A Practical Guide To Suicide

Also see the Suicide Notes/Last Words Page

Send an Email After You Die - All You Last Word Freaks

A. Introduction
There are sure-fire plans to kill yourself, but they don't always factor in the character and feelings of the person carrying them out. This is why I have put some emphasis on contemplation and reflection in the Practical Guide to Suicide that I'm compiling: I think it is very important that the person him-/herself is taken into consideration, because any "sure-fire" plan can be disrupted by fear, uncertainty, or just plain self-deception.

We need to devise scenarios for the typical experiences people are having when they are suicidal, like those who…

• …are sick and dying anyway and want an easy way out that doesn't involve a lot of mobility
• …are depressed and can't find the motivation to go great distances (as to procure barbiturates like the ones Final Exit recommended such as Phenobarbital);
• …are disgusted with life and want a way out that isn't too painful, messy or likely to fail;
• …want to die for any reason and are afraid of being discovered, seen as a coward, or judged as evil by those one loves and is obsessed with;
• …want to go out in a blaze of glory, making a strong statement against all one's enemies;
• …want revenge on some society, group or person, and want to use their suicide as a means of achieving this;
• …want to become an enigma or a media sensation, challenging the boundaries of narcissus.

I think that elaborate plans could be constructed for all of these conditions and desires, but certain combinations may be quite difficult to achieve (such as one who is depressed and lacking in energy and yet wants to go out in a way that would take some work).

B. Making an Informed Decision
If you believe that you have a psychological imbalance that is causing your suicidal ideations, then I recommend that you seek medical help for this imbalance rather than merely reacting to it by taking an action you may regret. Certainly, before the age of 23 it is often quite difficult to obtain a coherent perspective on the world from which to make the important decision to end one's life.

While I may council people to terminate their lives and even inform them of the most effective means of achieving this, I am strongly opposed to preying on the weak-minded or disabled who haven't a grasp on their personal will sufficient to make an informed and mature decision on their own.

 > I continuously want to kill myself. I have tried but have
 > never been successful. I do not know what to do…

Most medical (physical and psychological) conditions have been addressed with at least symptomatically-ameliorative, if not remedying, treatment plans that will likely contain a combination of physical, dietary, and medicinal prescriptions.

If you do not feel that your needs are being met on the particular schedule you have been recommended, get additional opinions (consult whatever authorities you think are trustworthy) and experiment with alternatives. Research what is known about your condition, supplement your knowledge base so as to become more independent and able to make decisions without the need of people whom you may not know well. The internet is a valuable resource (with search engines, for example) to accomodate your needs in this regard. You can also seek out local reference librarians, as they will be of inestimable service.

It is important to evaluate the following criteria:

1. How capable are you of making an informed decision that will affect the quality of your life?
2. How reliable is your emotional resolve?
3. Are you being driven to certain actions, or are you definitely choosing them with careful deliberation and resolved composure?
4. How much deliberation time is reasonable for you?

C. The Elements of Suicide
 > …it's pretty easy to kill yourself, if you truly want to.

Technically, yes.

 > I don't see what the big deal about methods is unless you are
 > trying to make it look like an accident in order to allow
 > relatives to get insurance money or to spare them some shame or
 > guilt.

The main elements are:

• Access—how easy it is to obtain the conditions and/or equipment;
• Efficacy—how effectively it works;
• Speed—how quickly the method is carried out;
• Painlessness—so we don't have to suffer too much.

Access can be problematic for those with physical problems.
Effectiveness can be difficult to determine if we haven't yet separated fact from fiction.
Quickness intensifies the ramifications of the next element.
Painlessness is important to quite a few people and is sometimes expanded to include the retainment of the integrity of one's body for loved ones or in order to affect as few people as possible or represent an easier action to take—many of us are conditioned to self-preservation.

 > …I am terminally ill,
 > and was at a bad spot and thinking I might have to do
 > myself in because of the pain. But I am on an upswing
 > currently, and also have better pain medication, so I am
 > (hopefully) not ready to go just yet.

Access—doctors prescribe medication(s);
Efficacy—you can request more powerful drugs because they know you're going to be dying soon anyway and don't have to worry about the possibility of lawsuits;
Painlessness—meds suited to reduce pain may be acquired.
Speed might be a factor, as would dosage…

The other important area of suicide discussion is proper preparation. Too often this is neglected, when in fact things like cardboard coffins are available for those who want to go green or low-cost, and good plans are in the process of being developed for those who know they are going to die (tying up loose ends, et cetera).

D. The Empowerment of Accepting Death
We can be caught between knowing that we want to die, taking steps to accomplish it, and really just wanting life to be different, trying to find some way to escape or hide from it. Attempting suicide can be a way of shuffling the deck. No matter how much we may decry the control exercised over us once we've failed an attempt, we are the ones who got us there. It is a means of changing the life we are leading (abandoning control, which a lot of us want to do but for which are afraid of the repercussions). This is in part why some people commit crimes—to return to a controlled environment where they won't have to face the stress of decision-making.

Knowing that we can at any point terminate our lives can be a powerful incentive. "Okay, now I can do anything. If the heat gets to be too much, I can push 'eject, game over,' and I don't have to worry about the conditions I've created for myself." To many this is considered "weak, avoidance, cheating, sinful," etc., but that is just a human judgment intent on keeping us as their pawns, playing by their rules, condemned by their bogey gods, afraid to take the Final Power into their own hands and projecting this onto us as some sort of cosmic sin. After all, if they have to suffer in this shit-hole we're making of the world, we should be required to suffer it too, right? They'll say that we're a "sore loser" or a "spoiled-sport" (their game was ruined) if we don't remain inside their pitiful, finite game (cf. Carse, Watts) and submit to our position.

They are condemned to Hell in a life they deserve, and one's power to end one's own life is like a "secret weapon." Remember those spy movies and stories? (We may pretend we're a spy.) There's always the "cyanide pill" if we're captured or enter into a situation which may compromise our values and goals. If we condition ourselves to ingest it (something that these stories never talk about, but the spies have to endure it to break anti-suicidal conditioning)—that is, to terminate our lives—then we're better equipped to attain anything we want, or to die after feeling that our efforts were thwarted. It is arguable that this is one of the strengths of certain Asian martial codes, such as bushido, which focus so intently on the death of the participant.

If we're really creative, we may rig up a type of death which serves to accomplish something long in our wake, as is said of Jesus and Socrates.

A. Introduction
When one is dedicated to the task, suicide will not be difficult to achieve at all. The major problem is internal, not external. Some degree of self-analysis, preparation for death, the reaction one will not witness but apparently cause, etc., is important since we are conditioned to regulate our behavior based on imagining the reaction others will feel in response to our choices.

Other than deciding on the method of self-termination, the practical preparation for suicide includes accepting one's demise, how it will be effected, and one's role in the social world prior to that event.

Deciding (or leaving undecided) the metaphysical issues inherent to the notion of suicide (such as how the cosmos may be structured, whether there are moral authorities who have forbidden the taking of your life, what happens to people when they die, whether it matters if someone has killed themselves as to the quality of any post-mortem experiences, etc.) is an important part of accepting the idea of effecting one's own death.

Contemplating the likely responses to the type of suicide one has planned and the future development of the society in which one lives (i.e. how family and friends will react to the news of your choice to end your life, what, if any, repercussions there may be to the message your death may symbolize, etc.) is essential in the construction of a satisfactory suicide method and context.

Discerning one's social role prior to suicide is immensely helpful in the precise delineation of the pre-termination itinerary. Whether this may include lying to one's friends and family (so as to avoid being bereft of autonomy and freedom in a misguided attempt to provide 'help'), the resolution of administrative details (like arranging for payment of regular bills and any funerary expenses that will likely be incurred by your survivors, etc.), or a fierce and fiery 'Shooting Star' termination in which a huge mess is left to those whom you despise or have learned to disregard, knowing how to approach the world will put those destined for death one step ahead of those who may wish to see that a self-termination fails.

B. Contemplating Death
Fear of pain is an important reason to hesitate when contemplating self-termination. We don't want to become centers of pain—we want to terminate the pain (often psychological) that we may be feeling. The surity factor of practical methods is an important part of our consideration (which is why so much detail is included in the posts below evaluating methods, probably obvious to any who have seriously considered suicide before).

