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Suicide methods are the different methods people have chosen to commit suicide.

Burning oneself

Usually practiced as a form of protest against system or government. It is a painful way to die and easily noticable in public places, therefore it is a form to alert everybody in oppressed societies or by oppressed groups. It takes a few minutes for the body to burn to death, and if it is done publicly, the person might be stopped by people nearby. However, this method leaves the person the least chance of being able to continue a normal life if they are rescued, because fire greatly damages the body before actually killing it. Some sort of catalyzer (an easily burning material, e.g. fuel) is frequently used to make the death quicker. After setting oneself alight using a catalyzer, there is also almost no possibility to avert death.

Famous people who have chosen this way to die: Romas Kalanta, in protest against Soviet Union occupying his homeland Lithuania

Car "accident"

Suicide by deliberately driving a car into something. Usually this is done impulsively, or when willing to cover the suicide as an accident. Whether it would be lethal or what the consequences would be greatly depends on type of car, what thing it is crashed at and speed at the time of crash. Other types of transportation are also used for this type of suicide (e.g. planes), though it is rarer due to the fact that cars are the most widely used form of transportation.

Driving a car into water is covered in Drowning section of this article.

Drowning

Suicide by drowning is purposefully getting into water and staying there for long enough for water to fill the breathing channels. This might be done by walking into water (usually attaching heavy things to oneself so it would be impossible to get out), more frequently by driving into water or getting off a ship or boat. It isn't an easy way to die, but it is easier to stage as an accident if it is needed for some reason. It also might be an impulsive decision. If the water is cold, a death of hypothermia might occur too. It takes a few minutes to die by drowning, about similar time to die of hypotermia, however hypothermia happens despite the person being able to swim and breathing. There is a possibility of getting permanent brain damage if the person is being rescued too late, after the brain wasn't able to get oxygen for a few minutes.

If a car is driven into water, it would stay afloat for some time, and then sink - at that time it wouldn't be possible to open the door because of differences of pressure inside and outside of car.

Suicide by drowning could also be done by jumping from a bridge, see Jumping down section.

Famous people who have chosen this way to die: Ludwig II, the king of Bavaria, when he was removed from power on charges of insanity. There is a controversy however whether he committed suicide or was killed.

Electrocution

Usage of electricity to commit suicide. The flow of electricity through the body has a potentioal to seriously disrupt nerve signals - this might cause death if the electric current is strong enough and affect a sufficiently large area of the body. Usually it is done using also water, as water is a good conductor. Common way to commit this type of suicide is by sitting in a bath full of water and throwing some electric device, plugged into outlet, in the water. This way the electricity reaches all parts of body through the water. However, fuses in electric device might stop the device from working once the short-circuit happens due to water, that is why this form of suicide sometimes does not works. It is chosen because it is seen as being an easy way out - it can be done at home withouut getting any additional things.

Hanging

Basically it is strangling oneself using various devices, usually ropes, to help. Hanging doesn't take much time to die, however the time it takes might give some misery to person attempting it. Hanging can be done in three ways:

1. Jumping from a higher place with rope around one's neck (which tied at the other end to some unmovable thing). This proves to be the most fatal, as it breaks the neck if the place is high enough. However it is the hardest to prepare for this, as it usually requires public places. In middle ages death penalty was done in similar way.

2. Hanging oneself at vertical position, this way using one's own weight as a lever which helps the rope to press the neck enough. It takes more time than the previous method to die, but might be easier to prepare for, therefore great number of people who chooses death by hanging chooses this method. It is usually performed by standing on chair or some other light and easily movable surface, putting rope around one's neck and attaching it's other end to some place above, for example lamp, and then kicking the surface beneath feet away. In horror films like Hangman this method was portrayed as a way to kill somebody imitating suicide, by putting a melting ice cube under person's feet.

3. Hanging oneself at horizontal position. This is usually done when conditions does not allow other means. Person puts rope around his/her neck and attaches other end to some vertical or horizontal sticking out thing, e.g. doorknob or water tap, and then uses his/her own force to push away from it, or estabilishes himself/herself in such position, where common forces e.g. gravitation would also help. This method of hanging is the least fatal and takes the longest time. Due to the long time of it blood usually pours into eyes before death.

A person who hangs himself/herself can die for a variety of reasons: blood being unable to reach brain, neck breaking and others.

