alt.suicide.

holiday Methods FAQ

Hello, folks. This is the semi-famous alt.suicide.holiday Methods

File. It contains information on many different ways to take your own

life. Some of them are serious, some of them are not. Hopefully, you

can see which is which by yourself, but I'll try to mark them anyway.

This file will be posted on the third and seventeenth of every month.

It may take a while before it gets out to your site.

The early versions of this file were created and maintained by Michael

Marsden, who unfortunately no longer has access to the Net. After he

left, the File sort of hung in a Limbo for a long time, in custody of

a variety of people I can't remember (if you at some time or other

were a maintainer of the File, I'd like to hear from you). I think,

but am far from sure, that Angela Watson (a.k.a. Psycho Kitten) was

the last "official" maintainer, but I got the impression that she no

longer is.

Anyway, I have dictatorially taken over the custodianship of the File.

If you want to complain, my email address is [email protected].

Comments on the content of the file are welcome, generally speaking.

If your comments are of the kind "You shouldn't help people kill

themselves, you should help them towards a better life instead",

you're wasting your time. I've grown very tired of that debate, and

will most probably no longer reply to mail with that general content.

The most basic difference in opinion between me and those who have

mailed me telling me I'm a monster, seems to be that they think that

death is an inherently Bad Thing, while I don't.

 What follows is a not-so-slightly edited version of the last File

posted by Mike Marsden. The text's "I" is Mike, my comments will be

marked.

_________________________________________________________________

Part 1 - Preamble

NOTES

This list is compiled from a large number of sources, the main one

being this newsgroup (ASH). I have not named anyone in any of the

entries to ensure their privacy.

Calle: I, on the other hand, will name sources if (and only if) the

sources give me permission.

There may be inaccuracies in many of the entries... double check if

you can. Go to the library and read up on your favorite method - check

dosages in the manufacturer's data sheets. If you do notice any

inaccuracies, please write to the net ASAP.

LEGAL

This file is provided for the purposes of amusement, and the actual

use of any of these methods is not recommended without first

considering other possibilities, such as dying of old age. Please do

not pass it onto people whom you know to be actively suicidal.. you

may find yourself in jail for considerable periods. I have a small

amount of info on British law regarding assisting suicides; feel free

to ask me for a copy. Basically, distribution to a number of unknown

people is fine, but giving it to someone whom you know is actively

considering suicide can get you into jail for up to 14 years.

I should also point out that this file is distributed world-wide, and

there will be significant differences in the legal aspects in other

countries.

Calle: For example, in Sweden the distribution of this file is

completely legal, according to a lawyer I know. As long as you don't

physically help someone to commit suicide, you're safe. According to

the lawyer mentioned above, Dr. Kevorkian's suicide machine would

probably be legal in Sweden.

BIBLIOGRAPHY/SOURCES

* [1]"Final Exit: The Practicalities of Self-Deliverance and

Assisted Suicide for the Dying" Derek Humphry (publisher: Hemlock)

* [2]alt.suicide.holiday newsgroup on "usenet"

* [3]alt.med newsgroup on "usenet"

* [4]"Poisonous Plants and Fungi: an Illustrated Guide" (Ministry of

Agriculture, Fisheries and Foods) M R Cooper, A W Johnson

* [5]"Encyclopedia of Human Biology"

* "Let Me Die Before I Wake" Derek Humphry

* "Suicide, Mode d'Emploi" Claude Guillon, Yves Le Bonniec

* "Zorg jij dak ik niet meer wakker word?" Klazien Sybrandy, Rob

Bakker

* "How To Die With Dignity" George B Mair, EXIT (Scottish)

* "A Guide To Self-Deliverance" EXIT (Britain)

* "Autodeliverance" Michel L Landa

* "Justifiable Euthanasia" Pieter V Admiraal

* "First You Cry" Betty Rollin

* "Last Wish" Betty Rollin

* "Death of a Man" Lael Wertenberger

* "Jean's Way" Derek Humphry

* "The Savage God: A Study of Suicide" A Alvarez

* "Double Exit" Ann Wickett

* "Voluntary Euthanasia: A Comprehensive Bibliography" G Johnson

(Hemlock)

* "The Woman Said Yes" Jessamyn West

* "The Bell Jar" Sylvia Plath

* "Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products" Williams & Wilkins

Company

* "Suicide: The Gamble with Death" Gene & David Lester

* "Crisis Intervention in the Community" Richard K McGee

* "Wanting to Die" Anne Sexton

* "Bitter Fame" (bio about) Sylvia Plath (author is) Anne Stevenson

* "Letters Home" (bio about) Sylvia Plath (author is) Aurelia S

Plath

* "Raven: The Untold Story of the Rev. Jim Jones & his People"

Dutton

* "Essays in Self-Destruction" (ed) Edwin S Shneidman

* "Suicide: A Study in Sociology" Emile Durkheim

* "Suicide and Attempted Suicide" Erwin Stengel

* "Endangered Hope: Experiences in Psychiatric Aftercare Facilities"

David K Reynolds, Norman L Farberow

* "Death Wishes? The Understanding & Managment of Deliberate Self

Harm" H G Morgan

* "The Final Months: a Study of the Lives of 134 Persons who

Committed Suicide" Eli Robins

* "Suicide: Inside and Out" David K Reynolds, Normal L Farberow

* "Attempted Suicide: A Practical Guide to its Nature and

Management" Keith Hawton, Jose Catalan

* "The Negative Scream: A Story of Young People Who Took an

Overdose" Sally O'Brien

 * "Caring for the Suicidal" John Eldrid

* "The Samaritans: to help those tempted to suicide or despair" Chad

Varah

* "Mishima: A Biography" John Nathan

* "Self-Mutilation: Theory, Research, and Treatment" Barent W Walsh,

Paul M Rosen

* "Defeating Depression: a Guide for Depressed People and Their

Familes" C A H Watts

* "Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison" Dorothy Rowe

* "The Oxford Book of Death" D J Enright

This booklist is an extended list from [1]. I strongly recommend

[1], try getting it mail order from the address below.

Calle: Not used in the creation of this file, but recommended on

the newsgroup was:

* "The Enigma Of Suicide" by George Howe Colt

GROUPS

The National Hemlock Society [American, pro-euthanasia, many books,

PO Box 11830 D Humphry is founder]

Eugene, OR 97440-3900

USA

(503) 342-5748

Samaritans [British, suicide hotlines and

prevention, Chad Varah is founder.

non-interventionist approach]

Befrienders International [International, suicide prevention,

umbrella organisation]

The Voluntary Euthanasia Society [British, pro-euthanasia]

 (Formerly British EXIT)

Association pour le Droit de Mourir dans la Dignite

[French, pro-euthanasia]

Deutsche Gesellschaft Fur Humanes Sterben

[German, pro-euthanasia]

Club of Life [American, anti-euthanasia]

INDEX

TO BE CONSTRUCTED

_________________________________________________________________

Part 2 - Methods: Poisons

POISON [1] makes most of these points:

* Most drugs cause vomiting. To help stop this, take one or two

anti- histamine tablets (travel sickness, allergy, hayfever

tablets etc) about an hour before, on a fairly empty stomach.

* If the drugs are in tablet form, take the first 20% as they are,

and the rest crushed and dissolved / mixed in with strong alcohol

/ food. This helps the drugs to hit at the same time.

* Alcohol helps dissolve the drugs. Don't drink any beforehand, but

wash the tablets down with vodka or similar, and then drink

afterwards while you're still conscious.

* Use a large airtight plastic bag over your head, + something

around your neck to hold it on. This transforms a 90% certainty

method into a 99%...

* Friday night is a good time if you life alone - nobody will miss
 you until Monday if you work. Bolt all the doors you can. Say

you'll be out over the weekend visiting someone, so people don't

expect a reply to telephone.

* Some painkillers etc have less effect if you use them normally

(tolerance).

* In general, you need to stay away from medical help until you

actually die, but there are exceptions to this (that have been

pointed out in the text).

_________________________________________________________________

Common drugs:

Cyanide (HCN, KCN)

* Dosage: 50 mg Hydrogen Cyanide gas, 200-300 mg Cyanide salts

* Time: seconds for HC, minutes Cs (empty stomach) hours (full s)

* Available: very difficult to get hold of

* Certainty: very certain

* Notes: It helps to have an empty stomach (since the salts react

with the stomach acids to form H.C.). A full stomach can delay

death for up to four hours with the salts. Antidotes to cyanide

poisoning exist, but they have serious side effects. What you can

do, is instead of taking the salts directly, drop 500mg or so into

a strong acid, and inhale the fumes. This will be pure Hydrogen

Cyanide, and you should die in 10 to 20 seconds.

