Suicide Report 101

Okay, so it's my first day of college, and my Psychology professor decided to have us all do a special report on suicide. Talk about breaking it in. I assume that, by "special", he means none of the material is contained in the textbooks I spent so much money on.

Anyway, the criteria is very open-ended, and I decided to do my report on what I call "effective methods". Basically, means of committing suicide with a high likelihood of success. (For anyone who's confused by that: survival instinct tends to kick in and self-sabotage the attempt.) Apparently, while the suicide rate between men and women is about even, males have a higher rate of successful suicides because they traditionally use--shall we say "messier"?--methods of doing so (ie. guns, hanging). This is the sort of thing I'm looking for.

Anyway, if anyone has any material concerning this, I'd be grateful. Scouring the internet may be something I do well, but I can only do so much before I want to kill myself.

I actually made a recent forum post about it. Here's a quote:

Originally Posted by sea, on halflife2.net

It's not that hard. If you try to overdose on sleeping pills or something, you can always wind up living if you didn't take enough. Better yet, you might get brain damage or something as a result. If you try to shoot yourself in the head, you can actually wind up surviving fairly easily (due to flinching before shooting and going off target, etc.) and then you're permanently disfigured and also may have brain damage. Jumping off a really tall building is probably the best way to do it, but it's also probably scary as hell. Hanging yourself takes a long time, especially if you struggle (and you will, because it's human instinct). It can take up to an hour to die that way, and all the while your lungs are burning for air, though in the end it's probably just as effective so long as nobody finds you.

Skydiving and not opening your parachute always works wonders.

As long as you're not over an ocean or a bunch of brush or something to catch you.

I reccomend donig it right near the edge of a cliff. That way, if you somwhow survive, you can heave yourself off the cliff to finish it!

Hitting the surface tension of water is like hitting concrete... Brushes won't be helping you either. Terminal velocity is what? 221KPH? Yea skydive no chute your done.

I can't imagine any effective way of killing myself really. I even remember my ex's dad (a cop) explaining to me that once a guy tried to kill himself by inhaling propane. he rented a motel room opened a bunch of propane tanks in the bathroom closed the door and made a bath. Propane is heavier than air (as in it sinks to the bottom) so buddy wakes up from his bath obviously notices he's not dead so decides to smoke a cigarette... 3 canisters of propane in the room... Blow up... He flies through the window, naked. Survives.

Sometimes its harder to voluntairly kill yourself than accidentally do so

Most of times it would depend on if someone found you or not. Some guy at school explained to us that he chugged down 2 full bottles of antifreeze and lived because someone found him.... Really now people.

run around the African sahara dressed as an antelope

go to E3 wearing a shirt or carrying a flag saying 'I SUPPORT JACK THOMPSON'

alternitavely, hide under a carpet in the middle of the road just as an 18 wheeler hurtles round the corner

Originally Posted by lavmiester

run around the African sahara dressed as an anteloper

Or better yet, strap some meat on your waist and poke lions with a stick.

Or you could bite one of those colorful little Amazon frogs.

Or try to stop an airplane landing with you hands.

On a more serious note, i think i agree with sea and UZ. Jumping off a tall building leaves very little chances of survival, when jumping off a plane without a parachute leaves none.

Talking about suicides is quite depressive...

Originally Posted by Wind Waker13

Talking about suicides is quite depressive...

so is you being Inactive

but yeah, scuicide is a depressing subject for me, My half brother killed himself by hanging, apparently his neck did not break so he cholked to death...so hanging is not a good way to commit sciuicide

Sea, lava -- if you hang yourself properly, breaking your neck, you'll die instantly. Which is why it was used.

Jumping out in front of buses/trains seems a good idea -- but there's no guarantee that you'll die instantly, or which wounds you'll sustain. You could always go to Sweden and drink a lethal and painless cocktail of poisons that doctors can give, which'll work if you can get to Sweden without anyone knowing (otherwise it's assisted suicide, and they're open to prosecution.) That refers to Euthanasia -- the right to die, which they have in Sweden but not in church-based countries such as America or England, because killing yourself is taking a life, one of the no-nos.

And stabbing is always an option, but it's slow and you can't guarantee it'll kill you. You want something fast, effective and painless?

I'd go for breaking the neck. One of the merits of the crash position on aeroplanes (heads between knees, hands over the top is that it, after the protection it gives, it also snaps the neck in a severe crash, killing you instantly and painlessly and making your body easier to recognize. You can break your neck through hanging, jumping over the banister while tied or something similar -- getting the quick stop is important.

And using decent rope.

This is... a strange subject.

The brace position thing is a pure myth... Just so you know.

Originally Posted by Dakota

Sea, lava -- if you hang yourself properly, breaking your neck, you'll die instantly. Which is why it was used.

Chances of it being performed correctly even by an experienced hangman are still fairly low, because you need to adjust the noose, height, duration, etc. based on the person's weight, height, etc.. The average person is incapable of doing this reliably even with sufficient research, because controlling all of these factors is quite difficult. Pick the wrong distance and you could hang there for an hour choking to death, or your head gets ripped off. The "long drop" method is obviously the best way of hanging someone, but considering most people commit suicide as an act of desperation in the spur of the moment rather than carefully plot it out, most won't even bother considering that. Jumping from your bed or a chair is only going to net you a proper drop of six inches or a foot, and that's just not enough.