Jumping down

Usually done either by jumping out of tall buildings or from bridges. There is no common reason which makes people to die after doing it - there could be various injuries leading to death. However, lethal injuries might also not happen - it depends on height, place of landing and the way of landing. The most lethal is if person falls head-down, and therefore head hits the ground the first. Same is if the person jumps from bridge to river, however in these cases, especially if the bridge is lower, it frequently happens that person isn't killed by hitting surface (of water) and dies by drowning instead. Therefore people doing it sometimes attaches stones or other heavy things to themselves, or ties their hands and legs, before doing it, so they wouldn't be able to swim off water if they'd start to panic. Whatever the jump would be, it greatly depends on various conditions werether the person would die, if so when, and if not, what kind of injuries they would suffer. This method is sometimes used as a way to get attention, with undecided people standing "on edge" for long enough time for somebody to notice. However, that does not means everybody who is about to jump is not for real - as in all cases with suicidal people, these must be taken seriously. Usually either known public buildings (e.g. school, hospital where person is at frequently or for a longer time), or people's own buildings (buildings where there is person's flat) are chosen for it as they are best known and approaches to their roofs or high floors are also well known. However this also makes the possibility to stop person if he/she doesn't jump immidietly,a s those are public places. Same about jumping out of bridges.

Jumping under a train or a car

As for the damage done, this type of suicide is similar to Jumping down - same as there it depends on height, here it depends on the speed of the vehicle. Same at it depends there on the place where person lands, here it depends on type of the vehicle - e.g. new cars are made so that they would do as few damage to pedestrians in case of accident as possible. Trucks would make more damage. It might happen so however that person after jumping infront of the vehicle doesn't goes under wheels, but bounces back instead. In this case the damage is much smaller. If person falls under wheels the chance of it being lethal is large, however it might be so that just person's arm or leg would get under wheels, in that case the person might live but remain handicapped. As in case of trains, it is frequently done so that persons just lay on railroad instead of jumping infront of train as this requires less willpower and unlike with cars, trains cannot be stopped quickly, so even when train engineers notices someone on railway it might be too late. In addition, this is in many cases done at night. Unlike with jumping down, this might be done in non-public places too, because roads and railways passes through empty or forsted areas. Still however, great number of such suicides are done in cities or stations. In Japan due to the number of suicides by jumping under fast trains the law was issued which says that relatives of person must cover up the costs of stopping traffic. This way people are encouraged to use less harmful to others ways of suicide. Jumping infront of car or train can be both impulsive and planned event, it is also sometimes used for group suicides.

Overdosing

Use of this method is increasing with time. Basically, it involves taking too much meds of some sort, usually sleeping pills or antidepressants (because of the effect of those, as well as availability to deppressed people). However, in many cases this method is used as self-harm, or cry for help, without will to commit suicide. It is so because it is possible to take various ammounts of pills and overdose either by much, or just by small ammount. However, any overdose is dangerous, and should the person not die, he/she can face a serious liver damage, which might damage the ability to live. The dose required to die might vary from person to person, depending on their weight and physical condition. Overdosing also might be done by mixing two meds of different types or mixing medications with alcohol/drugs. Purposeful overdosings by alcohol and/or drugs also happen. Many of such deaths are actually suicides, despite frequently being interpreted as accidents by official sources.

Poisoning

Usage of known poisons either alone, or deliberately putting poison into some kind of drink the person would then drink. Works same as overdosing, however person can be more sure that it would work, however doses required still varies from person to person. Because of low accessability of poisons to normal public, this was traditionally used by people in power, e.g. politicians or military leaders.

Famous people who chosen this way to die: Adolf Hitler after he seen that Germany will not win World War 2. He used Potassium Cyanide. Herrman Goering after he was arrested and sentenced to hanging managed to get poison and die this way, which he seen as being more honoured.

== Seppuku == (also known as harakiri)

Japanese ritual method of suicide, practicised mostly in medieval times, though some isolated cases appear in XX age too. There were special cases when seppuku would have been done: when a person was given an order from his master which he couldn't do, when person did something bad (this was a way to "regain honor") or when person was to be punished to death, he could have chosen this way to die, which was considered more honour. The most know part of sepukku in western society is probably, slashing the stomach, which indeed is part of the ritual - however ritual is way more complex than that: Dressed ceremonially, with his sword placed in front of him and sometimes seated on special cloths, the warrior would prepare for death by writing a death poem. With his selected attendant (kaishakunin, his second) standing by, he would open his kimono, take up his wakizashi (short sword) or a tanto (knife) and plunge it into his abdomen, making first a left-to-right cut and then a second slightly upward stroke. On the second stroke, the Kaishakunin would perform daki-kubi, a ritual in which the warrior is all but decapitated (a slight band of flesh is left attaching the head to the body).