* [3]: "Hydrocyanic acid is one of the most poisonous substances

known; the inhalation of its fumes in high concentration will

cause almost immediate death. Hydrogen cyanide acts by preventing

the normal process of tissue oxidation and paralyzing the

respiratory center in the brain. Most of the accidental cases are

due to inhaling the fumes during a fumigating process. In the pure

 state it kills with great rapidity. Crystalline cyanides, such as

potassium or sodium cyanide are equally poisonous, since they

interact with the hydrochloric acid in the stomach to liberate

hydrocyanic acid. This poison has been used for both homicide and

suicide; in recent history, a number of European political figures

carried vials of cyanide salt for emergency self-destruction and

some used them. Death resulted from amounts of only a fraction of

a gram. A concentration of 1 part in 500 of hydrogen cyanide gas

is fatal. Allowable working concentration in most of the United

States is 20 ppm. Two and one-half grains of liquid acid has

killed. The acid acts fatally in about 15 minutes. The cyanide

salts kill in several hours. The average dose of solution is 0.1

cc.

* [1, DGHS talking about KCN]: on an empty stomach, take a small

glass of cold tap water. (Not mineral water nor any sort of juice

or soda water because of it's acidity). Stir 1 -> 1.5 grammes of

KCN into the water. More than that causes irritation to the

throat. Wait 5 minutes to dissolve. It should be drunk within

several hours. Consciousness will be lost in about a minute. Death

will follow 15 -> 45 minutes later.

Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid)

* Dosage: 20-30+ grammes (too many cause vomitting)

* Time: hours to days, variable

* Available: easy to get hold of (get soluble ones, & dissolve them)

* Certainty: unreliable

* Notes: Not recommended, fatal dose varies wildly, could cause

liver & kidney damage instead of death. OD causes strange noises

in your ears (like a video arcade) & projectile vomiting after

about 10 hours. Medical help generally effective, so stay out of

 hospital for a couple of days. May cause bleeding in your

stomach/upper intestines. Take with sodium bicarbinate (eg,

bicarb. of soda), which speeds up the absorption (sp?)

significantly. Take 1 or 2 antihistamine tablets.

Paracetamol (aka acetaminopren / tylenol)

* Dosage: 15+ grammes, 20+ is better

* Time: 10 hours fatal damage, but 2 weeks to actually die

* Available: easy to get hold of

* Certainty: fairly reliable

* Notes: Once 10-12 hours is up, you've had it, but you still live

for a week or two after that. Probably better to wait 15 hours

just to make sure. Horrible side effects during this time (some of

which are: acute toxic hepatitis, renal failure, cerebral oedema,

intra-abdominal bleeding, aspiration pneumonia, haemophilia). Too

small dose causes severe liver damage. Accidental deaths are very

common. There are few if any side effects before the damage

becomes fatal; occasionally vomitting and nausea.

Sleeping tablets (see specific notes for each kind)

* See later entries for amobarbital, butabarbital, diazepam,

flurazepam, glutethimide, chloral hydrate, hydromorphone,

meprobamate, methyprylon, meperidine (pethidine), methadone,

morphine, orphenadrine, phenobarbital [also check trade names in

same entries].

Alcohol (spirits preferably, your choice)

* Dosage: 1/2 litre vodka?, similar. Varies from person to person.

* Time: about 8 hours

* Available: good

* Certainty: unreliable

* Notes: will cause liver and kidney damage if 'rescued' before

death. Drink it all at the same time, quickly as possible. Dosage

is questionable, I don't have any figures. Taking the spirits as

an enema is supposed to be a very quick way of absorbing alcohol,

but a less unpleasant way is to inject it. The dosage it takes to

kill you depends on whether you drink normally, the state of your

liver, whether you pass out on your back or not.

* [3]: "The fatal dose of pure alcohol in an average adult is

300-400 mL (750-1000 mL of 40% alcohol) if consumed in less than

one hour. Apart from the effects of overdosage, death after

alcohol consumption can occur as a result of choking on vomit

while unconscious. ..... Consequences such as liver damage occur

after chronic consumption." Alcohol helps other drugs to dissolve.

Don't drink it in advance, wash down tablets with it, & follow by

drinking another few glasses of spirits.

Water

* Dosage: 14 litres mentioned

* Time: 12 hours or so?

* Available: always available

* Certainty: unknown

* Notes: works by washing out the salts in your body, until the

cells fail (osmotic balance buggered up). You need to keep

drinking continually until you collapse. Unusual method. Someone

suggested it would also cause cramps. The following is something

from [2]: "About a year ago a local newspaper carried a story

about a woman who had drunk herself to death. Apparently she had
 ingested something mildly poisonous, and when she called her

doctor asking him what to do, he told her to drink lots of water

and see him in the morning. She got to it and managed to drink no

less than 14 litres of water before the osmotic balance in her

body was so upset it could no longer function and she died (don't

know how quickly)".

* Calle: The above anecdote originally came from me, and the death

described occured in Vdxjv, Sweden. Unfortunately I no longer

remember which newspaper I saw it in.

* Recently, I was told about a similar case in San Antonio. It

supposedly happened a couple of years ago and was reported in the

local San Antonio Express/News.

Bleach and other corrosives (lye, drain cleaning fluids)

* Dosage: A bottle (litre or half litre)

* Time: Hours/days

* Available: Easily available

* Certainty: Uncertain

* Notes: Bloody painful - depends on your stomach getting corroded,

the stomach acids escaping, and doing their dirty work in your

vital organs.

* [1] says: "I have heard of people throwing themselves through

plate glass windows in their death agonies after drinking lye."

Insulin (injected)

* Dosage: No idea

* Time: death in hours to days

* Available: Difficult to get hold of unless you're a diabetic or a

vet
 * Certainty: reasonable

* Notes: Supposed to be quite pleasant (eg insulin shock treatments

used for some psychiatric condition).

Petrol (in lungs/injected)

* Dosage: "A Thimble-full" -20 ml?

* Time: Seconds/minutes

* Available: Common

* Certainty: I'm not sure of the dosage, but fairly certain if

correct

* Notes: Can also use LPG (propane/butane) on skin surface (since

these are light enough to go through the skin). Stick your hand in

a bucket of propane and see how many seconds you last...

Oil of Wintergreen/Methyl Salicylate (in lungs/injected)

* Dosage: Probably similar to petrol (20 ml)

* Time: Don't know

* Available: Not available in concentration

* Certainty: Don't know

* Notes: Don't have enough information on this one to be able to say

anything about it. If it is just taken normally, it is the same as

aspirin.

Malathion (insecticide) (entry revised by Calle)

* Dosage: A few bottles, at least

* Time: 2 to 3 hours

* Available: From a large garden centre or DIY shop

* Certainty: not so good

 * Notes: A correspondent mentions that the LD50 of this stuff is 1

g/kg in rats, and adds that there is not nearly that much in a

bottle. He also mentions that it is treatable. Instead of this, he

recommends parathion, if you really want to use an insecticide.

Phosphine gas from aluminium phosphide pesticide (ALP)

* Dosage: Single 3 gramme tablet (".. is enough to kill 10 people")

* Time: About 2 hours

* Available: Difficult. Used in India, sold on black market.

* Certainty: Without medical help, and using fresh pill, very good

* Notes: This is a common way of committing suicide in Indian

villages. There is no specific antidote to this. The pills are 3

grammes of ALP, which produces lethal phosphine gas when it comes

in contact with hydrochloric acid or water in the stomach. After

severe vomiting, the victim loses consciousness, the blood vessels

rupture, and body cavities fill with blood. While the pill is

exceedingly lethal, some escape death because the rate of the gas'

release declines with the pill's age and use, and exposure to

moisture. Trouble with this one is the availability, and it also

looks like a rather unpleasant.

Rat poison (Warfarin)

* Dosage: not known

* Time: Hours to terminal damage, days to actual death

* Available: Available

* Certainty: Certain given suffient dosage. Most probably treatable.

* Notes: This is one of the truly unpleasant poisons, along with

Paracetamol/Acetylminopren. I think it causes cerebral haemorage

(rat poison works by giving the unfortunate rat haemophillia).

 Doctors can't do anything about it, they just leave you to die in

agony on an intensive care ward.

* Calle: Since human haemophiliacs usually live quite ordinary

lives, the above sounds rather improbable.

