Method I wish the carotid artery was easier to sever, it's quite unfortunate that it's under quite a bit of muscle.

[verdedefome]

I mean, it makes sense evolutionary that such a weak point would be hard to reach. But it is by far the most fatal location for homicidal stabbing, if the carotid artery is severed, you're pretty much guaranteed to go unconscious in just a few seconds, and you die from blood loss not long after. From what I've read, reports of survival are exceedingly rare, and seem to have some factor that leads to the artery not hemorrhaging for whatever reason. Plus from some stabbing videos I've seen, it's a relatively easy area to pierce someone else if you can reach it.

But as one of the pinned threads here warns, it's pretty hard to reach if you're trying to slash it yourself, I've seen some pictures to check for myself and indeed there's quite a bit of muscle between the neck skin and the artery, even if it doesn't feel like it when I touch my neck, but I do have a very thin neck. It seems like it would be a very quick and simple method with very little wiggle room for survival. Plus as violent as it sounds I don't think it would be very painful, as you would go unconscious quickly. But I'm not sure if you can produce enough force with enough accuracy towards your own neck to guarantee a clean cut.

My strongest ideation is shooting myself in the head, my second strongest ideation is slashing my own neck, and I really have no way of getting a gun. I want to think that I could do it, there are reports of people successfully doing it, but I know very well what it's like to believe you can do something only to fumble it, probably it's just not a good method even if quick and highly fatal, just because there's too much room for error, it's not a severed carotid artery wouldn't kill you, it's just that you can't reliably sever it yourself I think.

 

[ladylazarus4]

This is very graphic (just medical photos) so just a warning. https://www.jtraumainj.org/journal/view.php?number=1016
This man's wound is extremely severe and he still survived.

 

[hereornot]

True. When hanging, everyone says that blocking the artery is essential, but all the videos show people fighting with themselves and losing motor strength without losing consciousness.

Just watch the force your body exerts even when you lose coordination in your arms.

In other words, it will be painful and time-consuming for someone like me who wants to hang themselves. If you tried and don't remember, that doesn't mean you didn't suffer a lot.

 

[verdedefome]

This is very graphic (just medical photos) so just a warning. https://www.jtraumainj.org/journal/view.php?number=1016
This man's wound is extremely severe and he still survived.

He didn't sever the carotid artery in that instance, it seems like the slash was done from the front of the throat rather than from the sides, he was breathing from the gaping hole which would be similar to a breathing tube, it's a crazy situation but I'm not too surprised he survived, further evidence that you can survive from the craziest wounds. Like I mentioned in the post there are a few instances where people survived the artery being severed, including in a suicide attempt (also graphic) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9935701/
It seems like for whatever reason the severing of the artery didn't lead to hemorrhage, like the artery was obstructed in some way after being cut.