But what is it about pain that we fear? To some extent this fear is entirely groundless and irrational. Are we sure we don't want to feel any pain at all, even for a moment when the grenade we've placed next to our head goes off? Flying through the air on the way to the ground, do we want to imagine the impact at high speed and the very short stimulus of every one of our nerves? Driving onward with our heads flying backwards after being lopped off by piano wire attached to the axle of a parked truck or the trunk of a large tree, do we want to feel the "awkwardness" of seeing the world suddenly go topsy-turvy, feeling an imaginary body and wondering where "we" are then?

This is why experimenting with pain-play and getting over a dread fear of it can be valuable. We begin to understand that it is a temporary response to intense change (whether this be the change of decaying and dying as we age, or due to some possibly desired "catastrophe"). Eventually it stops being the obstacle it was and we can decide on suicide with a clear will.

...the thing that kept me from doing it was not that I wanted to live but that I was just too fucking scared of dying. And it wasn't being dead that frightened me, it was the dying part. The trip from Here to There. It makes me shiver right now, thinking about that night. I'm just a coward, basically—this makes me wish I were dead, but at the same time it keeps me alive. Same old stuff. :(

Maybe it was the method I chose that made it so difficult for me (hanging can be pretty gruesome if you don't do it right), but I can see where it might be the same with a shotgun. I suppose that when your conscious mind is aware that you're about to hit the Full Stop button, it's gonna fight pretty God-damned hard to keep you from doing so. The actual reasons are probably different for each individual.

 >I have often thought that the reason people commit
 >suicide is that they care too much about what
 >other people think.

Actually, that's one of the things that keeps me from doing it.

...Most of us don't have the first inkling about what death includes, what it will be like, and a great number of humans hope to mystically circumvent this extinction-phase of our lives ("termination"). So we become members of cults which dream about afterlives and pretend that we're never going to die. the culture in which I live [US:CA] is pro-youth and anti-death.

I prefer to learn from works of art like Logan's Run (though I don't like the fact that the society there was dominated and death wasn't optional prior to "degeneration") or Zardoz (which, while a low-budget cult film, has wonderful things to say about how fucked up people can get when we try to avoid natural processes and instead try to avoid the beauty of death and its results).

 > As significant as the fact that the means are easy and
 > painless is the fact that there is no stigma or shame
 > attached to suicide, since it is accepted (generally
 > speaking, even if someone would not want to lose a
 > particular individual to suicide).

This is an important premise to get across. Yet more than this should be the consideration of how death could be made pleasurable! What if death could be the ultimate experience a human being could engage? Pay a few thousand dollars and suddenly a whole circus of possibility opens up. Death during sex, at the height of euphoria; death while engaging all the nastiest (or alluring), most forbidden (or desired) pleasures of the world.

If there is no future which may be ruined, why not engage that which would otherwise harm or destroy us simultaneously? All the most exciting things which we'd avoid due to their risk and deleterious future repercussions would become options!

Recommended by a friend: cf. the book Cause of Death, which evaluates the exact processes of death without faux sensationalism.

Joseph T. Adams wrote:
> How does one go about overcoming, or at least
> temporarily "tuning out," the natural fear of
> death, of the afterlife, etc.?

I don't have a good answer but here are some ideas that worked for me:

1. Drugs, at least some of them;
2. Wait till you can't handle the pain of being alive anymore and I'm sure you won't be asking yourself such questions;
3. Some music;
4. Making oneself deeply depressed.

It took me several months to push myself over the edge (i.e. to feel like item 2) by using items 1, 3, and 4. I also isolated myself more or less completely from the outside world so I would have no one to think about when I was to do it. At some point i started thinking in circles and it wasn't long before I wasn't scared anymore about death itself. I didn't succeed in killing myself but at least now I'm not afraid to die anymore.

This won't help getting rid of the fear of the afterlife but since I don't have such a problem I can't help there.

Reading about suicide and methods can in fact make one become acclimatized to the rationality and realism of self-termination. Here are some book recommendations (boldface indicates "highly recommended"):

• Suicide and Attempted Suicide: Methods and Consequences, by Geo Stone, 1999;
   From: anonymous
   Subject: Re: Suicide with gas, Geo Stone's book
   Date: Sun, 12 Sep 1999 14:09:40 -0500

  Frank wrote:
   >> …I strongly support Stone's book, since
   >> there is a desperate need for more and better
   >> suicide manuals. I just wonder why he couldn't
   >> have developed a few methods to the very detail?
   >> I would specifically have liked to see a
   >> detailed oxygen-displacement method, since the
   >> components for such a method should be available
   >> to most people.

• A Guide To Self-Deliverance, EXIT (Britain);
• Autodeliverance, by Michel L. Landa;
• The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Plath;
• Bitter Fame, biography of Sylvia Plath, by Anne Stevenson;
• Caring for the Suicidal, by John Eldrid;
• Death of a Man, by Lael Wertenberger;
• Double Exit, by Ann Wickett;
• Dying With Dignity, by Derek Humphry, 1992;
• Essays in Self-Destruction, by Edwin "Ed" S. Shneidman;
• Final Exit, by Derek Humphry, The Hemlock Society, 1991;
• The Final Months: a Study of the Lives of 134 Persons Who Committed Suicide, by Eli Robins;
• First You Cry, by Betty Rollin;
• How To Die With Dignity, by George B Mair, EXIT (Scottish);
• Jean's Way, by Derek Humphry;
• Justifiable Euthanasia, by Pieter V. Admiraal;
• Last Wish, by Betty Rollin;
• Let Me Die Before I Wake, by Derek Humphry;
• Letters Home, biography of Sylvia Plath, by Aurelia S. Plath;
• Mishima: A Biography, by John Nathan;
• The Oxford Book of Death, by D. J. Enright;
• Prescription Medicide: the Goodness of Planned Death, by Jack Kevorkian, 1991;
• The Savage God: A Study of Suicide, by A. Alvarez;
• Suicide and Attempted Suicide, by Erwin Stengel;
• Suicide: A Study in Sociology, by Emile Durkheim;
• Suicide: Inside and Out, by David K Reynolds and Normal L. Farberow;
• Suicide: The Gamble with Death, by Gene & David Lester;
• Voluntary Euthanasia: A Comprehensive Bibliography, by G. Johnson (Hemlock Society)
• Wanting to Die, by Anne Sexton;
• The Woman Said Yes, by Jessamyn West;
• an article from The Humanist magazine, January-Febrary, 1993: "Death With Dignity," by William McCord.

Songs about suicide can also get you in the mood…

 >> "Something I can Never Have," Nine-Inch Nails…
 >
 > There is also another great suicide song…
 > from Marylin Manson; the last song on
 > "Antichrist Superstar."
 >
 > The Cure also has a lot of great suicidal songs.

The Doors' "Yes, the River Knows" is another fine tune.

"Stay Together," by a British band called Suede, is an excellent song. The lyrics are about what the title suggests and the song itself is about two lovers forming a suicide pact.

 >>> …"Alice in Chains" has lots of
 >>> suicidal favorites, especially on Dirt.

Especially Dirt on Dirt…

 

"1-800-Suicide" by Gravediggaz or "Hey Man, Nice Shot" from Filter aren't bad, either. Both are on the soundtrack to Demon Knight.

 

 > Morrissey, Bauhaus, Coil, Peter Murphy,
 > Sisters of Mercy, Lords of Acid (If you feel
 > like dancing first), Mistlethrush, Black
 > Tape for a Blue Girl…

Morrissey is okay—I like "Lifeguard Sleeping, Girl Drowning"—but Sisters of Mercy suck.

 

Kristy wrote:
 > Suicidal Tendencies' "How Will I Laugh Tomorrow?"
 > Suicidal Failure's "When I Can't Even Smile Today"
 > Déja Vù's "Feel Like Shit"
 >
 > Pink Floyd's "The Postwar Dream," "The Final Cut," and
 > "Comfortably Numb."
 >
 >>>…put the song on repeat so when they find
 >>>you, they'll hear it. Sorta like an audio suicide
 >>>note.
 >> My suggestion is Sarach McLachlan's cover version of
 >> "Gloomy Sunday."
 >
 > Suicidal Tendencies' "Suicide's an Alternative" and Life
 > of Agony's "River Runs Red."
 >
 > I've heard that there is a symphony by Mahler that is
 > never played, because people get the urge to commit
 > suicide after hearing it. Seriously!