Caffeine

* Dosage: 20 grammes (someone said 8 -> 10 grammes)

* Time: not known

* Available: Caffeine tablets available in Chemist shops

* Certainty: don't know

* Notes: I don't know very much about this. There isn't all that

much caffeine in coffee, maybe 200 mg.

Potassium Chloride (injected in solution) / KCl

* Dosage: not known (try 20cc injection of strong solution)

* Time: Seconds to minutes

* Available: Widely available

* Certainty: Certain given correct dosage

* Notes: Causes heart attack (which is painful). May be difficult

for coroner to realise it was suicide rather than a natural heart

attack. An excess of K+ in the blood interferes with nerve

signals, and stops muscles and nerves from working. So when it

reaches your heart, the heart stops.

Nitrogen gas (or other inert gas)

* Dosage: Several litres uncompressed is minimum

* Time: Minutes

* Available: Try plumber, or welding supplies company

 * Certainty: Certain

* Notes: This is really a form of asphyxiation, (see later), but is

particularly good since you don't experience the lack of oxygen

(what people really experience is the EXCESS of carbon dioxide).

Nitrous oxide (N20? NO2?)

* Dosage: Unknown

* Time: Minutes

* Available: Dentists supply would be good

* Certainty: reasonable

* Notes: Asphyxiate yourself with laughing gas. Nice.

Carbon Monoxide (CO)

* Dosage: 5% concentration or so?

* Time: Minutes to hours depending on concentration

* Available: You get it out of a car exhaust, you used to be able to

use "town gas" (eg, stick your head in the cooker) but this is no

longer available

* Certainty: Fairly certain, as long as you aren't "rescued"

* Notes: Causes brain damage.

* Calle: A correspondent from Denmark, where you still can use "town

gas" to kill yourself, says that even though it's possible it's

not a good idea. He tells of an incident where a family committed

suicide by turning on the gas and waiting. Apparently, the

heavier-than-air carbon monoxide leaked through the floor and

reached the people in the apartment below. Not nice.

* The actual cause of death is asphyxiation, since the carbon

monoxide binds tighter to haemoglobine than oxygen does (the

oxygen gets crowded out, so to speak).

Chlorine gas

* Dosage: not known

* Time: not known

* Available: tricky

* Certainty: Good

* Notes: This was used in the first world war in the trenches.

Probably very unpleasant, does something to the lungs.

Hydrazine

* Dosage: As produced by reaction

* Time: Not known, fortnight?

* Available: Bottle of bleach & bottle of ammonia

* Certainty: not known

* Notes: [2]: "This is no joke, D----. Several years ago at my high

school, one of the janitors innocently mixed together half a

bottle of bleach with half a bottle of of ammonia in a small

closet where the cleaning fluids were kept. He passed out due to

the hydrazine (not chlorine) gas released in the reaction between

the two chemicals. This man was in agony for two weeks in an

intensive care unit in a local hospital with the majority of the

inside surface of his lungs damaged and untreatable before he got

lucky and died."

Chloroform

* Dosage: not known, just put a splash onto a rag

* Time: several minutes probably

* Available: not known

 * Certainty: good

* Notes: If you tape the rag over your mouth so that you get knocked

out, you should die as you continue getting the stuff into your

lungs.

Digitalis (Foxglove, Digitalis Purpurea)

* Dosage: not known

* Time: not known

* Available: extract from foxgloves

* Certainty: bad due to vomiting

* Notes: [4]: Gives you a heart-attack. Symptoms: nausea, vomiting,

abdominal pain, diarrhoea, headache, and slow irregular pulse.

Also sometimes trembling, convulsions, delirium, and

hallucinations. Its difficult to take a fatal amount because

vomiting usually gets rid of it.

Yew (Taxus Baccata, the "English Yew")

* Dosage: not known

* Time: Can be very rapid (minutes), occasionally 3 or 4 days.

* Available: Grows wild in the UK, don't know about elsewhere.

* Certainty: not sure, but it sounds good if you eat enough

* Notes: [4]: All parts of the plant, _except_ for the fleshy red

bit of the fruit, contain poisons. The seeds are poisonous, so if

you eat the berries, chew them. Symptoms: nausea, abdominal pain,

coma, death. The mode of death is a heart attack which occurs

rapidly after eating sufficient. If no heart attack occurs, you'll

probably survive. Sometimes the sudden collapse leading to death

is preceded by lethargy, trembling, staggering, coldness, dilation

of the pupils, rapid pulse that becomes weak, and convulsions.

 Other species in this genus are said to be equally poisonous. See

"plants in general".

Mezerein, Daphnetoxin (Mezereon, AKA Daphne Mezereum, AKA D. Laureola)

* Dosage: "a few". Probably 10 or more.

* Time: not known

* Available: Garden plant. Seeds are particularly poisonous.

* Certainty: not known, dosage is questionable.

* Notes: [4]: The berries taste horrid, but you only need to eat a

few to cause death. Symptoms: burning sensation in mouth, nausea,

vomiting, stomach pains, diarrhoea, weakness, disorientation,

convulsions, followed by death. The seeds can be dried and stored

without affecting the poisons. Don't confuse this with laurels in

the Prunus genus, Rosacea family. See "plants in general".

Atropine (Atropa Belladonna AKA Deadly Nightshade. Also potato fruits)

* Dosage: 5 berries in young children.. maybe 30 in adults?

* Time: 6 to 24 hours

* Available: from fruits of some plants in the potato family.

* Certainty: unknown, particularly dosage is questionable

* Notes: [4]: AB also contains hyoscyamine and hyoscine

(scopolamine). Symptoms: dry mouth, flushed face, dilation of

pupils, rapid pulse. Possibly also breathing difficulties,

constipation, convulsions, hallucinations, and coma. AB is often

confused with other Nightshade species, which aren't as poisonous.

The berries are black in AB, and red in Woody Nightshade. In

addition, the flowers are larger (1.2 in) in the true Deadly

Nightshade. Present in unripe deadly nightshake fruits, fruits of

potato, and fruits of other members of this family (not tomato

 though!), but stick with AB. See the "plants in general" entry.

* Calle: A correspondent mentions that Jimsonweed will also do, and

that a specific antidote exists.

Oleander (Nerium Oleander. Poison similar to digitalis)

* Dosage: not known, but fairly small amounts.

* Time: unknown.

* Available: leaves, wood of the plant. From garden centres.

* Certainty: unknown.

* Notes: [4]: Deaths have been caused by using wood from this plant

in fires, and making tea from the leaves. In a few hours there is

abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, bloody diarrhoea, rapid pulse,

and visual effects. Later, a slow, weak, irregular pulse and fall

in blood pressure, followed by failure of heart. See the "plants

in general" entry.

Death-Cap / Destroying-Angel toadstool (Amanita Phalloides)

* Dosage: Fraction of one can kill, but eat 1 or 2 just in case.

* Time: Week or so

* Available: Have to know what it looks like.. similar edible ones

* Certainty: Definite without med. treatment; unknown with.

* Notes: [5, Volume 7, pp591-592]: "Poisoning by toxic Amanita

species is characterised by a delay in onset of 4 to 12 hours. At

this point, nausea vomiting, colic-like pain, and diarrhea occur.

There then follows a period of respite, which can last for two to

four days. This phase does NOT signify recovery: damage to the

liver and kidneys continues to develop and the respite gives way

to hepatic and renal failure. Death usually occurs a week or so

after poisoning.". See "plants in general".

Ricin (Castor oil plant, Ricinus Communis)

* Dosage: death has occured from eating 1 bean, but take more than

10

* Time: within 3 to 5 days

* Available: From eating the castor beans

* Certainty: depends on ricin content of the beans. Pure ricin is

deadly

* Notes: [2] and [4]: Symptoms begin within a few hours with

abdominal pain, vomiting and bloody diarrhoea for several days.

Decreased production of urine and a fall in blood pressure. Note

that people have survived eating more than 10 beans, *with

treatment*. Presumably the fatal dose without medical intervention

is less. Surviving more than 3 to 5 days usually means recovery.

Ricin is described as "..one of the most potent toxins known".

* In 1978 a Bulgarian journalist (Georgi Markov) was assassinated in

London by being prodded with an umbrella. The umbrella had a tiny

ball coated with ricin on its tip, which lodged into the

dissident. He died a few days later in hospital. See "plants in

general".

Colchicine (Acetyltrimethylcolchicinic acid, Autumn Crocus, Royal

Lily)

* Dosage: 7 mg to 60 mg (why so wide variation?)