Special thanks to Sear, UZ!, Schattenreiter, and Dakota for presenting information I can use easily. Funny as the other guys were. Eh, maybe I'm just deadened to the subject. I had a bit of an estranged childhood, so thinking of death and suicide doesn't scare me. Of course, if it were happening to someone I care about...well, that's a different story. Hell, I'd do anything to prevent a loved one from doing something like that. Even sleep with them. ...Well, no, I take that back. That would probably just make them want to die even more. XP (Me and a friend have an inside-joke concerning this about me being "navigationally challenged", and I assure you it's quite funny. Wish I could remember how it went.)

Anyway, what I was originally hoping for were credible sources, and it would still be nice to have these if only for citation. I hear professors can be picky about this, although he didn't mention anything regarding sources for this particular project. Not that I was paying complete attention anyway, heh.

^^ Thanks, everyone, for your help. I really appreciate it. Any sources you could present would be much appreciated. And if I need someone to do my homework for me, I know where to look. Kidding.

And you know, I'd never heard the ins and outs of hanging. Didn't realize it was intended to snapped your neck, nor that it failed more often than not. Terrible way to go...but as Sea said, more effective provided you aren't found. Having your head ripped off due to extra length isn't necessarily bad--er, well...you know what I mean. It's about as effective as snapping your neck. You'll live for up to a second-and-a-half since signals are still channeling through your nervous system, but as for whether you'd feel pain...dunno. Meh, I'll see what I can dig up on that.

Hell, now I'm just curious.

Originally Posted by Wielder of the Sword

Anyway, what I was originally hoping for were credible sources, and it would still be nice to have these if only for citation. I hear professors can be picky about this, although he didn't mention anything regarding sources for this particular project.

Time for you to visit your university library. Do you already know how to do a literature search? Usually you can do it from any computer that has access to your university's library system.

Your university should have access to various peer-reviewed journal databases, sociological abstracts, etc.. Finding credible information on methods of suicide should not be too difficult, but it also may not be easy.

From what I've seen, trains do the trick pretty well, almost exploding you on impact. If you don't have a weak stomach, google some images. Pretty instant, if you ask me.

Originally Posted by sea
If you try to overdose on sleeping pills or something, you can always wind up living if you didn't take enough. Better yet, you might get brain damage or something as a result.

I'd suggest ingesting a stupid amount then. Personally, I'd go for something a little more classy than sleeping pills, literally. Classed drugs should do the trick nicely, especially combos. Vast amounts of cocaine (cracked or not, no matter), ecstasy, ketamine, amphetamines and if you're feeling filthy, some heroin would really screw you over. Add a bottle of stong liquor in to the mix, I'd put money on your funeral coming up. Thing is, you might have so much fun while your on it, you'd change your mind. Shame.

Originally Posted by lavmiester
run around the African sahara dressed as an anteloper

That really reminds me of an episode of Wildboyz, where Steve-O and Pontius do pretty much that, but as a zebra. Those guys make me laugh so hard.

That really reminds me of an episode of Wildboyz, where Steve-O and Pontius do pretty much that, but as a zebra. Those guys make me laugh so hard.

I have yet to see that episode? even though I have all the box sets...I probably have, just forgot, I'll watch em later

Originally Posted by Jehanne

Time for you to visit your university library. Do you already know how to do a literature search? Usually you can do it from any computer that has access to your university's library system.

Originally Posted by sea

Your university should have access to various peer-reviewed journal databases, sociological abstracts, etc.. Finding credible information on methods of suicide should not be too difficult, but it also may not be easy.

Hmm... I need to start paying more attention. I distinctly recall being told about this. Then again, my transportation is limited. I could walk to the public library (0.5 miles) quicker than I could get to Eastfield by bus. Still, thanks for the heads-up. ^^ I'll be sure to make use of that next time I'm on campus.

The public library (unless you live in Manhattan) will not have access to all of the journals that you'll need. For my university, I just type in my library # and name on the library's homepage online and can get access from my house.

I actually use the databases provided to me by my high school. They still use the same password, so I can still get in. It's much easier to navigate than all of the ones my university uses. Plus, half the time if you want to get an article, they make you wait two weeks or something to get you a paper copy of it instead of just letting you access it online. Most of the links wind up dead, too. Maybe other people have more luck, but I've only found two or three decent articles using it, while pretty much all of my other sources I accessed using my high school's database.

Originally Posted by sea

I actually use the databases provided to me by my high school. They still use the same password, so I can still get in. It's much easier to navigate than all of the ones my university uses. Plus, half the time if you want to get an article, they make you wait two weeks or something to get you a paper copy of it instead of just letting you access it online. Most of the links wind up dead, too. Maybe other people have more luck, but I've only found two or three decent articles using it, while pretty much all of my other sources I accessed using my high school's database.

...Public library it is! I prefer to rely on myself as is.

Just because my university's system is set up poorly doesn't mean that yours' is. Don't discount its assistance - your tuition is paying for it.