Well, I've got one suggestion: the track entitled "Burn," by The Cure, in the soundtrack from The Crow.

… as can films…

 

I know only one book really dealing with suicide, and it doesn't have an English title (translated, though, it would be "Matilda's Last Summer"). but Steppenwolf (H. Hesse) and Werther (Goethe) have left a big impression.

carol

Movies about Suicide
10	Whose Life is it, Anyway?
10	'Night, Mother
10	Leaving Las Vegas
9	The New Age (largely involving suicide and "life-suckiness")
6	Julian Po
	Harold and Maude
Movies With Suicidal Characters
10	Lethal Weapon
6	Groundhog Day
Movies with Suicides
10	Full Metal Jacket
8	Shawshank Redemption
8	Thelma and Louise
7	Gattaca
	The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3
	Dr. Strangelove
	Vanishing Point
	The Crow
	My Name is Joe
Honorable Mentions
10
8	Dead Poets' Society
	The Deer Hunters
	The Madwoman of Chaillot
	Swing Kids
	A Few Good Men
	The English Patient
IMDb Search Results
	After Darkness
	Bad Timing
	Brave
	Breakfast of Champions (summary sounds pretty good)
	Chattahoochee
	The Cruse Oasis
	God's Lonely Man
	The Odd Job
	On Campus
	Pact (summary sounds like an ASH party!)
3	Pump up the Volume
	Zina

 

One of my favorites is a dark-comedy suicide flick, The End, with Burt Reynolds and Dom Delouise. It's hysterical! I particularlly enjoy the part where Burt swallows a handful of every kind of pill from his mom's medicine chest, with sour milk. He immediatly spews out the mess on a coffee table and remarks, "Looks like Walt Disney threw up."

 

Oh yes, and not to forget the classic: Goethe's Sufferings of Young Werther—after this book was published (in the sixteen-hundreds, I think, but I could be wrong), there was a slew of copycat suicides, where dozens of young men killed themselves with a copy of Werther in their pockets!

And for movies: Thelma and Louise.

 > I read the article on suicide, but I didn't see anything on
 > how to make it look like an accident. Got anything on that?

The desire to end life without one's relatives or friends suspecting that we'd had that in mind is probably most common amongst those whose family and acquaintances are emotionally-insecure and interdependent. Others may have moral qualms about suicide and post-mortem destinies of the "soul," which they suppose will survive the bodily disintegration and, in order to "spare them" from this, or from feelings of guilt ("If only I'd known I could have done something!" they may say), we may wish to conceal many things, inclusive of the nature of our final act. Other reasons to try making it look like an accident include trying to leave insurance for one's family. The number of films on this subject should supply very good ideas as a supplemental source.

The usual methods of concealment include making it look like an accident, and disappearance. The first method has attendant complications, since some of the suicide methods that will appear to be an accident could impinge upon the lives of others who may not wish to die (as when someone drives head-on into an oncoming train).

The usual way to fake an accident is to look carefully at the international news and consider the ways in which people tend to die. There are a great number of vehicular accidents, for example, and this is easy to fake but hard to be sure that it will be successful without careful planning and avoidance of chance survival. Plunging from a great height, or into a body of water, with the windows rolled up in an automobile, is likely to be considered "accidental." Smashing into objects at high speeds—especially without a safety-belt—is moderately likely to result in your demise; in such a case it would be best to aim at very dense materials like steel and stone. Compare this with industrial accidents in which one falls into the wrong place "by accident."

Risk-taking sports tend to result in their share of casualties which will be considered accidents, though survival becomes easier when one is participating in some common sport where others are likely to be present and may interfere by "coming to the rescue." Elemental exposure and disregard can be seen as an "accident of negligence," such as when one flies during a storm, skis during a blizzard, or hikes through sub-freezing temperature zones (in which one might crash or freeze respectively).

Electrocution and poisoning are less likely to be believed as accidents, but if ignorance or absent-mindedness are common perceptions of the individual considering suicide, this may be an option. The problem with these are that they can be prone to painful results, sometimes even failure. Research into the precise voltage, grounding—or, in the case of poison, dosage—for body type and likely effects are important supplemental homework.

One of the most important parts of making one's death appear to be an accident, aside from actually carrying it through to termination, is the cover-up of one's personal life. Text such as that in which this advice appears, for example, is likely to be incriminating evidence, so to speak, as would any correspondence or expression indicating depression, focus on death, or euthanasia. Radical changes in one's life, friends, or general behavior can lend reason to suspect "foul play" or a "personal problem." Suicide-prevention literature typically contains lists of signs that one can watch so as not to evidence them in one's life or leavings. Especially important as to the promotion of one's end as an accident is the recent initiation of lengthy projects and the continuation of one's ongoing affairs. This gives the impression that one had intended to be around for a while.

The Possibility of Failure
 >> Isn't it the case that most botched suicides are as a
 >> result of attempted overdose which fails?
 >
 > Actually, it does hold the largest percentage, but people are
 > impulsive, and a lot of them are actually people trying to
 > get attention; spurned lovers, that sort of thing. Jumping
 > out in traffic, shooting one's self is the mouth with a (I am
 > not making this up) .22 short (just ruins the roof of your
 > mouth—blech). People who have not really thought it out,
 > just want the attention, or to lay a guilt trip on someone.
 > They generally do not get very much sympathy from the E.R.
 > staff—we are sick of them.

 > People who really mean it have set up closure for themselves
 > and most of the people around them, and their houses are
 > spotless. Everything is boxed, labeled, and there is very
 > little to do. Most have even had the utilities shut off,
 > and the last bills paid. These are the serious ones.

…and…

 > Should I fail, I want the
 > extra time to let nature do it's work on me where I have not
 > …say a rented cabin that will not be maintained by the maid
 > staff for a week. Something like that.

Yes, that makes the most sense. Act preventatively to keep people from helping, rather than helping them to discover the body first.

One of the things I would also do is to post a sign on the door of this cabin, something like:

Dying at Home
Often, one may want to terminate one's life in familiar, pleasant surroundings; however, doing so limits the number of possible ways there are to die.

 > What's the best method to die in the comfort of my own home?

First, I'll deal with the local environment, then I'll list a couple of suggestions for inside the home.

Geography

Hypothermia

In northern climes, during colder periods of the year, hypothermia is a real option. Being wet, without clothes, outside in the snow for a good day or two will probably be enough.

Hypohydria

Near a body of water such as a swimming pool, lake, or ocean affords the weighted swimmer with an easy solution also. Tie enough heavy objects to the legs and dive in. Breathe water heavily until dead.

Cataclysmic Impact from a Height

Near to great heights, such as canyon cliffs, or in dense urban centers, where there are liable to be accessible towers, or very tall buildings, makes possible the leap to death. Landing head-first will more or less ensure success.

Cataclysmic Impact by a Fast-Moving Vehicle

Dwelling by tracks of fast-moving trains gives the suicidal an easy-out where there is sufficient concealment such that the train will not be able to observe you before you leap in front of it.

Helpful Home Remedies

Shotgun to the Brainstem

Having a shotgun makes killing oneself a snap. Aim for the brainstem; be sure that there is a good foundation for the recoil before firing.

Potassium Cyanide (KCN) Consumption

If you've got some potassium cyanide, or know where you can get some, then the following method may prove valuable):

1. Take a small glass of cold tap water; do not use mineral water, nor any kind of juice or soda water, due to the acidity of such liquids.
2. Stir 1g (or 1.5g, at most) of potassium cyanide (KCN) into the water; using more than recommended will likely cause burning of the throat due to the acidity.
3. After about five minutes—this "waiting period" is important, as a chemical reaction needs to take place—the KCN will be dissolved and ready to drink (because it has turned into HCN). It remains drinkable for a period of several hours, but not much more than that.
4. Once the concoction is drunk, consciousness will be lost within a minute. There will be just time to rinse out the glass (to ensure that no one else accidentally drinks from it—however, one could just as easily put a big "Warning" label onto the glass, or throw it into a corner or a fireplace, if one doesn't want to take the time) and lie down. But beware—a person extremely weakened by illness might lose consciousness within twenty seconds.
5. While in the coma, death will follow in fifteen to forty-five minutes, depending on the physical strength of the person and whether the stomach is full or empty (an empty stomach promotes faster death).
6. During the coma period, the dying person will breathe heavily or snore, similarly to people who have taken a lethal dose of barbiturates [See  below.].