* Time: symptoms in about 4 hours, death in about 4 days

* Available: Easily available (from large garden centre)

* Certainty: certain

* Notes: [New Scientist article:] From the Autumn crocus (Colchicum

Autumnale) / royal lily (Gloriosa Superba). One flower of CA is

 about 12 mg, so take at least five of them. 20g tuber of GS

provides 60mg, single seed of CA provides 3.5mg (so take 18).

Damages blood vessels and nerves, and stops cell division. Don't

know whether its painful or not, but that bit about damaging

nerves is worrying. I just _love_ the name of the acid! See See

the "plants in general" entry.

Aconitine (AKA Wolfsbane, Monkshood, aconitum napellus, a. anglicum)

* Dosage: "a few grams"

* Time: 10 mins to few hours

* Available: Garden plant, so get from garden centre

* Certainty: unknown (can be treated in hospital)

* Notes: [2] and [4]: The poison is concentrated in the unripe seed

pods and roots. During winter, the roots are particularly

poisonous. Symptoms develop in less than an hour. Burning

sensation, feelings of coldness, sweating. Later, numbness,

vomiting and diarrhoea with abdominal pain. Finally, slow pulse,

convulsions and coma. Death may occur within 2 hours. The poison

kills by causing a cardiac failure, and it is painful. See the

"plants in general" comment.

Cicutoxin (Cowbane, Cicuta Virosa)

* Dosage: ".. a few bites .. can cause serious poisoning or death".

* Time: a few hours or more.

* Available: rare in most parts of UK, don't know about elsewhere.

* Certainty: good, but resembles wild carrot & wild parsnip.

* Notes: [4]: The poison is strongest in the yellow juice of the

underground parts. Symptoms after half an hour: burning of mouth,

excessive saliva, flushing, nausea, vomiting, dizziness, dilation

 of pupils, and later a bluish tinge to the skin. Muscular

contractions and convulsions, with difficulties in breathing are

followed by unconsciousness and death, often within a few hours of

eating the plant. See "plants in general".

Coniine, Gamma-Coniceine, others (Hemlock, Conium Maculatum)

* Dosage: unknown

* Time: unknown

* Available: Grows throughout UK, except north. Don't know about

elsewhere.

* Certainty: unknown

* Notes: [4]: NOTE: There are many plants called "hemlock", some of

which aren't poisonous at all. It can also be mistaken for wild

parsley and carrot, and is in the same family as Cowbane. Symptoms

appear in 15 mins to 2 hours. Initially burning and dryness of the

mouth, muscular weakness leading to paralysis that affects the

breathing. Sometimes also dilation of pupils, vomiting, diarrhoea,

convulsions, and loss of consciousness. If this is survived, birth

defects may be caused in pregnant women.

* This is said to be the plant that Socrates took in 399 BC.

Oenanthetoxin (Hemlock Water Dropwort, Oenanthe Eroeata)

* Dosage: "..dangerously poisonous, even in small quantities".

* Time: Two to twelve hours.

* Available: Grows in chalky wet areas, particularly S and W

Britain.

* Certainty: Fairly good, if you get the right species.

* Notes: [4]: The tubers contain more poison than the rest of the

plant, particularly in winter and early spring, and may be cooked

 or dried. Symptoms within an hour or two, nausea, salivation,

vomiting, diarrhoea, sweating, weakness of legs, dilation of

pupils. Later loss of consciousness with convulsions before death.

See "plants in general" entry. Same family as Hemlock.

plants in general (hemlock, foxglove, oleander)

* Dosage: N/A

* Time: N/A

* Available: garden centre

* Certainty: questionable

* Notes: [1] says:

"Everything I have ever read about death from plant poisoning

indicates that it is risky and painful. Symptoms range from nausea

and vomiting to cramping and bloody diarrhea. .... .. Altogether, I

consider poisonous plants as a means of exit far too unreliable and

painful. No matter how desperate you are, don't even think about

it!"

Nicotine (Rewritten by Calle)

* Dosage: extract from 100g tabacco? 40-60 mg pure.

* Time: Several hours, coma may set in much earlier. Much quicker if

taken in large doses.

* Available: Easily available

* Certainty: Fairly certain, given a large enough dose.

* Notes: This is what Mike wrote:

"Soak 100 grammes of tabacco for a few days. You get a brown mess.

Strain off the tabacco, then simmer slowly until most of the liquid
 has gone, leaving about 2 teaspoons of brown treacle-like stuff.

Add it to your night-time drink, and never wake up. Someone said

the other day that 150mg of pure nicotine would be fatal in

seconds. See the "plants in general" entry."

* It is correct, as far as I have found out. It can be added that

the effects include violent convulsions and that the direct cause

of death is respiratory failure. Smokers should use larger doses

than non-smokers.

Iron (diet suppliments)

* Dosage: unknown

* Time: unknown

* Available: diet, health food shops

* Certainty: good

* Notes: [2]:

"Well it seems that iron pills achieve death. They oxydize in the

stomach and eat a hole in it. The only reason I know this is that

someone at my school just recently OD'd and died from this. It was

ruled suicide since no person could accidently take that many iron

pills. They didn't say how many she took or how many it takes to

kill yourself though." [sounds unpleasant]

Cocaine

* Dosage: 1 ounce (don't know what that is in real weights..)

* Time: 2 to 3 hours?

* Available: Difficult

* Certainty: not known

 * Notes: Read something in a newspaper... a coke dealer died after

eating an ounce of it, when the police raided his house. Cause of

death was a cardiac arrest 2 1/2 hours after the overdose.

However, a cocaine OD is painful, and causes paranoia / breathing

problems. One form of cocaine smuggling is to swallow condoms

filled with the stuff. From time to time, a "mule" has a condom

burst inside him, and dies in pain reasonably quickly.

LSD (Lysergic acid diethylamide) nonfatal

* Dosage: infinite!

* Time: never

* Available: who cares?

* Certainty: will not kill you

* Notes: LSD can't kill you by overdose.. you might go psychotic if

you take tens/hundreds of thousands of times the normal dose, but

thats hardly surprising, since you'd have to be insane to take

that much in the first place. General warning - even for normal

use, if you are depressed, it'll just amplify the depression, not

lift it, and the chances of a bad trip are probably higher.

Probably, the only way to kill yourself with this stuff is to drop

two tonnes of it on yourself.

* Calle: I don't quite believe in what Mike is saying about

psychosis here. As far as I have been able to find out, LSD works

by catalyzing certain substances in the brain, and thus vast

overdoses have no more effect than merely large ones. Once all the

stuff in your brain is used up, there will be no more effect.

* A correspondent points out a case reported by The Journal of

Clinical Toxicology where eight people snorted pure LSD Tartrate,

beliving that it was cocaine. The amounts ingested was estimated

to be from 1000 to 10000 times an ordinary dose. Half of them

 lapsed into comas, but all of them came out of it without any

treatment. Some were given Valium for anxiety efterwards.

* On the whole, it seems that LSD is about as safe as a drug can be,

despite much propaganda saying otherwise.

Heroin (morphine)

* Dosage: 120 to 500 mg in non-users.

* Time: unknown

* Available: From your friendly neighbourhood drug dealer.

* Certainty: unknown

* Notes: Combine it with alcohol, since a combination of alc & H is

much more dangerous than alc or H alone.

Rotenone

* Dosage: very low, similar to cyanide

* Time: depends on dosage

* Available: extremely difficult

* Certainty: probable

* Notes: Rotenone is used by microbiologists to kill potentially

dangerous bacteria cultures. It is extremely poisonous.

* Calle: A correspondent believes this entry to be erroneous, since

in the litterature he consulted rotenone was mentioned as being

used as an insecticide and not being all that toxic.

Mercury (salts, soluble)

* Dosage: 1 gramme of salts

* Time: unknown

* Available: unknown (what are the _soluble_ salts? how to make?)

 * Certainty: good

* Notes: Note that contrary to popular opinion, pure mercury metal

isn't all that poisonous. The soluble salts are, however. The "mad

hatter" story refers to brain damage that hat makers used to get

from using mercury salts.

Amobarbital (amytal, amal, eunoctal, etamyl, stadadorm)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 4.5 grammes, typically 90 50mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: very reliable

* Notes: use an airtight plastic bag, and a rubber band to get a

very effective method. Alcohol speeds it up and makes it more

reliable. Take an antihistamine about 10 minutes earlier. Empty

stomach. Dissolve most of them in drink / food, and eat the

remaining ones first so that it all peaks at the same time.

Butabarbital (secbutobarbitone, butisol, ethnor)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 3 grammes, typically 100 30mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: very reliable

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach.

Codeine (combo. with Aspirin: Empirin compound no. I -> IV)

 [this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 2.4 grammes, typically 80 30mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: reliable with plastic bag and rubber band

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it

will no longer be effective.

