You forgot to add that these are anecdotal evidence too, just like the reports of partial hanging attempts. Reports of full suspension not working are extremely rare even here, and there is absolutely no proof that they're true or accurately describe what actually happened. I'm not saying it's impossible for FSH to not work, but all the evidence – by which I mean research and actual hanging videos – suggest that it's extremely reliable.
I agree that it takes a lot of courage for someone to kick over their support, but it's not because there's a high risk of the method not working. It's because every method that is highly lethal and known to work takes courage.
Agree on all accounts.
For me, what scares me about full suspension is that there does seem to be a minority of people who attempt full suspension and struggle. Not many, but there do seem to be some.
I have some personal experience with this, and while I didn't witness it, I discovered my wife hanging full suspension by an extension cord in our back bedroom. She didn't tie any knots or do any research. She simply wrapped an extension cord around her neck like 5 or 6 times, and then wrapped the other end on an overhead cabinet handle in a figure 8 pattern - like they do at a dock when people are securing a boat.
When I discovered her, she looked completely normal, but what I wanted to say is that there was a lamp on an end table literally an inch or 2 away from her arm. Had she struggled or was panicking from air hunger (being asphyxiated), there's no question in my mind that the lamp would've been knocked over.
And you are correct, the anecdotal reports of people failing full suspension are usually an equipment failure, and if not, it's someone panicking immediately, not giving themselves even a chance to lose consciousness from the occlusion of the carotids. I just read one last night where as soon as the person went full suspension, they panicked and grabbed on to the anchor, lifted themself and was able to get the rope off of their neck.
The Japanese suicide manual agrees with this as well. I remember him writing "for people who want to ctb, they need to burn it in to their brains that full suspension is the easiest and most lethal method they can use - no further research of other methods is even necessary". He then goes on to cite a couple studies where scientists actually hung themselves full suspension to study the effects - they were obviously saved by colleagues but their report was that there was no pain, just blacking out. Same with a couple references he included of people who tried to hang themselves and failed (were saved or equipment failure) and it was the same - no pain, just pressure on the neck and then blacking out almost immediately.
So for me, the courage isn't because I'm not worried that it will work (ie., be lethal) - it's more that it won't work properly and I end up asphyxiating instead of losing consciousness right away. As long as the anchor and knots are secure, I have no qualms about it being lethal or not.
I do agree with you we have to be careful about anecdotes and arriving at bad conclusions. The often touted statistic on here that only X% (single digit, can't remember the exact number) of ODs working is highly misleading. That statistic is factoring in all ODs - ones where people gobble down 100 tylenols or other OTC or non lethal pills, because pills are easy to take and it's often done impulsively. However, if you were to take a lot of methadone, or fentanyl, expecially combined with benzos, I guarantee the rate of success is a lot higher than single digit percentages.
We should also remember that almost all of the anecdotes we read here are of people failing - we have no idea how many lurkers, or people like my wife, who went full suspension and were successful. So everything is going to be skewed here and it's actually kind of disheartening. You start reading about the methods here, and naturally you are going to get anecdotes of people who failed. It's a good thing though, in regards to harm prevention, as worst case scenario is you do something half-assed and end up being worse off than you already are.
From everything I've studied about full suspension, the majority of the time it does seem quick, painless (or very brief pain/pressure in the neck and airway) and guaranteed to be lethal. My overactive brain however, constantly reminds me of "what if you are one of the ones that does not lose consciousness right away and struggles to gulp in air".
I purposely don't watch hanging videos because full suspension is my backup method if my initial method doesn't work. I'm too worried I will see something awful and that would be burned in to my brain. I have seen loads of pictures though, and all of them just looked like my wife, as if they had simply fallen asleep. But I do hear stories, don't know how valid they are, of people with their eyeballs popping out, etc. I suspect this would be from occluding only the jugular veins while the carotids continue to pump blood in to the head.