[Hans] Atrott notes that with a person who is seriously terminally ill, death is so peaceful that often doctors do not detect suicide, and sign the death certificate as being from natural causes.

—Final Exit, by Derek Humphry, The Hemlock Society, 1991, pp. 44-5.

This is also the German Society for Humane Dying's recommended suicide method, as related by Derek Humphry. If anyone else has information we can add to it, please let me know as a followup to this post.

However, this is not the method which Humphry finally recommends, because he is concerned that cyanide might not be fast and painless enough, having heard a multitude of stories about its effects. He has a whole chapter on cyanide of various types and it is worthwhile reading.

No, his recommendation is directed toward those who have a terminal illness (who may be in a weakened condition and who may have built up a tolerance to one or more pain- killers). Without the assistance of a doctor, he recommends ingestion of Seconal (secobarbital) and/or Nembutal (pentobarbital) combined with a plastic bag over the head to ensure suffocation while comatose.

Humphry's focus on the digestive process is admirable, and he goes into some great detail about what should and should not be done prior to killing oneself via this method (Ibid., p. 110+).

Of particularly great importance when engaging in the overdose method (he says that alcohol increases the lethality of such substances by 50% and provides a good chart in the back which gives lethal doses of many pharmaceuticals) is the prior ingestion (an hour beforehand) of Dramamine to prevent nausea and vomitting of the pills. He notes also that one of the other problem of oral administration is that people will sometimes go to sleep prior to completing a lethal dose, and so suggests that one use alcohol to wash down a number of pills, or just a few while gobbling the rest very quickly in a pre-prepared pudding.

His recommendations about having a suicide note, Living Will, and Last Will and Testament are invaluable for those serious about ending their lives with grace.

 > Can somebody suggest me a way to kill myself?
 > I am disabled, cannot walk, can lift my arms just a little,
 > and have no firearms. I am so tired.

The disabled and terminally-ill are the most prone to have serious desires to end their lives, based on their quality of life for the remainder of their days. They are also the most likely to receive help from unexpected quarters (especially the terminally ill) when attempting to secure reliable methods. Witness the repeated help of individuals like Saint Kevorkian and his compassionate response to those who wish to die with the assistance of a doctor. Today there are even opportunities for the terminally ill such as state-supported physician-assistance if one chooses to live in the proper area of the world (as of this writing, at least in Oregon, U.S., if not in Denmark—or was that latter Australia?).

Probably the most rational methods for the terminally ill which may apply to the disabled also have been covered by authors such as Geo Stone and Derek Humphry. The typical recommendation is some combination of prescription medicine—or relaxing substance like barbiturates—and alcohol, or suffocation. Obviously, disabilities will affect one's access to this method, since overdosing requires an ability to administer the substance, but if one has some small use of one's limbs then there is a good chance that this method is available to the disabled as well.

The usual method of obtaining the barbiturates is to approach one's doctor and ask for sleep medication. Accepting this, a return visit at a later time is necessary to complain that the lower-power medicine which is usually prescribed for first-use is insufficient to facilitate one's slumbers. The second or third visit, if the doctor does not prescribe some kind of barbiturate, the recommendation is that one nonchalantly mention that a friend said she was greatly assisted by some kind of barbiturate, and that you think this may be what you need also. If the doctor does not cooperate, you may need to get a referral to see another doctor who will.

Once you have obtained the proper prescription, stockpile these substances until you have acquired what you can determine is a lethal dosage (see below or consult a more reliable source).

The sources mentioned above indicate that some type of anti-nausea preliminary are an important part of the overdose, as is eating very lightly previous to the ingestion. Another important facet of overdosing is timing: choosing a place and a time when one is unlikely to be found unconscious (like in a locked apartment's closet which one occasionally leaves, on a Friday) is imperative to success. If one is under prescription for any similar types of medication, then these should be discontinued for three or four days in advance so as to minimize the risk of tolerance resistance (with terminal illness this period may be reduced based on one's debilitated condition).

Groups like the Hemlock Society do not trust the overdose method completely, and with good reason: quantities of substances as compared to personal resistance, due to body type, genetics, and overall bodily health, make ingestion of prescription medicines a variable which can have unforeseen consequences (particularly failure, and winding up in worse circumstances than one already faces). Pharmaceuticals provide information that is at times confusing to the intentionally suicidal, and this can lead to a botched job where it had seemed a sure thing.

For this reason, the Hemlock Society recommends to its (terminally-ill) audience the addition of a plastic bag to place over the head in conjunction with the overdose. In his book, Derek Humphry, the founder of the Hemlock Society, describes using a rubber band with the bag, like a kind of headband or necklace, placing the bag and band together in one smooth motion. Since this book was published the Hemlock Society has begun recommending that the bag be loosely fitted over the head with a light-but-effective weight, such as a pillow, over the flap of the bag on the chest. This method would provide a kind of double-assurance, attempting to arrest one's breathing with chemicals while limiting the available oxygen which can be breathed in case the overdose doesn't do more than render the individual unconscious.

 > What's the least painful way to commit suicide?

There are two factors of importance in considering the experience of the suicide (ignoring collateral considerations like how the suicide will affect others): first, the duration before death (whether we would wish it extended or shortened; conventionally considered "short" and "long"), and the quality of the subjective experience over the course of that duration (often painful, pleasurable, or of a neutral quality).

The question of "the least painful way to intentionally end one's life" only takes into consideration the qualitative element of this experience. It is affected by the duration if disintegration/death occurs prior to the experience of pain (achieving a "neutral" quality at best).

Therefore my response falls into two categorical types of intentional death: concussion and intoxication. Concussion involves the incapacitation of nervous system receptors prior to their activation (as in being at the detonation point of a large bomb). Intoxication includes the administration of gaseous or liquid substances such that pain is ameliorated by virtue of unconsciousness or absent by virtue of life-threatening developments which do not impact the nervous system.

In considering intentionally ending one's life I will focus on means of suicide that should be commonly available to the individual citizen in an enlightened culture (projectile weapons, certain intoxicants), and I may omit possibilities available to the privileged and/or technically adept (e.g. nuclear weaponry).

Concussion

The easiest method of quickly incapacitating the nervous system is through a debilitating impact to the brain stem. This can be administered with a projectile weapon of sufficient caliber (such as a shotgun) aimed at the proper angle so as to disintegrate the head and end life immediately. It does require that one overcome one's own feelings of self-preservation or fear of self-inflicted pain in order to aim and correctly fire the weapon. Adequately preparing for recoil can also be important.

Intoxication

A self-administered dosage (by a "Mercitron-like" mechanism) of the substance used in killing unwanted pets, unwanted or damaged work animals, or those humans who have either been sentenced to die as a punishment for their heinous behavior (murder, torture, etc.) or who have requested assistance in dying (e.g. like those who have terminal illnesses and have sought succor in the assistance of Doctor Death, A.K.A. Saint Kevorkian) is a very valuable way to avoid pain at the time of death.

If more attention is paid to the quality of the duration, rather than merely avoidance of pain, then there may be more pleasant ways of terminating one's life.

These include the self-administration of substances like nitrous oxide (which displaces oxygen and produces euphoria), or some more common recreational substance such as heroin, which, in sufficient quantity and composition, can cause a depressive reaction that will kill while including the euphoria that recreational users desire.

The best methods I've seen described so far are somewhat messy. Yet they can be taken to remote locations (e.g., shotgun to the brain stem in the wilderness) and even protected with "Suicide Scene Ahead, Beware" signs for the truly insufferable empath. The drive-yourself-hanging (probably resulting in a decapitation and an auto crash) seems pretty easy, physically, to arrange, and might lead to some interesting sensations.

The classic desire is for a chemical that will "put one to sleep" (which is what we do to pets when they become inconvenient). I'm unaware of any substance legally obtained which will achieve this. Barbiturates (as are suggested by authors like Derek Humphry) work in combination with a bag if done right, but even these may have problems, as the Hemlock Society has made clear by its postscript advocation of pillows on the front flaps of the bags.