Diazepam (valium, apozepam, aliseum, ducene)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 500 milligrammes, typically 100 5mg tablets

* Time: N/A

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else

(alcohol?)

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. Valium is not effective by itself, but by mixing it

with other drugs or alcohol it makes it more certain.

Flurazepam (dalmane, dalmadorm, niotal)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 3 grammes, typically 100 30mg tablets

* Time: N/A

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it

with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain.
Gluthethimide (doriden, doridene, glimid)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 24 grammes, typically 48 500mg tablets

* Time: N/A

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it

with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain.

Chloral Hydrate (noctec, chloratex, somnox)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: >10+ grammes, typically 20+ 500mg tablets

* Time: N/A

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it

with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain.

Hydromorphone (dilaudid, pentagone)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 100 -> 200 milligrammes, typically 50 -> 100 2mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

 empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it

will no longer be effective.

Meprobamate (miltown, equanil)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 45 grammes, typically 112 400mg tablets

* Time: N/A

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it

with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain.

Methyprylon (noludar)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 15 grammes, typically 50 300mg tablets

* Time: N/A

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it

with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain.

Meperidine (pethidine, demerol, dolantin)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 3.6 grammes, typically 72 50mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

 * Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it

will no longer be effective.

Methadone (dolophine, adanon)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 300 milligrammes, typically 60 5mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it

will no longer be effective.

Morphine (in Brompton's mixtures)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 200 milligrammes, typically 14 15mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. People can become tolerant to this drug, and it

will no longer be effective.

Phenobarbital (luminal, gardenal, fenical)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 4.5 grammes, typically 150 30mg tablets

 * Time: N/A

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: unreliable, use in combination with something else

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. This is not effective by itself, but by mixing it

with other drugs or alcohol it makes the other drug more certain.

Secobarbital (quinalbarbitone, seconal, immenox, dormona, secogen,

....., seral, vesperax (combo with brallobarbital))

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 4.5 grammes, typically 45 100mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. [Vesperax is Humphry's favorite]

Propoxyphene (darvon, dolotard, abalgin, antalvic, depronal)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 2 grammes, typically 30 65mg tablets

* Time: death in an hour or so. Does not make you unconscious

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: suggest combine with something to make you sleep, then

use bag

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach. Since this one doesn't make you unconscious for a

long time, try combining with one that does, so you can use the

good old bag method.

 Pentobarbital (nembutal, carbrital only if in combo with

pentobarbital)

[this entry from [1]]

* Dosage: 3 grammes, typically 30 100mg tablets

* Time: unconscious in 5 -> 15 minutes, death in 20 -> 50 minutes

* Available: needs to be prescribed

* Certainty: very reliable with plastic bag and rubber band

* Notes: use bag & band. Alcohol as well as antihistamine on an

empty stomach.

_________________________________________________________________

Part 2 - Methods: Other than poisoning

HANGING

1. asphyxiation (dangle on end of rope for 10 minutes)

+ Time: 5 to 10 minutes

+ Available: Rope, solid support 10 foot above ground

+ Certainty: Fairly certain (discovery, rope/support snapping)

+ Notes: Brain damage likely if rescued. Very painful depending

on rope. Most common effective form of suicide in UK. See

"Asphyxiation".

2. breaking neck

+ Time: Should be instant if it does break. See previous if not

+ Available: Rope, solid support, 10 foot space below, several

above

+ Certainty: Very certain if the rope/support doesn't break

+ Notes: Minimal danger of discovery (depends on location).

Painless if you drop far enough (8 foot is optimum). Make

sure that the rope is tied securely to something STRONG!! It

has to support your weight MULTIPLIED by the deccelleration.

 Use a hangman's knot (with the knot at the back of your

neck). It doesn't always work this well though, you might get

a bust jaw / lacerations etc and then asphyxiate.

+ Calle: I got this table of appropriate falling heights from

a.s.h. long-time regular MegaZone ([email protected]), who

got it from a friend of his named Mark.

Hanging Drop Heights...

Culprits Weight Drop

14 stone (196 lbs) 8ft 0in

13.5 stone (189 lbs) 8ft 2in

13 stone (182 lbs) 8ft 4in

12.5 stone (175 lbs) 8ft 6in

12 stone (168 lbs) 8ft 8in

11.5 stone (161 lbs) 8ft 10in

11 stone (154 lbs) 9ft 0in

10.5 stone (147 lbs) 9ft 2in

10 stone (140 lbs) 9ft 4in

9.5 stone (133 lbs) 9ft 6in

9 stone (126 lbs) 9ft 8in

8.5 stone (119 lbs) 9ft 10in

8 stone (112 lbs) 10ft 0in

Source: Charles Duff, Handbook of Hanging

(Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint 1929)

+ Notes: This is for person of average build with no unusual

physical problems. The Author (James "Hangman" Barry) noted

that when executing "persons who had attempted suicide by

cutting their throats...to prevent reoping the wounds I have

reduced the drop by nearly half."

JUMPING OFF BUILDINGS

* Time: Instantanious if you are lucky, minutes/hours otherwise

* Available: You need ten stories or higher, and access to the top

floor windows/roof. Bring a bolt cutter to get onto the roof

* Certainty: 90% for 6 stories, increasing after that

* Notes: Difficult to overcome fear of heights, many people can't do

it. Totally painless if high enough, but very frightening. Easily

discovered if seen on/near roof/windows. Access fairly easy in a

city, otherwise difficult. Risk of spending the rest of your life

in a wheelchair. Ever tried killing yourself if you are paralysed

from the neck down? Email conversations suggest 10+ stories works

ALMOST all of the time. Try to land on concrete. Quote - "9 out of

10 people who fall 6 stories will die". Note that it may take a

while for many of those 90% to die.

SLITTING WRISTS OR OTHER (often not effective)

* Time: Minutes if major artery cut, eternity otherwise.

* Available: You really need a razor sharp knife. Razors are pretty

tricky to hold when they are covered with blood.

* Certainty: possible if you cut an artery, improbable otherwise

* Notes: Painful at first. Danger of discovery. This is a very

common suicide 'gesture' and hardly ever results in anything other

than a scar. A lot of will power required to cut deeply into groin

or carotid arteries, which are the only ones likely to kill you.

Don't bother with this method. Cutting your throat is difficult

due to the fact that the carotid arteries are protected by your

windpipe (feel where your arteries are with your fingertips, &

slice from the side). I've seen photos of people who have used

this method - the depth of the cut required is amazing. If you

want to cut your wrists, cut along the blue line (vein) on the

underside of your wrist, but cut deeply so that the artery

 underneath is exposed. Cut this lengthways with a razor or

similar. The traditional hot bath does help, since it keeps the

blood flowing quickly, slows down clotting, and is nice to lie

back and relax in. Position yourself so that your wrists don't

fall inwards against your body, blocking off blood flow.

* Calle: A posting to A.S.H. suggests using the kind of equipment

they use when you give blood to a blood bank, i.e., a needle in a

blood vessel and a piece of tubing. It sounds like it would remove

several of the disadvantages of the ordinary slitting-wrists

method.

BULLET

* Time: Microseconds unless you are unlucky (mins/hours)

* Available: Difficult in UK, easier in USA (get a shotgun)

* Certainty: Certain

* Notes: Painless if worked, otherwise painful & brain damage.

Danger of discovery of weapon or ammunition. Not at all common in

UK, more common in USA where guns available. Brain damage & other

effects if you survive. Death either instantaneous, or prolonged.

Lots of will power needed to fire gun ('hesitation marks' are

bullets/pellets embedded in the wall, when you jerk the gun as you

fire). Bullet can miss vital parts in skull, deflect off skull. If

you have a choice, use a shotgun rather than a rifle of a pistol,

since it is so much more effective. ("shotgun" entry later).

Ammunition to use is: .458 Winchester Magnum, or soft-point slugs

with .44 Magnum. Also you could use a sabot round, which is a

plastic wedge with a smaller thing in it. These rounds are rather

overkill, the phrase "elephant gun" has been used about the .458

Winchester, but if you're going to go, do it with a bang. Note,

people usually survive single .22 shots to the temples. The other

problem with guns is that is is bloody messy. Your next of kin

 will really _enjoy_ cleaning up after you, washing the coagulated

blood & brains out of corners etc...

ASPHYXIATION

* Time: 5 mins to unconciousness, 10+ mins to brain death

* Available: Anywhere there's a rope and something solid to tie it

to

* Certainty: Certain, if you don't get "rescued"

* Notes: Panic reaction is very likely (unless inert gasses used).

