h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

People often say that if they were to commit suicide, they would do it with sleeping pills "because it is painless".

Can we be sure of this? If people can 'wake up' in the middle of operations and feel the pain of the operation but show no signs of being conscious, then surely for all we know commiting suicide with sleeping pills could be the most painful way to die?

Shooting in the head is quite tempting, but there's always the danger of just handicapping yourself to the point where you'd no longer be able to do anything, even choose to kill yourself.
I imagine jumping from a very high building headfirst onto concrete would be the quickest actual death, and also a very exhilarating last 5 seconds of life, but I think the very last moment of life before you actually expired would be very painful indeed.
The best thing to do is take a holiday instead, mate.
I've always thought slowly burning to death would probably be the most painful way to go, what do you reckon?

I'd like to take this opportunity to re-emphasise that one of the worst ways to commit suicide is a paracetamol overdose. It takes 24-48 hours to have any effect, and then slowly destroys the liver - apparently it's one of the worst ways to die.

Slightly off topic, but rather amusing (to me at least ).

I was on the bus one day with My Best Friend, and we were discussing suicide methods after seeing a business man on the bank of the river and arbitrarily deciding hew as going to off himself in the shallows. We'd just come off of the topic of drowning -

[TopHat]: I don't think I could drown myself, I'd be too much of a chicken. I'd rather do something that's supposed to be painless, like take a handfull of !Duck! pills...(I saw a ducky floating on the river. So cute!)

i think i would go sky diving and "forget" to pull open the parachute, this would be good because a) your would get the thrill of sky diving, b) wont have to worry about all these people telling u not to do it and c) if u cowered out and realized u wanted to live, u could always pull the cord.

Ive read somewhere that a few seconds before u hit the ground u have a heart attack and die

This is one I'd rather you hadn't revived SS. It comes up about every six months. There is NO foolproof,painless way of killing yourself.Even if you DO manage a heart attack before you go, what about the people who have to scrape you up?
See A829604 for the community's last thoughts on the subject

Physically there is, but mentally it is impossible, as you know you will be gone in a short time.

Pysiscally painless would be: stand next to a 10 Megaton hydrogen bomb. That is too fast to feel anything, except that you know it will be coming

I've just remembered an article I saw recently in the paper about a carpenter dude who rigged up an old-fashioned guillotine to an alarm that was timed to release at like 3 in the morning or something like that which seems like an alright way to finish it.
You would be asleep and peaceful, and yet the end would still be very swift. I just can't expel stories of how long your brain survives in pain after it's separated from your body. Whether it would feel pain or not would be very difficult to prove, but can anyone tell me who the scientist was who was condemned to beheading for...I don't know, probably being a heretic as he was a scientist, and told his assistant that he was going to blink his eyes a certain amount of times after his head was chopped off, then went ahead ( ) and did it?

bit of a depressing thread this

yeah, the bomb would definately be the best way, i think. if ever offered the choice, rather had the choice manditorily thrust upon me, that would be the one. Rather like that Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith, have a bomb go off in the room. And I think teh worst way is a Biblical one. One of the prophets, as I understand it, was placed in a hollow log and sawed in half fillet wise starting from the feet. EEWWWWW. Either that or prolonged torture. Either way, no fun to be had, though I rather suspect tath to be the point of the excersize.

Much in need of natural sleep,
TUUUYSCS,
Deuce

dirty dingo- I concurr. Suicide should not become a flipant topic of discussion,. Yes I'm getting heavy here. I attempted the "act" by takeing an overdose of sedatives (enhanced by a few glasses of Scotch) and the results weren't pretty. As a former skydiver, I haveknown what it's like when one's main chute doesn't open. Believe me, the instinct to live kicks in. I've talked to many divers who have thought of death by choice and whenever they have attempted it, the will to survive has kicked in at the last moment. Freefalling to the earth isn't as glamorous as it may seem.

i think i might find a hitman and tell him to kill me but dont tell him its me and tell him its someone i hate, then he would kill me and i would have to worry about paying him

I think you'll find most "hit" guys will demand payment before the hit.
Unless you know them very well.

or u could tell him that the guy had money left in his will for you or that he owes you money

I wasn't really wanting a "best way to kill yourself" discussion when I started this thread, I was just interested to know if you could be more conscious during a sleeping pill suicide attempt than seemed apparent.