

      I don't remember much from my college chemistry class, but I do remember that the professor recommended inhaling a mixture of bleach and vinegar as cheap and easy way of killing yourself.

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        #4
        Ways and means of suicide

        I've heard nitrogen asphyxiation is painless - you just gently lose consciousness.

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          #5
          Ways and means of suicide

          Cocodamol or similar top painkiller - from the doctors for a bad back or whatever. Plus some booze.

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            #6
            Ways and means of suicide

            I feel like I'm stuck in the cinema scene from An American Werewolf In London.

            Cocodamol
            Constipated to death. Not nice.

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              #7
              Ways and means of suicide

              Razors pain you
              Rivers are damp
              Acids stain you
              and drugs cause cramp
              Guns aren't lawful
              Nooses give
              Gas smells awful
              You might as well live

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                #8
                Ways and means of suicide

                I once convinced an ex-girlfriend not to throw herself into a river because of all the people close to her it would affect.

                She broke up with me not too long after that. Still kicking though.

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                  #9
                  Ways and means of suicide

                  Quick, helmet-less swerve into an oncoming dump truck.

                  Not that I've considered it, but it does cross your mind.

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                    #10
                    Ways and means of suicide

                    Constipated to death. Not nice.
                    I'm fortunate in not getting side effects from cocodamol. I agree that if you do you'd want to choose something else.

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                      #11
                      Ways and means of suicide

                      I can remember the first time I sat behind the wheel of an automobile and drove at speed along a two-lane road. The thought that I could end my life quite gruesomely with just a well-timed turn of the steering wheel petrified me for quite some time. Still does, on occasion.

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                        #12
                        Ways and means of suicide

                        You are Duane from Annie Hall, AICMFP.

                        "Can I confess something? I tell you this as an artist,I think you'll understand. Sometimes when I'm driving... on the road at night... I see two headlights coming toward me. Fast. I have this sudden impulse to turn the wheel quickly, head-on into the oncoming car. I can anticipate the explosion. The sound of shattering glass. The... flames rising out of the flowing gasoline."

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                          #13
                          Ways and means of suicide

                          Yeah, but I was thinking that before the film came out. So no fiver for you, I'm afraid. But at least you tried.

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                            #14
                            Ways and means of suicide

                            You were driving before Annie Hall came out?

                            Do you remember when the internet used to be all fields?

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                              #15
                              Ways and means of suicide

                              Painkillers were the choice of my father to end his time on this world nearly 24 years ago. I've been trying to find the best way to put this into words about how I was affected as a 15 year old but it just doesn't look right written down.
                              Although I'm aware that linked to his alcoholism was probably severe depression, in my mind it doesn't stop me blaming him, myself and my family for it.
                              Suicide goes way beyond the initial impact, keeping with the train and truck theme. I don't mean the family inclusive euthenasia, but whatever method is used, there is the fall out beyond that. I know my mothers most common nightmare is the sight of my dad's contorted body lying in a pool of vomit.
                              My father, not an absent father mind, was not hugely involved in my growing up. We had no common interests, though this was highly unlikely given that his main interest was consuming as much whisky as possible every night. As a result I still tend to despise him, or at least his actions, even though I understand them more now. I feel he took an easy option, instead of facing his responsibilities as a father, and I think he has missed the opportunity of us being friends as we got older and learnt to tolerate each others different outlook on life.
                              He probably, in his hungover depreesive state, thought we would all be better off without him and thought he was doing us a favour, I hope this is the case. I'd hate to think that it was just a big 'fuck you all' as he ended his life

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                                #16
                                Ways and means of suicide

                                The former surely, sots. If it was a big "fuck you", he'd have gone for the big gesture.

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                                  #17
                                  Ways and means of suicide

                                  G.Man wants a hyphen wrote:
                                  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.
                                  I remember a few years back being on a train that was delayed because someone had jumped from a bridge in front of another train. I got talking to the guard, and he'd pointed out that one of the methods used (at the time, I don't know about now) when giving counselling to those who had been driving when someone had committed suicide, was to make it clear to the driver that there was absolutely nothing they could do. This method was most likely chosen because it was most likely to "succeed". With the speed of the train, and and there being no chance of the driver stopping or swerving. And pretty much no chance of surviving.

                                  If you're that desperate, that intent to kill yourself, the only thing you're thinking of, is making sure you don't survive.

                                  A truck driver might swerve, and with other methods (like slashing your wrists/hanging/overdose), someone may arrive in time to save you, but with side affects from your method of choice.

                                  Of course a lot of attempts are designed so that the attemptee is going for a desperate cry for help, rather than an outright attempt to kill themselves.

                                  Hanging is horrible on the person who finds the body; just the image of a body hanging of the rafters must be profoundly shocking.
                                  And not just the person who finds the body. The ex of an old friend of mind hung himself - she didn't find the body, but she still has the vision of him hanging everytime she closed her eyes, for weeks.

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                                    #18
                                    Ways and means of suicide

                                    Moving, informative stuff, Phoebe. And, I should say, an extremely moving opening post from G-Man. To say "thanks for sharing" seems a little inappropriate, but . . .

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                                      #19
                                      Ways and means of suicide

                                      And sean of the shed, apologies, I initially skipped your post as I skim-read. The same to you.

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                                        #20
                                        Ways and means of suicide

                                        The way to end it all is to move to Basildon.

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