One of the most effective and most used methods of suicide.

Probable brain damage if you are "rescued".

* NOTE, this can only really be done in two ways: firstly, when you

are unconsious (eg, sleeping pills), or secondly, by hanging.

Combining with pure inert gasses is a very good suggestion. See

"Nitrogen" in the poisons section

AIR IN VEINS (basically just a myth)

* Time: Couple of minutes claimed

* Available: Plenty of air about... Need a hypodermic & syringe

* Certainty: only 1 known case.. patient may already have been dead

* Notes: The only case I know about, it killed with 40cc of air.

Smaller amounts are harmless. The case was the death of Abbie

Borroto, who died in 1950 from a 40cc injection in New Hampshire.

She died in minutes. This was the 1949 Dr H Sander case. He was

found not guilty to murder on the grounds that the patient may

already have been dead when he gave the injection. (A doctor and a

nurse could find no pulse earlier the same day).

* The following 2 quotes are from [1]: Prof. Y Kenis says:

"... not a suitable method, nor a gentle death... extremely

difficult to utilize as a method of suicide. .. possibly with very

serious consequences, such as paralysis or permanent brain damage.

.. this is only an impression, and I have no real scientific

information on the subject."

Dr Pieter V Admiraal .. describes the theoretical air bubble

method of suicide as impossible, disagreeable and cruel.

"To kill somebody with air you would have to inject at least 100 ->

200 millilitres as quickly as possible in a vein as big as possible

close to the heart. You would have to fill the whole heart with air

at once. The heart would probably beat on for several minutes,

perhaps 5 -> 15 minutes, and during the first minutes the person

may be conscious."

DECAPITATION

* Time: Couple of seconds before conciousness fades

* Available: Happen to have a train line nearby? Or a guillotine

perhaps?

* Certainty: Very certain, unless you pull away just before

* Notes: See "jumping in front of trains". May be difficult to stop

pulling your head out of the way - OD on sleeping tablets first

* Calle: A news notice from California posted to alt.suicide.holiday

tells the story of a man who comitted suicide nearly cut his own

head off with a chainsaw. Sounds like a grisly way to do it.

DISEMBOWELMENT (aka seppuku/hara kiri)

* Time: Minutes

* Available: Got a nice razor-sharp sword?

* Certainty: Fairly certain, assuming that you managed to gut

yourself properly before passing out with the agony

* Notes: Painful, even the macho Samurai used a 'second' to

 decapitate them at the appropriate point, so don't expect to do

much more than give yourself peritonitis. Trendy for insane

martial arts fanatics and gay Japanese poets called Mishima.

DROWNING

* Time: Minutes (5 mins to die of drowning, 20 to die of

hypothermia)

* Available: Anywhere there's deep, (cold) water in a remote spot

* Certainty: Good, just make sure you sink & can't swim

* Notes: Put stones in your pockets, tie your legs & hands together,

and hop into the lake.. bit of a shock to the fisherman who finds

your rotting corpse stuck in his brand new net. Also see entry for

"hypothermia/freezing". However, remember that you can be revived

from cold water drowning after several hours, because the cold

slows down terminal brain damage. Warmer water doesn't have the

advantage of hypothermia, but is more effective in making sure you

*stay* dead.

ELECTROCUTION

* Time: Seconds / minutes

* Available: Anywhere with high-tension, high-current lines & a good

earth

* Certainty: Somewhat dependant on luck & how much power goes

through you

* Notes: Don't bother with 110 or 240 volt mains, its just not

enough. Some people do get killed with household electricity, but

only after several minutes. Use high tension lines, stand in bare

feet on waterlogged ground (better still, put a piece of THICK

copper cable into the nearest river). Works best if current path

travels through your head, or through the heart. Just burns you

badly otherwise.
* NOTE: people have survived massive high-voltage, high-current

shocks with nothing but 3rd degree burns to show for it. Sometimes

paralysis, limbs amputated etc.

EXPLOSIVES

* Time: 10 milliseconds, or similar (!)

* Available: Difficult to get hold of detonator & good explosives

* Certainty: Certain if detonator works properly

* Notes: DON'T USE GUNPOWDER or other 'slow' explosives (eg,

homemade explosives). Use dynamite or 'Plastique', strap it to

your forehead with the detonator, and BOOM! The main problem is

with getting hold of high explosives (I know the recipe for

Nitro-Glycerine, but home manufacture is extremely risky, and the

product is unstable). If you can get a grenade, use it, it's

probably the best way of doing this one.

* Calle: Recipies for creating explosives can be found, together

with the appropriate warnings, in the rec.pyrotechnics FAQ.

FREEZING TO DEATH (hypothermia)

* Time: several hours (15 minutes in very cold water)

* Available: Got a large chest freezer? Is the outside temp < -10

degrees?

* Certainty: good if you don't get found

* Notes: Soak your cloths in water, get into freezer / outside

somewhere where you won't be found. Helps to get pissed first -

drink yourself silly. If you are near a very cold supply of water

(eg, the North Sea, or similar) which is close to zero degrees,

this is particularly good, since the average lifespan of someone

in the water is 15 minutes.

* [1] says:
".. have quietly ascended their favorite mountain late in the day

.. above the freezing line.. wearing light clothing, they sat down

in a secluded spot to await the end. Some have said that they

intended to take a tranquilizer to hasten the sleep of death. From

what we know of hypothermia, they would pass out as the cold

reached a certain level and they would die within a few hours. Of

course in a very cold climate there is no need to climb a

mountain."

[eg, UK in midwinter :-). There was a death in the middle of the

city park here just this last winter ('90) where a lady stripped

after the park closed for the night.] A problem with this method

is that because it slows the metabolism, and prevents damage to

the brain, people can be revived several hours after 'death'

occasionally.

JUMPING IN FRONT OF TRAINS

* Time: Seconds (or hours if unlucky)

* Available: Anywhere near a HIGH-SPEED railway line

* Certainty: Depends on your timing & speed of train. Go for

decapitation

* Notes: Probably better to put your neck on the line, since a

glancing blow would probably break your spine (& cripple you).

High speed trains need a kilometer to stop, so find a blind

corner.

SELF-IMMOLATION

* Time: Seconds to days

* Available: Anywhere you can get petrol & a match

* Certainty: good as long as you are far away from medical help

* Notes: bloody painful - one of the most agonising ways to die. If

 you do survive, you will be disfigured for the rest of your life.

* Try mixing the petrol with an explosive like TNT or NG, this will

make it burn MUCH quicker, even if the explosive is very dilute.

STARVING TO DEATH

* Time: 40 days give or take. Depends on health.

* Available: Anywhere where you can't be force-fed

* Certainty: Good as long as no medical help & will power holds up

* Notes: Supposed to be easier after the first couple of days, since

your appetite goes. In a UK prison, you can't be force-fed unless

you give permission first, or are diagnosed insane, but I don't

know whether this is the same in other countries. Beware -

relatives might give permission on your behalf if you are

unconsious. (living will / durable power of attorney helps). It

may help if you use an appetite suppressant. Amphetamines, and

some drugs (MDMA, AKA XTC, AKA ecstasy, AKA

metheylenedimethoxymethamphetamine is one such). The problem with

these is that they are frequently illegal. I've also heard of

something called Aminorex (4-methylaminorex) which was briefly

prescribed as an appetite suppressant, but taken off the market

since it had fatal side effects... which is hardly a problem!!

* [1] says:

".. after approximately 20 % of body weight loss, illness will

begin to set in, notably severe indigestion, muscle weakness, and

_worst of all_ mental incapacity. ... about 40 days before life is

seriously theatened. ...."

"In some cases self-starvation can be very painful. ... morphene

had to be administered to kill the pain of fatal dehydration. .."

DRIVING INTO BRIDGE SUPPORT AT 100 MPH

* Time: Hopefully instantanious

* Available: Fast car, motorway, unprotected bridge....

* Certainty: So-so, put a couple of cans of petrol on the passenger

seat to make it certain, & USE YOUR SEATBELT

* Notes: Bridges are usually protected in the UK, don't know about

USA. Avoid being thrown out of the car by using the seatbelt, and

put petrol (in cans or just splashed about) near to the driver's

seat just to make certain. Can be made to look accidental.

