Are simple asphixiants/noble gasses really that peaceful?

[LadyPoulenc]

I don't see how suffocation like that could be peaceful. You breathe in but your lungs don't fill, you suffocate. Where's the painlessness. Is this the case, that it's actually painful?

 

[kingfool316]

it depends on how you do it and how you see it. Say use CO. it usually knocks you out and basically shuts your brain down. I'm not sure if you feel pain or not, but once you're knocked out by it and you remain still surrounded by CO, you're dead in 30 minutes

 

[playalistic]

I don't see how suffocation like that could be peaceful. You breathe in but your lungs don't fill, you suffocate. Where's the painlessness. Is this the case, that it's actually painful?

With anything along these lines (the broad umbrella of "peaceful pills" in general), an argument I've heard is "they say it's painless but nobody ever really knows for sure, nobody can ever really 100% for sure say or scientifically guarantee whether it's painless or not unless they're the person who's gonna go"

for instance when i see videos of people ingesting SN online (i know what you're talking about is different but same concept/subject) the comments are always like "this looks fucking terrifying & painful & the worst way to go". Which im sure it might be if you havent taken the substances that are supposed to sedate/calm you beforehand. But idk. It's a debate to be had. I dont personally have any opinion on it but i suppose the scientific basis (if done properly) points towards it's probably painless

 

[Intoxicated]

I don't see how suffocation like that could be peaceful. You breathe in but your lungs don't fill, you suffocate. Where's the painlessness. Is this the case, that it's actually painful?

Inert gas asphyxiation doesn't feel like suffocation. After some point, you just gradually lose consciousness in a few seconds, possibly experiencing mild symptoms like ringing in the ears and tingling sensations on the skin. Nothing notably unpleasant.

There were even experiments with nitrogen asphyxiation for the purposes of inducing general anesthesia, particularly in dental surgery.

https://i.sanctioned-suicide.net/images/2025/05/227328_On_the_physiology_of_asphyxia_and_on_the_anaesthetic_action_of_pure_nitrogen.pdf

(see pages 18 - 20)

The book doesn't mention presence of pain in the sedated patients. This method of anesthesia eventually didn't become popular because of existence of more safe and efficient nitrous oxide, but the conducted trials can give us some idea about the possible degree of pain.

 

[Dejected 55]

Your body has a quirky defect. What triggers your survival instinct and response to suffocation is a build-up of carbon dioxide in your lungs. Your body wants to breathe oxygen and expel carbon dioxide... but it's trigger isn't a lack of oxygen, which would make more sense, rather the trigger is too much carbon dioxide.

So, carbon monoxide being breathed in doesn't trigger your suffocation response AND it bonds to your blood preventing it from using oxygen that might be present... so with CO, you can suffocate painlessly and your body doesn't respond to the lack of oxygen.

With the inert gasses, there is no blood-bonding BUT breathing in the inert gas doesn't result in creation of carbon dioxide, so again no trigger to your suffocation, so as long as you don't have enough oxygen (the whole exit bag thing that helps get rid of any present oxygen/carbon dioxide) then you will drift off that way too.