Guns and falls appear to be the most certain violent means. Get a shotgun and aim at the brain stem—even with a botched attempt, if you're far enough from civilized assistance you'll die from blood loss. Get atop a communications tower (higher than most buildings and far from pedestrians) and jump, and you're unlikely to survive it, especially if you rig piano wire to lop off your head at the outset.

Ideals

There are more risky and potentially pleasant means of ending one's life that could also require study and a careful preparation, if not participation, from others whose specialty is desirable.

Many find the ecstasy of orgasm is attractive as a last experience in their life. This could be combined with a pill or injection of some kind to be self-administered at a pre-determined moment so as to bring about cardiac arrest or collapse into unconsciousness at the end of an erotic fantasy funeral culminating in rapture and death.

It is this latter kind of intentional suicide (by whatever standards of the individual)—the kind which is exceedingly pleasing and enjoyable to the person who has chosen to die—rather than one which merely minimizes pain, that I am most interested in making possible.

A. Ingestion/Injection/Inhalation
Suicides through ingestion, injection, and inhalation all depend on similar factors as regards efficiency:

Person Effecting the Method

Body weight, age, physical condition, and skill in assessment of the necessary dosage—or substance to achieve the desired result—can vary tremendously. Heavier people may require greater quantities of lethal substances to bring them down. The elderly may be more prone to the snuff than the young and vibrant body. Ignorant and/or clumsy individuals may administer the wrong dosage, use the wrong delivery equipment or substance, and may generally botch the job. The sickly and terminally ill or immunologically-challenged may be more amenable to depressive and/or toxic termination.

Method of Delivery

Pills are one of the more simple methods available, though they are tightly controlled in some countries by government agencies. Raw herbs or roots may be readily available, though many of these will not bring the type of painless suicide so many seek out. Chemical injections can be quite effective, though again as with pills the chemicals may have to be manufactured oneself or procured through a black market source, and some degree of familiarity with needles and the cardiovascular system is an asset in this type of delivery. Possible sources of assistance where injections are concerned would be organizations or services which assist diabetics or homecare nursing. Inhalants which displace breathable oxygen have qualities such as pressure and temperature which cannot be overlooked, nor can their availability and quality.

Agent of Demise

Besides knowing what substance one is dealing with, or the proper dosage, an entire range of opportunity for error is raised when considering the probable effects, whether they will lead to death, and in what manner of experience. Substances well-known for suicide such as alcohol, or pills (such as valium), in conjunction with alcohol, are manufactured in varying strengths, often provided with numbers to indicate this strength. Pills are often prescribed by doctors who may not even know the actual lethal dosage, even in combination with other ingestables. Sometimes the dangers are exaggerated intentionally so as to make fewer suicide attempts actually result in success. Digestion can become disrupted by some substances and combinations, so that vomiting may prevent the demise, or may become the primary cause of death (choking on vomit incapable of being expelled due to a depression of bodily systems). Substances introduced can lead to serious debilitation without death, and the pain of some substances, even while leading to death, can become an inhibiting factor.

Suicide Disruption

Because some of these methods are time-dependent and may take awhile to come to fruition, there is also the chance of interruption by well-meaning but intrusive individuals who call in authorities who take life-saving actions, discontinue the administration of the agent in question, or otherwise end the termination process without the permission of the person who had intended suicide. Choosing a place and time conducive to privacy and uninterrupted suicide becomes integral to success, as does proper preparation in the face of equipment failure, the loss of potency of agents, and other unforeseen complications.

A. Poisons

a. Antifreeze
Ingestion of antifreeze has been discussed. Based on the following (from http://embbs.com/cr/alc/alc7.html, it appears that death by this method could be very unpleasant.

Ethylene Glycol

General

Ethylene glycol is a clear, colorless, odorless, viscous liquid with a sweet taste, that can produce dramatic toxicity. It is commonly found in homes and industry. It is found most commonly in antifreeze, automotive cooling systems, and hydraulic brake fluids. In an industrial setting it is used as a solvent or as the raw material for a variety of processes. Many cases of ethylene glycol poisoning results from accidental ingestion by children who can take in large amounts since the substance tastes good. Alcoholics may also ingest this substance as an ethanol substitute.

Pharmacology

Ethylene glycol is rapidly absorbed once it is ingested and is then widely distributed into body tissues. Peak blood levels are generally seen in one to four hours. Exposure to the skin and lungs may cause irritation but does not cause the systemic toxicity in the way that methanol does. Lethal quantities in adults are considered to be 100 ml, but in children much less may cause serious cardiac, renal, and CNS toxicity.

Ethylene glycol itself is relatively nontoxic. After absorption the unchanged compound undergoes glomerular filtration and passive reabsorption. It is then broken down into metabolites that are highly toxic and cause the associated findings of ethylene glycol toxicity. Ethylene glycol is converted to glycoaldehyde by alcohol dehydrogenase. This is the rate limiting step of a reaction in the liver that continues to breakdown the glycoaldehyde into glycolate, glyoxylate, and oxylate…

These metabolites inhibit oxidative phosphorylation, sulfhydrl-containing enzymes, and protein synthesis. Glycolic acid is the major cause of the metabolic acidosis that is seen in ethylene glycol toxicity, although glyoxylic acid also may contribute. Toxicity from ethylene glycol is produced from the above metabolites and the fact that they cause a severe acidosis, as well as from the fact that oxalate precipitates with calcium to produce widespread tissue injury in the kidney, brain, liver, blood vessels, and pericardium. Hypocalcemia may also result.

Clinical Presentation

The clinical presentation of ethylene glycol toxicity is generally divided into three fairly well-defined phases:

1. CNS Depression Phase
   The first phase occurs within 30 minutes to 12 hours. At this phase, the patient may appear intoxicated with nausea, vomiting, ataxia, absent reflexes, nystagmus, and myoclonic jerks but has no smell of alcohol. Coma and seizures (focal or generalized) may occur or there may be tetany if hypocalcemia is present. CNS depression may be from the ethylene glycol itself or from the metabolites. Abdominal pain, myalgias, and hematemesis may be present. Dilated pupils with loss of the light reflexes, papilledema, and blurred optic discs have been reported with ethylene glycol intoxication, but are much more common in methanol poisoning.
2. Cardiopulmonary Toxicity Phase
   This phase usually begins at 12-72 hours after ingestion. At this point mild hypertension, tachycardia, and tachypnea may be seen. If toxicity is severe this may progress to congestive heart failure, pulmonary edema, and pneumonitis. This phase is thought to be the result of calcium oxylate crystals within the vascular tree, lung parenchyma, and the myocardium.
3. Renal Toxicity Phase
   This phase occurs 24-72 hours after ingestion and consists of flank and abdominal pain with evidence of acute tubular necrosis that is manifest as oliguric renal failure.

While some patients may clearly manifest these classic phases of poisoning many people will not have such clear progression. Some patients will develop mild hypothermia with bradycardia and hypertension. Coma with cerebral edema, renal failure, and pancytopenia have also been described. In cases of ethylene glycol from child abuse the presenting signs were unexplained recurrent metabolic acidosis with severe vomiting. This diagnosis should be considered in children with a metabolic acidosis.

…

 >60 Minutes ran a story about antifreeze being mixed in
 >with some children's cough medicine, and killing them. Has anyone
 >heard of this as a suicide method? How quick would it
 >be? Would it burn? Perhaps it could be mixed? It is
 >supposed to taste quite sweet. Let me know your thoughts.
 >I've also heard of mixing bleach and amonia in a toilet
 >or bucket—the fumes can kill, I'm told. Any truth to this? Thanks.