SHOTGUN

* Time: Instantanious if you are lucky

* Available: Difficult in UK, easier in USA (due to gun laws)

* Certainty: Fairly certain

* Notes: 12-gauge shotgun with 3 inch Magnum shells with #2 to #000

buckshot. See "Bullet" for other points. This is the recommended

way to die by firearm. Apparently the shells suggested here are

"extreme overkill", but thats the point really... problem here is

that its amazingly messy - who is going to pick the festering

lumps of gore out of the carpet? Another problem is that it is

possible to miss your brain entirely, and just blow off your face

instead.

ENLIST (silly)

* Time: Jan 15 '91 or other conflict

* Available: Just pop down to the local army office & sign on as a

squaddie

* Certainty: Be a "hero". Life expectancy in a battle is 20 minutes

* Notes: I don't think this is an entirely serious suggestion,

particularly since only 10% ever see the front line, and only a

few of those ever see combat.

* Calle: You could always get employed as a mercenary. That way

you'll at least see combat, improving your chances to die vastly.

Still, a silly method.

PENCILS UP YOUR NOSE, BANG DOWN ONTO TABLE (urban legend?)

* Time: Seconds or never

* Available: All you need is a couple of sharp pencils and a table

* Certainty: Very uncertain

* Notes: This is a myth, I think, since the pencils would go into

your frontal lobes, which are basically optional. This is the

legendary "exam suicide". Fine if you want a DIY frontal- lobotomy

rather than death!

* Calle: This is an urban legend, see the alt.folklore.urban FAQ for

more details.

GETTING SOMEONE TO MURDER YOU

* Time: Depends on method used

* Available: Know any murderous psychopaths? No, not the tax

people...

* Certainty: Depends on method used, & dedication of murderer

* Notes: Forget it. Unless you contract someone to do it, the

chances are that you are going to wake up in hospital without your

wallet. If you do contract someone, how are you going to pay them?

Can't take them to court for running off with your money and not

doing the job.

MAKE YOURSELF INTO AN H-BOMB (another silly one)

* Time: Speed of light over 1/2 metre (couple of nanoseconds)

* Available: Nuke (fission OR fusion), 10 litres of heavy water

* Certainty: 100%

* Notes: Drink the heavy water for several days, strap yourself to
 the nuke, and press the button. If you retained a couple of litres

of the heavy water, the additional yield should be 6 megajoules

(give or take a few orders of magnitude). Note that heavy water is

a poison, so you might not survive that long anyway.

* Calle: If I remember my physics correctly, there will be no

reaction in your body no matter how much heavy water you have

ingested. Not that it matters if you're sitting on an exploding

hydrogen bomb!

MICROMACHINES/NANOCOMPUTERS (science fiction)

* Time: years or a fraction of a second - depends how you look at it

* Available: in 50 -> 1000 years time?

* Certainty: Good assuming that the technology is developed

* Notes: Basically, this involves a 'replicator' panel. You program

it to replicate yourself, simplifying very slightly, with the

exception of the urge to use this technique. After a while, you

turn into a mindless zombie, trudging around from the exit of the

machine to the entrance, for eternity. Strange philosophical

implications.

* Calle: If you postulate nanomachines, why not use the

deconstructor kind? Take your body apart into its component

molecules in less than a minute... A silly method, if you hadn't

guessed.

SCUBA-DIVING (various fatal 'accidents')

* Time: see notes -most are minutes/hours

* Available: scuba diving gear, nobody around

* Certainty: see notes

* Notes: The first method is to rise 30 metres or so without

releasing your breath. Assuming that you can do it, it should

cause your lungs to burst. The second is the bends - stay under
 long enough for the nitrogen to dissolve (30 metres for 30

minutes). go up rapidly without decompression time. This is

unreliable, and may cause brain / joint damage. The third way is

Carbon Monoxide poisoning - fill your tank with it, and stay away

from other divers. You will fall asleep fairly quickly. See CO in

poisons section. The final way is oxygen poisoning - however, this

means that you have to go very deep with an oxygen-rich mix, and

there are problems associated with that. The advantage of these

methods is that insurance companies / relatives will assume that

it was an accident ('misadventure'), with the possible exception

of the CO poisoning.

* The source of this follows: (from the net)

"Rising 30m without exhaling will usually result in an over

pressured lung, possible subcuteaneous emphazema, collapsed lung,

death usually from drowning in your own blood. Rather painful and

usually curable if you are rescued, but fair chance of dying if you

aren't. Building up a high residual nitrogen time (say 30m for 30

min) then coming up without decompressing will get you bent fairly

nicely. You don't feel much, but your joints tend to start

stiffening up after half an hour. Death is very uncertain, coming

from a stroke. Brain damage, joint damage etc are most likely.

Pobably can be recued but some damage certain. Oxygen poisoning,

going down 50+m until the partial pressure of the oxygen reaches a

toxic level. Difficult to accomplish, very painful to get down that

deep, cold pressure etc, possibility of nitrogen narcosis and

forgetting what you are doing. Probably get bent, good chance of

rescue. CO poisoning, mix a healthy batch of carbon monoxide in

your tank as you dive, you tend to go to sleep under water, when

combined with the above methods you have a pretty good winner,

don't forget to forget your BCD."

SUCKING YOUR BRAINS OUT (silly)

* Time: Minutes

* Available: You'd need a Puma (TM) robot, & some other bits

* Certainty: certain, given proper programming

* Notes: You would need an industrial robot to do this properly.

Give it a saw attachment, a sucking tube attachment, and program

it. Make a head restraint. When you are fixed securely into the

restraint, start the robot's program. It will drill a hole in your

head, and stick the tube into the hole. Program it to wiggle the

tube back and forth so that it doesn't miss anything. This might

work better if you put a stream of water into the hole as well, so

that the sucking attachment doesn't just suck air all the time.

Debugging the program could be amusing.

MICROWAVES

* Time: ?

* Available: Source of strong microwave emissions

* Certainty: ?

* Notes: Cooking yourself. Point is to raise your core body

temperature to fatal levels.

* Calle: Does anyone have any information on this? All that I know

is that standing in front of a Swedish coast surveillance radar

(which happens to use exactly the same wavelength as your average

microwave oven) is a Bad Thing.

DEHYDRATION

* Time: a week or so?

* Available: you need to be able to stop medical help.

* Certainty: certain if your will-power stands up to it.

* Notes: Don't eat or drink. Remember that food contains a high

 proportion of water. Avoiding medical help can be difficult. See

'starving to death'.

SKYDIVING 'ACCIDENT'

* Time: pretty damn quick.

* Available: need to join a skydiving club. Takes much time and

money.

* Certainty: Fairly certain. People have fallen from extreme heights

and survived. The resulting injuries are not fun.

* Notes: Join a skydiving club, continue to practise it for a while

to clear off all suspicions and then once pack your parachute in a

real mess (preferably knotted up, but not too clearly) and then

jump. The para will not open and you will reach a terminal

velocity of 220 km/h (160 mph/120 kn). Death is instant in the

impact with the Planet Earth.

* This has the advantages of being 'accidental', and your family/

friends do not have the additional pain and guilt associated with

suicides.

* Calle: In addition to the above, you need to remove or disable

your reserve parachute (which is not easy, I'm told). There are

better "accidental" methods than this.

* A correspondent who is a skydiver dislikes this entry, since if

people use it it will give skydiving an undeservedly bad

reputation.

DEATH BY A THOUSAND CUTS; MODERN VERSION (silly)

* Time: variable

* Available: a heck of a lot of razor-wire.. maybe a high-voltage

supply

* Certainty: not very good

* Notes: This is a modern variant of the Arabic 'Death of a thousand

 cuts'. Basically, jump onto a stack of unravelled razor wire, and

roll around till you die.. it may help to connect a high- voltage,

low current power supply to the wire, so that you have spasms,

which should keep you getting cut even when you are unconscious.

Also, you should make sure that you can't roll off the wire.

CRUSHING

* Time: seconds to minutes, depends on car press

* Available: a car press.. any good junkyard

* Certainty: certain as long as you can't escape

* Notes: This is an elegantly simple one.. get into a car, in a car

press, and shortly afterwards be squashed to death as your body is

converted into a red pulp. It may be tricky getting the press to

trigger, but if you hide in the car someone may come along and

activate it. There are other ways of getting crushed, this just

happens to be the most effective I can think up on the spur of the

moment. Getting yourself run over by a fully loaded articulated

lorry is quite good. You should remember that people quite often

survive the actual crushing; they die when the weight is taken OFF

them.

WORLD WAR THREE

* Time: moments if you are near a militarilly significant site

* Available: happen to be one of the 'key-holders'? president maybe?

* Certainty: pretty certain

* Notes: All you have to do is trigger world war three. Fire an ICBM

or three at the Chinese and the Russians... This method has the

advantage that you take everyone else with you! Trouble is, the

number of people with the requisite access is minimal, and I sort

of doubt that any readers of ASH can do this.