Famous people who chosen this way to die: Yukio Mishima after failed coup d'etat intended to restore full power to Japanese Emperor

Shooting

Using a firearm on oneself. Used more frequently in countries where firearms are easier to obtain. It is debatable however if that raises the number of suicides in general, it might be so that it just raises the number of people choosing this method. In countries where the firearms are harder to obtain, this method is sometimes still used, especially by people who has to use arms at work, e.g. soldiers or policemen. The lethality of the method depends where the shoot is aimed at. Usually it's either the side of forehead or the mouth (both ways brain is shot at). In some cases heart is chosen as a target, but it might be harder to do it correctly than with brain. If it is shot at stomach it takes a longer time to die because the death then usually occurs cause of loss of blood. Brain or heart damage kills a person quicklier, however the gun must be powerful enough for that to succeed. It could be both impulsive and planned suicide. Also suicide by firearms are a common way to kill oneself after gun murders or shootouts (e.g. school shootouts), because firearm is available nearby in that case.

Slashing throat

Cutting through throat. People who chooses this way to die dies cause of loss of blood, or because blood clogs the breathing intakes. It was also practicised as a ritual suicide method in Japan, used by noble women for the same purposes as Seppuku was used by men. This way hits the major artery which leads to brain, and therefore it takes no longer than few minutes to loose enough blood, and so it is almost impossible for someone to stop the person from dying, especially if it is done alone. However, it takes a great amount of willpower to do it.

Slashing wrists

It means cutting through the wrists till the main veins are reached. People choosing this method dies because of the loss of blood. However, most of people who attempts this way of suicide are unable to cut deep enough to achieve their goal. This method is also frequently used as self-harm or cry for help/attention (because it is not an immidietly lethal method), therefore not all people who slashes ther wrists intends suicide. The biggest chances to die are if one slashes the wrist vertically, along the vein, instead of horizontally, as this way the larger part of vein surface is cut through. Slashing wrists might damage tendons which might cause partially loosing the control of hand if the person would remain alive. Usually razorblades are used as cutting using them is less painful than using knives.

Starving to death

This type of suicide is practiced as the only legitimate suicide type by Hindus. It is so because it cannot be done impulsively and therefore the person who is doing it has much time to think about it, to get closer to the Gods, to tell goodbye to those important to him. It takes a long time and also lots of willpower, and therefore almost isn't practicised in western society. Also, when person collapses because of no more energy cause of starving, in most cases it is still possible to save him/her by injecting needed things through cateter directly to blood, which is what would be done in western countries.

Stopping breathing

This type of suicide is allegedly practicised by Buddhist monks, who supposedly are able to stop breathing using just their willpower. This is what some arrested Buryat monks allegedly did in Soviet prisons.

Suffocation

Suffocation is done by inhaling enough of gas which disrupts the body, usually through failure of the respiratory system. In most cases Carbon monoxide (CO)is used for this, as this gas is used much in common life (it is released by cars, some types of heaters and such). Carbon monoxide is colourless and odourless, so bretahing it is almost unoticeable. However, CO molecules attaches themselves to hemoglobin in people's blood, displacing oxygen molecules, and therefore denies parts of the human body sufficient oxygen, eventually resulting in death. It is usually done by starting car's engine in a closed space, for example a garage, and remaining there, or by using other devices releasing CO in closed spaces. This method is frequently used for group suicides as this way people dies at the same time or about the same time. The time until death depends on the size of that closed space and the ammount of CO issued.

There was a device for Euthanasia invented on this principle, where a person using it would have to breath a few times out of it and then could die, the device was full of CO.

Suicide by cop

This started to be practiced on higher extent quite recently. Basically it means someone purposefully acting as if they would be dangerous in front of law enforcement or other armed officers, so they would use their weapons. Sometimes people uses toy weapons and other such things to appear as if they are a threat. Usually this is done by people who has no willpower to kill themsleves in any other methods, or because they do not want to kill themselves with their own hands because of some other reasons. This type of "suicide" also can influence cop's who kills such person psychologicla condition.

External links

• The ASH methods file - "Old, inaccurate, humorous yet comprehensive list of methods"