Mixing bleach and amonia is toxic, but it would have to be inhaled as a very concentrated gas… I guess. I didn't die while using this mixture for cleaning, but somehow it caused a gold ring on my finger to break like glass. Antifreeze IS toxic when ingested, tastes sweet and doesn't burn your mouth or throat… lower orifices, however, may get tender.

b. Cyanide
 

Potassium Cyanide (KCN) Consumption
If you've got some potassium cyanide, or know where you can get some, then the following method may prove valuable (provided by Derek Humphry):

1. Take a small glass of cold tap water; do not use mineral water, nor any kind of juice or soda water, due to the acidity of such liquids.
2. Stir 1g (or 1.5g, at most) of potassium cyanide (KCN) into the water; using more than recommended will likely cause burning of the throat due to the acidity.
3. After about five minutes—this "waiting period" is important, as a chemical reaction needs to take place—the KCN will be dissolved and ready to drink (because it has turned into HCN). It remains drinkable for a period of several hours, but not much more than that.
4. Once the concoction is drunk, consciousness will be lost within a minute. There will be just time to rinse out the glass (to ensure that no one else accidentally drinks from it—however, one could just as easily put a big "Warning" label onto the glass, or throw it into a corner or a fireplace, if one doesn't want to take the time) and lie down. But beware—a person extremely weakened by illness might lose consciousness within twenty seconds.
5. While in the coma, death will follow in fifteen to forty-five minutes, depending on the physical strength of the person and whether the stomach is full or empty (an empty stomach promotes faster death).
6. During the coma period, the dying person will breathe heavily or snore, similarly to people who have taken a lethal dose of barbiturates.

[Hans] Atrott notes that with a person who is seriously terminally ill, death is so peaceful that often doctors do not detect suicide, and sign the death certificate as being from natural causes.

This is also the German Society for Humane Dying's recommended suicide method, as related by Derek Humphry. If anyone else has information we can add to it, please let me know as a followup to this post.

However, this is not the method which Humphry finally recommends, because he is concerned that cyanide might not be fast and painless enough, having heard a multitude of stories about its effects. He has a whole chapter on cyanide of various types and it is worthwhile reading.

No, his recommendation is directed toward those who have a terminal illness (who may be in a weakened condition and who may have built up a tolerance to one or more pain- killers). Without the assistance of a doctor, he recommends ingestion of Seconal (secobarbital) and/or Nembutal (pentobarbital) combined with a plastic bag over the head to ensure suffocation while comatose.

Humphry's focus on the digestive process is admirable, and he goes into some great detail about what should and should not be done prior to killing oneself via this method (Ibid., p. 110+).

Of particularly great importance when engaging in the overdose method (he says that alcohol increases the lethality of such substances by 50% and provides a good chart in the back which gives lethal doses of many pharmaceuticals) is the prior ingestion (an hour beforehand) of Dramamine to prevent nausea and vomitting of the pills. He notes also that one of the other problem of oral administration is that people will sometimes go to sleep prior to completing a lethal dose, and so suggests that one use alcohol to wash down a number of pills, or just a few while gobbling the rest very quickly in a pre-prepared pudding.

His recommendations about having a suicide note, Living Will, and Last Will and Testament are invaluable for those serious about ending their lives with grace.

I've mentioned before that the cyanide constituent in kernels of almonds, peaches, apples, cherries, and apricots is not free hydrogen-cyanide, which is a gas; rather, the compound is amygdalin. It is cyanide bound safely to benzaldehyde and glued shut with a couple of sugars. (For a picture, look in the Merck Index, or visit http://www.gov.sg/moh/mohiss/poison/pgamygdl.html.)

As long as the molecule remains intact, it is harmless. Strong acid should decompose the compound to release free HCN, but I was wondering whether stomach acid is strong enough. Turns out, it isn't. The neat thing about these plant seeds is that the compound is packaged within them separately from three enzymes that rapidly decompose amygdalin. So when the seed is thoroughly crushed under moist conditions, that is when HCN is released—an effective defense against insect predators. A biologist is studying how the enzymes are manufactured separately from amygdalin and compartmentalized into different tissues within black cherries…

Humans have bacteria in our gut that manufacture beta-glucosidase, and to a degree this enzyme can act to release HCN as well, but there are other enzymes and processes that can act to transform HCN to the harmless thiocyanate nearly as fast.

Amygdalin was given as a quack, heavily-promoted cancer treatment in the seventies. It was variously known as Laetrile, and even passed off as Vitamin B17, which ostensibly was a nutrient that would prevent one from getting cancer. Now, this was purified amygdalin, without the enzymes that would cause it to spontaneously break down, so people could ingest gram amounts daily without tremendous side-effects. (The theory was that cancer cells would possess more b-glucosidase than normal cells, so cyanide would selectively kill them over normal cells; but these ideas about the disparity or even presence of these enzymes was shown to be simply not true. And there were rigorous, double-blind studies that demonstrated no benefit to laetrile in the treatment of cancer.)

Lethal or near-lethal cyanide poisoning using laetrile would usually involve ingestion of gram amounts of the purified 'drug' along with a source of the hydrolyzing enzymes. In one case, a man ate a lot of bitter almonds one day. In another, a woman ate freshly crushed apricot pits with her laetrile pills.

Most of the poisonings (except in children) were nonlethal, and side-effects were severe and damage occasionally permament. Laetrile is still available in Mexico, and in fact I found a place on the web where one could apparently order some, but they have a screening process of sorts and depending on your location may not be able to deliver.

anonymous wrote:
 > but then if what you say is true, if we crush the seeds
 > and eat them, the enzymes within the seeds themselves
 > should activate to release the cyanic acid group.

Yep. In fact, if you eat the seeds, you will be releasing some HCN. I like eating apple seeds because the benzaldehyde that is released along with the HCN has a pleasing almondy taste. ([name omitted] suggested it is rather like Dr. Pepper, and I think that's so.)

Anyway, you'd want the seeds to be thoroughly crushed and moist, and would want to ingest them immediately. (Alternatively, you could find some way to harvest the gas.)

The issue here is quantity. How much would you have to cram into your stomach to get several grams of amygdalin? And it's possible, too, that the enzymes won't work as well once they're in the mildly acidic environment of the stomach. About that I'm not sure. But if it simply slowed=down hydrolysis, the poisoning would be time-released: excruciating, prolonged, and not necessarily effective.

So yes, certainly a possible method. But it would not be my choice, though; I wouldn't even consider it.

anonymous wrote:
 > Anyway, you'd want the seeds to be thoroughly crushed and
 > moist, and would want to ingest them immediately. (Alternatively, you could find some
 > way to harvest the gas.)

On that point, I imagine a contraption: an industrial-sized, airtight crushing device, where peach pits are compressed and mixed in a small amount of water, and maybe heated somewhat above room temperature. This is connected to tubing that bubbles through a solution of potassium hydroxide. When the pH of the solution becomes neutral, there are the same number of molecules KCN as there were KOH.

I was reading The Big Book of Death this morning (which I recommend), from Factoid Books, 1995, and in the chapter on Capital Punishment ("Capital Punishment, It's a Gas") a comic panel read:

Deadly gas is released when cyanide pellets are dropped into shallow pans of sulfuric acid mixed with water.

All in all, I'd suggest it may not be a very effective method of suicide (in the sense of "painless," at least). And yet, what is the comparative concentration of the "gas chamber pellet" to the crushed peach pit? What would the likely differences be between inhaling and ingestion, where death is concerned? Are there not "cyanide pills," used for quick-acting deaths among spies?

I just found this on a web page entitled Biology & Medicine:

What's the poison in apple pips?

Cyanide poisoning can occur if too many apple pips are eaten (about a cupful has been known to kill a man). Many fruit kernels (apricots, for example) contain cyanogenic glycosides, and without prolonged boiling, enzymes may release hydrocyanic acid and cause cyanide poisoning.

 > Hi! Could someone post information on cyanide? Namely, how to extract it
 > from apricot kernels, or where to locate information to that effect? Thank you!

Cyanide is found in pear seeds, as well, and is very simple to extract. All you have to do is get about 1/2-1 lb. of seeds, then dry them; after that, crush them into a powder, and mix said powder into your favorite juice, some mashed potatoes, et cetera.

(Old WWII recipe—don't ask.)

 >> I seem to remember that US pilots who flew over
 >> Russia way back during the Cold War were given
 >> cyanide capsules to kill themselves if captured by
 >> the Rousskis. Gary Powers, whose spy plane was shot
 >> down in the early 1960's (how time flies!), had one but
 >> passed up the privilege. Anyway, my point is, those
 >> capsules ought to be pretty useful. How does one get
 >> hold of them? Or something similar?
 >
 > Take up photography. Cyanide is a needed chemical in
 > certain film-processing techniques.

Or jewelry-making, since cyanide is apparently used to clean impurities from old gold (according to John Sandford's Secret Prey, 1998, in which the criminal steals a small bottle of the stuff from a jeweler—a good book, too, by the way).