* Calle: Lots harder since the collapse of the Soviet Union...

 Silly.

HEATSTROKE

* Time: 4 hours or more

* Available: Very hot day; no disturbance from neighbours etc

* Certainty: depends on the weather

* Notes: Basically, the point is to give yourself extreme

heatstroke. You should pass out after a few hours. Use some

aluminium foil to direct the sun's heat onto you, to speed up the

process a bit. Try to reduce the chance of being interuppted, take

off the phone etc. Obviously, start in the morning! Helps if the

outside temperature is >100F.

ACID BATH

* Time: depends on acid

* Available: a lot of a very strong acid

* Certainty: fairly good

* Notes: [from alt.suicide.holiday]

"summer heat got you down? Try the new and improved neighbourhood

acid bath. Most metal working plants and some auto-repair shops

will have a nice soothing acid bath. This, of course, is for those

of you who enjoy extreme pain and don't want to make a mess for

others to clean up. If you don't leave a note chances are they will

never know what happened, aside from the shop / plant being broken

into."

FAKE CAR BOMB

* Time: milliseconds

* Available: explosive

* Certainty: fairly good if enough explosive

 * Notes: This is a modification of the basic use-explosives method.

What you do, is make a homemade car bomb, and drive off happily

after chatting with your neighbour about how well your life is

going, apart from a few minor death-threats from an Iraqi

death-squad.. To confuse the authorities even more, have a note in

your pocket listing the telephone numbers of all the eastern

foreign embassies in your pocket, together with a little line of

random "code numbers" next to each.., and a random but large

amount of cash listed against each code number. :-) Oh yes, and a

heavily annotated copy of Jane's Defence Weekly - Xhosa edition.

JUMPING OFF BRIDGES (slice and dice with piano wire)

* Time: 9.87 ms-2; 4 to 10 meters; calculate it yourself!

* Available: Rope, pianowire and a high bridge.

* Certainty: Fairly certain

* Notes: Never been tried. Can also be used with a fairly high

building, but then the art-motive will disappear.

* Cut the rope and wire in various lengths. Each length must not be

longer than the height of the bridge. Tie one end of the ropes and

wires to the bridge Tie the other part of the ropes to different

bodyparts like thigh, calves, torso etc. Then tie the pianowires

around your joints. (Don't forget your genitals..) When you jump

various parts of you body are whipped away by the pianowire

nooses, and your bits are held up by the ropes swaying in the

breeze. If you to this right you should end up with just your

torso hanging by it's neck above the sea, highway, ground. Do it

with friends, and call it art.

BEING EATEN ALIVE

* Time: depends, but probably a couple of minutes

* Available: zoo, or live in Africa/wherever

* Certainty: not brilliant.. what if they're not hungry and don't

finish?

* Notes: basically, find one or more hungry carnivores... tigers are

nice. Also, sharks, lions, any of the big cats..

BEING BURNED UP IN UNPROTECTED RE-ENTRY (silly)

* Time: probably a few minutes

* Available: if you happen to be able to get into orbit

* Certainty: about as certain as you can get!

* Notes: Just go for a spacewalk in a low earth orbit, and

decelerate enough to enter the atmosphere. You'll get a great

view...

ACQUIRED IMMUNE DEFICIENCY SYNDROME (AIDS)

* Time: Incubation period 1 to 10 years, death within 2 years of

diagnosis of AIDS, Can have HIV for years/decades

* Dosage: Just one intimate contact with an Infected person of any

gender

* Available: Available to all for free

* Certainty: 99.9% certainty AFTER infected

* Notes: [2]: This is not painfree. This method may cost you alot of

money if you allow others to get you medical attention. It may a

little difficult to get infected as people who know they have it

may not comply with your request. Could be great fun attempting to

get infected depending upon your attitude (remember -any gender -

you don't have to limit yourself - you're going to die, you might

as well try it ;). Should be quite devasting to your family &

close friends. You also get the satisfaction of leaving behind a

virtual unrecognizable-as-you body ! This also gives you the prime

opportunity to point your finger at your dentist and say he did it

for all the times you have suffered in their chair. Happy dying !
 * Calle: May not be so certain any more. Ten years may well be long

enough for someone to develop a cure. Silly, IMHO.

AUTO-DECAPITATION BY CAR (added by Calle)

* Time: Real quick

* Available: You need access to a car and a rope

* Certainty: I wouldn't trust it

* Notes: Comes from alt.suicide.holiday. Basic idea is to tie one

end of the rope around your neck, tie the other end to a real

solid object, get into the car and accelerate away as fast as the

car can manage. When you reach the end of the rope, your head gets

torn off. Be sure to use enough rope and fasten your seat belt.

* A posting to a.s.h. in July 1993 says that someone in Washinton

State, USA actually used this method to commit suicide, so it

can't be that bad. The posting said that 25 feet of rope were used

(about 7.5 meters), which does sound a bit short. Perhaps he had a

real awesome car.

DEATH BY PAINTING YOUR BODY (very silly, and wrong)

* Dosage : Less than 1 can of paint depending on your body type

* Time : ? Probably less than 8 hours

* Availability : Very available ! You have a choice of greasepaint

or House paint. You need a type of paint that will not allow your

pores to breath in order to be successful at this. You also have a

smashing selection of colors you can choose to die in ! Nile Green

? Blood Red ? Basic Black ? Or any combo you desire.. If you

couldn't decide before what to wear to die in, this method will

cause you considerable angst.

* Certainty : This is a sure method, provided you have a paint that

will block your pores from breathing. Don't forget the bottom of

your feet. You must paint every last bit of available skin. If
 your pores can breathe, you won't die.

* Notes : I read this in some theater journal 5 or so years ago,

saying when you you do full body makeup, you must insure that

parts of the body are left naked to breathe or the actor will die.

Usually for full body makeup, they leave the bottoms of feet, and

some patterns on the body, like lines so the actor doesn't

suffocate.

* Calle: This is an *extremely* silly one. It was in the "not yet

edited" portion of Mike's file, and I think it is quite straight

from an a.s.h. posting. This method does not work. As you can

check in most any book on human anatomy, the skin does not

breathe. The only places in your body which absorbs oxygen are the

lungs and the corneas, and the corneas only feed themselves. You

might get ill or even die if you use poisonous paint, though.

_________________________________________________________________

Part 4 - Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

The only thing I can remember that has been asked for multiple

times, besides the File itself, are the lyrics for "Suicide Is

Painless" (the theme from M*A*S*H). Here it is:

"Suicide is Painless"

Words by Mike Altman

Music by Johnny Mandel

Through early morning fog I see

Visions of the things to be

The pains that are withheld for me

I realize and I can see that

Chorus: Suicide is painless

It brings on many changes

And I can take or leave it if I please.

I try to find a way to make

All our little joys relate

Without that ever-present hate

But now I know that it's too late, and

(chorus)

The game of life is hard to play

I'm going to lose it anyway

The losing card I'll someday lay

And this is all I have to say, that

(chorus)

The only way to win is cheat

And lay it down before I'm beat

And to another give a seat

For that's the only painless feat, cause

(chorus)

The sword of time will pierce our skins

It doesn't hurt when it begins

But as it works its way on in

The pain grows stronger - watch it grin

(chorus)
 A brave man once requested me

To answer questions that are key

Is it to be or not to be?

And I replied, "Oh why ask me?", cause

(chorus)

And you can do the same thing if you please.

_________________________________________________________________

Part 5 - Notes by Calle

At the end of Mike's file there were an entry for Nitrous Oxide. I

have removed it, as there already is one. There were also a mail were

someone recommended military nerve toxins. They might not be as

certain as the originator thought, as current military thinking is

that one griveously wounded man is worth many dead ones in decreasing

the enemy's fighting capacity. That means that modern nerve gasses

well might leave you paralyzed for life, but still living. Anyway, if

you can get military stuff, why not use a rifle or a few kilos of

explosive?

Mike's sig were also at the bottom of the File. It follows here, for

historic reasons:

[ .sig removed by Mike's request ]

Unfortunately, the mail address doesn't work any more.

Well, that's all. Comments are very welcome.

 _________________________________________________________________

Calle Dybedahl,Torpareg. 94, S-583 31 Linkoeping,SWEDEN | [email protected]

"I think quotes are very dangerous things." -KaTe Bush

And, for completeness, my data:

Ingvar Mattsson

Björnkärrsgatan 7 A:12

S-582 51 LINKÖPING

SWEDEN