Discussion Starting to Understand Why Suicides Occur In Extreme Psychological Distress

[TJT]

[Trigger warning: Disturbing topics ahead]

When thinking about the ongoing suffering of life, suicide becomes an attractive solution because it is permanent. But at that stage, it's just an idea.

Then as I researched it and looked up gore vids of my intended methods to get an idea of the reality (& pain involved, how to do it, etc) it became clear no death is painless and absolutely no suicide method is a clear "this is what happens every time" scenario. E.g. Lots of mixed reviews on how much pain goes into full hanging. Some say they pass out quickly but then rope breaks and others say they experienced excruciating pain.

Similarly, researching oral shotgun suicides similar story. Sure, high success rate. But only truly 'instant' if you destroy the whole brain stem (or most) of it. As there are 3 sections to the brain stem and if a portion of it survives, you may end up feeling everything. Not so easy to precisely aim for something when you have a gun in your mouth. And if you choose to add in pain killers, well, good luck aiming accurately. Plus, the gas output into your head from the contact shot of a shotgun is more likely to impact your face than your brainstem. Yes, eventually it'll cause brain death and lethal blood loss but suffocating on blood and and initial pain is a more immediate concern imo. And there are lots of disturbing videos and pictures all over the web of gun suicide survivors (including shotgun ones). Saw one of someone's mouth, well, gone and they were in the hospital having survived it.. Let me tell you.. They were definitely conscious and in pain. Truly worst-case scenario.

All in all these descriptions (& proof) that death is never painless has been a deterrent for me.

..But then every time I'm faced with living life instead- I start looking for comfort in suicide again. Present suffering always overrides any future potential suffering. So when someone's depressed and can't stand the idea of continuing life- death seems the better option. But if actively dying and in extreme pain- well, that's the present pain so that's what they'd be trying to escape, and that's why S.I. is so common during a suicide.

Conclusion
Which leads me to more complete understanding in why most suicides occur during periods of extreme psychological distress. The idea of extreme pain no longer stops someone from pursuing it. And these more successful versions of suicide have no chance of 'going back' or changing your mind once you've started.

It also demonstrates why lower risk versions of suicide are so popular (despite having poor success rates).

 

[Playingwiththedead]

[Trigger warning: Disturbing topics ahead]

When thinking about the ongoing suffering of life, suicide becomes an attractive solution because it is permanent. But at that stage, it's just an idea.

Then as I researched it and looked up gore vids of my intended methods to get an idea of the reality (& pain involved, how to do it, etc) it became clear no death is painless and absolutely no suicide method is a clear "this is what happens every time" scenario. E.g. Lots of mixed reviews on how much pain goes into full hanging. Some say they pass out quickly but then rope breaks and others say they experienced excruciating pain.

Similarly, researching oral shotgun suicides similar story. Sure, high success rate. But only truly 'instant' if you destroy the whole brain stem (or most) of it. As there are 3 sections to the brain stem and if a portion of it survives, you may end up feeling everything. Not so easy to precisely aim for something when you have a gun in your mouth. And if you choose to add in pain killers, well, good luck aiming accurately. Plus, the gas output into your head from the contact shot of a shotgun is more likely to impact your face than your brainstem. Yes, eventually it'll cause brain death and lethal blood loss but suffocating on blood and and initial pain is a more immediate concern imo. And there are lots of disturbing videos and pictures all over the web of gun suicide survivors (including shotgun ones). Saw one of someone's mouth, well, gone and they were in the hospital having survived it.. Let me tell you.. They were definitely conscious and in pain. Truly worst-case scenario.

All in all these descriptions (& proof) that death is never painless has been a deterrent for me.

..But then every time I'm faced with living life instead- I start looking for comfort in suicide again. Present suffering always overrides any future potential suffering. So when someone's depressed and can't stand the idea of continuing life- death seems the better option. But if actively dying and in extreme pain- well, that's the present pain so that's what they'd be trying to escape, and that's why S.I. is so common during a suicide.