 > I sure do know that you don't just run down to
 > your local chemical supply store and buy KCN.
 > Often KCN suppliers will only sell to an
 > established business with a bonafide need
 > (i.e., a jewelry store). If they suspect you
 > are not a legit business, they may even report
 > you. They even know what to look for when
 > dealing with a potentially suicidal person. So,
 > unless you know a sure-fire way to obtain the
 > KCN, its efficacy may, unfortunately, be
 > irrelevant.

I have to disagree. I bought 1 oz. of sodium cyanide from a chemical supply house in Oreagn back in 1995. All I had to do was sign a paper saying I wasn't going to do anything illegel with it and that I wasn't a minor. I could have bought potassium cyanide for a little bit more money. The stuff was dirt-cheap but it cost a fortune to ship it.

 >Hi, what happens if i drink alcohol before
 > drinking my cyanide solution?...

In the case of cyanide poisoning, I do not think that a small amount of alcohol would make much difference to the outcome....

I think that, for suicide purposes, sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide are fairly equivalent.

[Humphry's "Final Exit," above] is probably good advice....

However...

[previous Practical Guide to Suicide advice:]
 >...One tablespoon is enough, but take two.
 > Cool tap water is fine, but since it will be
 > your last drink, use something you like, such
 > as Kool Aid, lemonade, orange juice....

This advice ...contradicts Humphry's advice and should, I think, be ignored.

A tablespoon is 15ml. Two tablespoons are 30ml. Given that the density of sodium (or potassium) cyanide is about 1.5 this would be about 45 grams of cyanide and would burn the mouth and throat.

and later:
 > Sodium cyanide can kill in amounts as small as
 > 600 mg. It should work almost the same as
 > Potassium cyanide but i think the LD-50 is a
 > little higher for sodium cyanide.

In fact the ratoral LD50 for the potassium salt is usually given as 10 mg/kg and the sodium salt has a lower value: 6.4 mg/kg.

c. Potassium Chloride

 
  > …As far as my initial posting to this group
  > asking about injecting potassium chloride,
  > I've now just received my 20cc syringe w/needle
  > …so I think I've answered my basic question
  > of what kind to use.
  >
  > …saturated potassium chloride solution (31%)…
  > 20cc… my calculations… about 6.9 grams of
  > potassium chloride, which should be more than
  > sufficient…

I would like to quote the words of one who attempted suicide by this method. (The following was posted in early September, 1999.)

 >If you are going to inject something to kill
 >yourself, it better be insulin, morphine,
  >phenobarbital or heroin, otherwise it could
  >be incredibly painful and not lethal. Yesterday
  >I injected potassium chloride (50mg/kg) and
  >it wasn't lethal but it burned like hell, now I
  >have blisters, my arm is swollen and the pain is
  >beyond belief. I have been taking dozens of
  >pain-killers and valiums to ease the pain, by the way,
  >a valium OD won't kill you unless you take
  >1600 valium pills (the lethal dose). I just
  >found out that the lethal dose for potassium
  >chloride is 117mg/kg (that's a lot of potassium
  >chloride), but Kevorkian also uses sedatives
  >(barbiturates) and muscle relaxants before
  >injecting the potassium chloride, because it's
  >very painful and stings almost as if it was acid…

Snidely again. My response to Kryptonite7:

 Potassium chloride (KCl) is very similar to
 sodium chloride (NaCl) or common table salt.
 KCl looks, smells and tastes like table
 salt and is, in fact, used as a salt substitute.

If you've ever gotten salt in a skin wound (a
 cut or scrape) you know it stings like crazy.
 You exposed your vein (in effect, an open
 wound) to a lot of salt.

 As to lethal doses, well, 117mg/kg can,
 without question, be a lethal dose. But, under
 proper circumstances, as little as 18 mg/kg
 can be instantly lethal to a 75 kg (165 lb.) adult.
 The key is getting it into the bloodstream
 through a large vein (for instance, the one in
 your neck, chest or groin) very rapidly, without
 destroying that vein (the one in your arm
 just isn't big enough). This is something
 most people are not equipped to do at home.

 The injection of potassium chloride, while it may
 sound inviting (clean, quick), is just not
 a very good method for unassisted suicide.

 From: anonymous
 Subject: Re: Experience Regarding Suicide Attempts

Clomipramine/Potassium Chloride (KCl) overdose This would have certainly succeeded, had I not been found ten hours after the overdose.

I took 60 tablets of clomipramine 75mg each (a classic tricyclic antidepressant) and 50 tablets of Slow-K 600mg (potassium chloride). By the time they found me I was comatose hypothermic, in cardiac arrest but unfortunately they revived me. If you try this in an environment where you won't be found, it is a very pleasant way to go. The reason I had KCl was because I am bulemic and because of all the vomiting your blood potassium level will decrease. If you are not blessed with this eating disorder there is another way to get your potassium down. Start taking laxatives. You need to do this for a while and in the beginning it may be somewhat uncomfortable. Then go see your doctor and ask for a blood check up. If your K levels are below 3.2 he will prescribe potassium supplements. But you probably need the Clomipramine to go with it, so you should try acting depressed also. Since the docs know I overdosed on it they no longer give me harmful antidepressants, and thus it is no longer an option for me. My next try will be a heroin overdose. Hopefully I won't be able to tell you about it.

2. Depressants

a. "LD-50"/"MLD"
 

You might want to look at deleting entries, or at least posting non-lethality warnings, on things that are at clear variance with easily consulted chemical texts. There is a post from 1996 that you have with a so-called "minimum lethal dose;" first of all, people are seizing on this MLD as an accurate dose to use when it's likely a dose that killed someone who either was already chemically compromised in some way, or else was allergic; secondly, of course, people waking up on gurneys just isn't what I think CoE is aimed at. =>

The focus is on trying to figure out the dosage that is likely to kill just about anyone. The LD-50 is what is believed will kill 50% of people who take it (it's only tested on rats or mice, usually).

So, if the focus of this group was poison control, we'd probably refer to the LD-50 as a "deadly dose," because, to be on the safe side from the poison control point of view, someone who had taken the LD-50 should be brought to the emergency room immediately.

But, the focus here is on being sure of dying, and 50% is damn low odds considering the cost of failure. Thus, dosages quoted here are often several times the LD-50 (as toxicity often does not follow a straight line for that last 20% or so). Remember, these are dosages for people to die with, not the maximum "safe" dose to self-medicate with.

When I post LD-50 information, I add the following:

P.S.: "LD-50" means the amount of drug it took to kill 50% of the subject group, usually mice or rats. Doubling the dosage does not necessarily make it 100%. mg/kg means that for each kg that you weigh (Americans: 1 kg = 2.2 lb) you need that dose in mg; for example if it were 2mg/kg and you weighed 70kg you'd need 140 mg for the LD-50. Note too that doubling that amount does not ensure death. People vary. People take six times the lethal dose of something and manage somehow to survive because bodies differ.

Although LD-50 is the best measure available, it does not necessarily equate exactly to humans. Unfortunately, human data is not available because the FDA won't let drug companies take a pool of 1200 or so humans and feed them a drug until 600 are dead.

In the other direction of focus, however, LD-50 is a damn risky dose to take if you're not trying to die…

I grabbed this out of a book called The Prediction of Suicide, by some lame psychiatrists, but I thought this list was informative…

b. Alcohol
 

Alcohol via enema is, depending upon whom you ask, three to six times more potent than alcohol via mouth. Absorption is fast, and, as you point out, vomiting is not an effective recourse. Be careful in experimentation: start with something like one-sixth of what you would take via mouth, and try another dose only in a seperate session after fully recovering from a previous dose (at least twelve hours). Same for other drugs administered rectally that would normally be taken orally, such as caffeine, etc.