Conclusion
Which leads me to more complete understanding in why most suicides occur during periods of extreme psychological distress. The idea of extreme pain no longer stops someone from pursuing it. And these more successful versions of suicide have no chance of 'going back' or changing your mind once you've started.

It also demonstrates why lower risk versions of suicide are so popular (despite having poor success rates).

The thing is, you see a lot of testimony for when it doesnt work because when it doesnt work people feel inspired to say something about it. When it does, well, they cant, but also there just arent as many records to find of successful attempts where everything has gone as intended and it was still extensively documented and spread online

 

[TJT]

The thing is, you see a lot of testimony for when it doesnt work because when it doesnt work people feel inspired to say something about it. When it does, well, they cant, but also there arent as many records to find of successful attempts where everything has gone as intended and it was still extensively documented and spread online

It's true people will emphasize the failures in this forum specifically because successful attempts won't be posted here as, well, they're dead.

But on gore sites successful attempts are much more common than failures I'd say. And there are a surprising number of them- odd how many people think to record before committing suicide (for both hangings and gunshots), as well as, after-death images/videos of finding the person.

As for studies (with pictures) I've seen both studies covering successful gunshot to head suicides, as well as, failed ones. One of the failure studies was covering types of guns that failed to kill the person. Another was showing facial reconstruction. These studies were found on Google Scholar & through Google Images I think(?).

Regardless of whether a suicide was successful or not, all the shotgun ones looked, naturally, excruciatingly painful. I think that was my main takeaway. And that they varied quite a lot by how they looked and what part of the face/head was damaged (although you're right- this portion wasn't extensively documented on what kind of gun, where they aimed, etc). I can only recall 1 video where it truly looked instant death. But perhaps there were more and I'm just forgetting them. Some I can't comment on as the person shot themselves then left the frame so you can't if it was instant or not.

 

[Praestat_Mori]

Once the pain of death is lower than the pain we have to endure while being alive, SI can be beaten. What are a few minutes of pain compared to years or even decades of pain ahead?

Even a tiny bit of hope can trigger SI before an attempt. Once someone really loses all hope and is desperate enough, it becomes "easier" to beat SI.

Edit:
All peaceful and painless methods have been restricted and made inaccessible. That's why people have to use other methods and also cruel ones like guns.

 

[Playingwiththedead]

It's true people will emphasize the failures in this forum specifically because successful attempts won't be posted here as, well, they're dead.

But on gore sites successful attempts are much more common than failures I'd say. And there are a surprising number of them- odd how many people think to record before committing suicide (for both hangings and gunshots), as well as, after-death images/videos of finding the person.

As for studies (with pictures) I've seen both studies covering successful gunshot to head suicides, as well as, failed ones. One of the failure studies was covering types of guns that failed to kill the person. Another was showing facial reconstruction. These studies were found on Google Scholar & through Google Images I think(?).

Regardless of whether a suicide was successful or not, all the shotgun ones looked, naturally, excruciatingly painful. I think that was my main takeaway. And that they varied quite a lot by how they looked and what part of the face/head was damaged (although you're right- this portion wasn't extensively documented on what kind of gun, where they aimed, etc). I can only recall 1 video where it truly looked instant death. But perhaps there were more and I'm just forgetting them. Some I can't comment on as the person shot themselves then left the frame so you can't if it was instant or not.

This is stupid but did you see kurt cobains? Im curious how he looked after all that without looking up or seeing the pictures myself, ive never looked at gore

 

[TJT]

This is stupid but did you see kurt cobains? Im curious how he looked after all that without looking up or seeing the pictures myself, ive never looked at gore

I haven't seen that one as far as I'm aware.
The instant death one was a pretty well known one of a maybe 30 year old vet that shot himself with a rifle on stream under the chin. Unlike most under-the-chin suicides, this one did get past the mouth and.. well... I won't describe the end result but it was one of the most disturbing I've seen.

I'm glad to hear you've never looked at gore. I would not recommend it unless you ever intend to commit suicide a specific manner and want to get a reality check of what that method actually looks like before doing it. I imagine most people on here have an idea of what death is like and the idea can be quite different from the reality.