I gather that the short-term lethal effect of alcohol overdose is caused by oxygen deprivation as the body overworks trying to oxidize the alcohol. Likely to be quite uncomfortable, even given the slight anæsthetic effect. Also, hard alcohol would create an agonizing burning sensation in the lower intestine, which, along with the cramping, would obviously make one quite miserable while waiting for the effects. Note also that most people cannot easily hold even two quarts of comfortable warm salted water (osmosis-balanced), much less an irritating fluid, even with a bardex device (inflatable backflow prevention). [such as the Contiform vaginal plug manufactured by C.R. Bard or a medical anal plug such as those manufactured by Coloplast -- the Conveen Anal Plug, for example! -- boboroshi].

c. Heroin and other Controlled Substances
 

 >>Yummy. DH is a waste of time, get some street grade
 >>smack. Much nicer way to go, if you don't get the
 >>shit beat out of you procuring it.
 >
 > …My objective is not to get high, you idiot.
 >Also, the risk factors for procuring the smack are
 >too high. Death from street smack is uncertain.
 >Besides, I don't know where I would get it from.

Death from heroin is very certain if you inject enough of it, and—most importantly—are not "rescued." Parameds just give you a shot of [norcain?] and all effects of H disappear almost straight away. It can be purchased in any bigish city. Good dealers are quite used to transactions with professionals and "straight" people but are quite expensive.

Of course it is a controlled substance and you will be charged if caught by law enforcement so the risk factor is quite high.

In high doses it kills by turning off the brain, specifically the part of the brain that controls breathing. It's not like asphyxiation—your body doesn't cry out for air or anything like that—it just forgets that it needs to breathe and you just sorta "fade away." It lower doses it doesn't turn off the brain so far, just enough to make you forget external stimuli and the world.

 > I have on hand about 1 gram of codeine (actually is
 > 150 tablets of 375 mg acetylsalicylic acid with 8mg
 > Codeine.)

If you use the codeine, dissolve the tablets in 2ml water per tablet and pass the liquid through a coffee filter. Keep the liquid and throw away the aspirin.

 > According to info on a couple web pages, the
 > combination of codeine and dimenhydrate can induce
 > deep sedation. Is this reliable?

Only with a plastic bag. Codeine inhibits itself when taken orally so is not the best method to use. Combine the codeine and diphenhydramine with cyanide, preferably straight into your veins, and then it should hopefully be fairly painless.

 > I obtained quite a bit of Valium and Halcyon from
 > Mexico. I figured that's probably as good as I can do
 > since I can't get my hands on barbiturates. Benzos
 > are incredibly easy to get in Mexico (of course I
 > realize for some people that trip is out of the
 > question). I don't think they're too tough to get
 > from American docs either. as long as you're using
 > the bag, you don't need a big supply—just enough to
 > knock you out. If you can't get any benzos, then OTC
 > sleeping pills might still work. I guess
 > diphenhydramine would probably be the best of those.
 > And alcohol always helps with any of these drugs.

 >>>I've been contemplating taking my life by overdosing on drugs. I can get my
 >>>hands on a great quantity of "weed," but I don't think it'll kill me very
 >>>quickly, if at all. Anyone know a potent, powerful, relatively-cheap drug that
 >>>would not be to painful to overdose on? I think I may be able to get some
 >>>hallucinogenic mushrooms, which I believe would kill me, but I'm concerned about
 >>>how much that is going to cost me, since I don't have a great deal of money on
 >>>me at the moment.

 
 >> Weed will never kill you, except maybe via throat or lung cancer, but
 >> I don't think that's what you have in mind. Mushrooms would not be a
 >> good method either—the kind of quantities required, if they worked
 >> at all, would be so massive that you would probably not like the resulting
 >> trip, especially if you are inexperienced, which I believe you are.
 >> Your very best bet is to get ahold of two or three grams of heroin, learn how
 >> to cook it up, and shoot it into a vein in your arm. I believe that
 >> heroin is very pleasant, and death from a heroin overdose is generally
 >> accepted to be pretty marvelous.

 >My only question is where in the hell I am going to get heroin. I live in a
 >very, very small town in Virginia and there isn't a large city within two-hundred
 >miles or so, I don't have a car, and I don't plan on hitchhiking
 >that far, God damn it! Although I don't understand why "magic" mushrooms
 >wouldn't work. I have a friend who almost killed himself off four of those
 >mushrooms—or so he says, and I don't think of him as the type to lie. What about
 >cocaine?

It depends on the mushrooms in question. Some are pretty poisonous, but then so are many non-psychotropic species. Most 'shrooms sold as "magic" mushrooms are not likely to be overly poisonous. Perhaps your friend was picking his own? Have a look at http://www.erowid.org/ and http://www.lycaeum.org/ for more info. lycaeum.shroomery.org is also worth a look. I don't really understand how you are going to get coke if you can't get heroin. I wouldn't go the coke route, though, as it's not likely to be nearly as pleasant. Basically, you will die of a heart-attack, as far as I know. Why are you so intent on illegal drugs? It seems there are easier ways for you to go.

d. Barbiturates and Sleeping Pills
 From http://netvet.wustl.edu/org/awic/bib/avmaeuth.htm:

Barbituric Acid Derivatives [injected]
Barbiturates depress the central nervous system in descending order, beginning with the cerebral cortex, with unconsciousness progressing to anæsthesia. With an overdose, deep anæsthesia progresses to apnea, owing to depression of the respiratory center, which is followed by cardiac arrest.

Barbiturates have rapid onset of action… Desirable barbiturates are those that are potent, long-acting, stable in solution, and inexpensive. Sodium pentobarbital fits these criteria and is most widely used, although others such as secobarbital are acceptable.

A primary advantage of barbiturates is speed of action. This effect depends on the dose, concentration, and rate of injection. Barbiturates induce euthanasia smoothly, with minimal discomfort to the animal…

Intravenous injection is necessary for best results, necessitating trained personnel… Current federal drug regulations require strict accounting for the barbiturates and these must be used under the supervision of personnel registered with the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

 >>> Just curious, but how probable would a fatal OD
 >>> be if you took too many barbiturates or
 >>> benzodiazepines? Alcohol increases the
 >>> likelihood right?
 >
 > What about the Benzos? How much is required?

If you want to do it with any benzo shit, just one caution: if take them too slowly, there is a chance that you soon will be so out of it (as in, too stones) that you won't be able to get round to taking the rest. When I first tried to commit suicide it involved diazepam (Valium) and after a while I was floating high among the clouds and didn't remember a thing till I woke up in hospital next morning.

From what I read in the methods file, you'll need alcohol as well (I think).

I took a look at Final Exit, and, according to the author, benzos are pretty unreliable without the infamous plastic bag. The best way to go out with drugs is through a fast-acting barbituate such as Seconal or Nembutal. Phenobarbital is not as good because it is slow-acting. The only problem is that it is quite difficult to obtain a prescription for Seconal/Nembutal… docs aren't stupid.

 > Can anyone provide information on caffeine overdose
 > as a suicide method? The methods file says that a
 > dosage of 20 grams is required; easy to get from
 > wake-up pills. But it doesn't have any information
 > on time, certainty, unpleasantness etc. Is this
 > a good method?

I would think not. I've taken a few too many of those pills before, just for fun, and I ended up passing out in a puddle of my own vomit behind a movie theatre. I was drunk and high at the time too, but it was the caffeine that took me overboard; it was one of the more unpleasant things I've experienced physically.

The way I managed to get some barbiturates (seconal) was to call a psychiatrist and tell him that I was in the process of looking for work and and was unable to fall asleep the night before an interview due to extreme anxiety which would then lead to my blowing the interview. I had tried all of the milder tranquilizers without effect and so needed something really strong to knock me out on the night before an interview. That way the shrink didn't have to worry that I might become dependent on a barbiturate since I'd only be taking it intermittently and for a short term. I also told him that I had been prescribed seconal for a similar purpose before and had taken it very successfully for relief of short-term anxiety without any problems but the doctor who prescribed it had since moved his practice. The key to this approach is not to reveal any clues to your underlying suicidal ideation and present yourself as having no major psychological problems other than short-term situational anxiety. The first two shrinks I called with this approach were both willing to prescribe it to me. I don't plan to use my stash in the near future but felt a desperate need to have the option available if and when I choose use it.

…Some twelve years ago, I tried to off myself… I decided to OD on psychopharmakons.

I was fucking scared though, but reasoned that I could back out any time. Funny thing was, after swallowing some 20 of these, all fear vanished, and the only thing I felt was an immense joy to finally get over with it… and I quickly gulped down the rest of the 100 or so.

What I didn't realize was that you can literally swallow thousands of those without dying. Anyway, YMMV but I've found these pills (they were meant to fight depression and anxiety in the first place) extremely potent to overcome the