Resource Comparing the comfort and reliability of full suspension hanging against other suicide methods

[Evelyn Lane]

I'm sure some of you might be wondering how does full suspension hanging compare against the vast majority of other suicide methods.

So I decided to create a thread comparing both the comfort and reliability of hanging compared to other suicide methods.

I intentionally omitted some suicide methods in this comparison to comply with this forum's rules and views.

I sorted the methods in alphabetical order.

Disclaimer: this is purely for educational purposes, not meant to encourage suicide. How you use this information is your responsibility.


Explaining the comfort and reliability of full suspension hanging

First of all, we need to understand what are the uncomfortable aspects of hanging yourself:

1) You will feel pain in your neck (around the area of the rope) once the weight is placed on your neck.

2) You won't be able to breathe in or out.

3) Your chest might try to forcibly expel air without success (note that this only occurs some of the time, if you stay conscious for that long).

By the way, keep in mind that you will lose consciousness within 20 seconds.

And that's it. Now, in terms of reliability...

Full suspension hanging never fails if:

1) You're using a strong enough rope.

2) Your anchor point is sturdy enough.

3) Nobody interrupts your attempt.

If you take care of these aspects, your hanging attempt will definitely be successful. 100% success rate.


Comparing the comfort of full suspension hanging against other suicide methods

Comparably comfortable or more comfortable than hanging:

1) Carbon monoxide poisoning

2) Explosion of head

3) Gunshot to the head
Note: not painless, contrary to popular belief. See this for example: https://videos.watchpeopledie.tv/1703798499452568.mp4

4) Hypothermia
Note: according to survivors of the Titanic feels like being stabbed with a 1000 swords, and according to another Reddit thread it feels like you're on fire during the paradoxical undressing phase. But other sources claim it to be relatively peaceful.

5) Poisoning/overdose (sodium nitrite)

6) Suffocation (helium)


Less comfortable than hanging:

1) Bugchasing

2) Cutting carotid arteries

3) Cutting wrists/arms/legs

4) Decapitation (train)
Note: you will stay conscious for up to 20 seconds after your head is cut off.

5) Drowning

6) Electrocution

7) Head crushed by the wheels of a large vehicle

8) Heart trauma (stab/gunshot/explosion)
Note: you will stay conscious for up to 20 seconds after your heart stops beating.

9) Immolation

10) Jumping from height
Note: potential to be almost painless if you fall head-first, but most of the time that's not the case.

11) Poisoning/overdose (antifreeze)

12) Poisoning/overdose (cyanide)

13) Poisoning/overdose (drain cleaner)

14) Poisoning/overdose (opioids + benzos combo)
Note: more info at [LINK]

15) Poisoning/overdose (opioids)

16) Poisoning/overdose (over-the-counter drugs)

17) Poisoning/overdose (pesticide)

18) Seppuku

19) Stabbing abdomen

20) Suffocation (plastic bag and handcuffs only)

21) Suicide by cop

22) Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking


As you can see, full suspension hanging is more peaceful than a lot of suicide methods. What's a little neck pain in comparison to the pain of those other methods?

Comparing the reliability of full suspension hanging against other suicide methods

This will compare the reliability of the suicide methods in a practical sense, considering how easily and successfully can you do it and die from it. For sake of fairness, I will assume that you never get interrupted by anyone during any of these suicide attempts.


As reliable as hanging (100% success rate):

1) Drowning
Note: the only way to fail is if you get rescued.

2) Explosion of head

3) Suffocation (plastic bag and handcuffs only)
Note: assuming the plastic bag used is strong enough so that it doesn't pop or get ripped when you start thrashing.


Less reliable than hanging:

1) Bugchasing

2) Carbon monoxide poisoning
Note: initially I wanted to kill myself with carbon monoxide, but when I realized how elaborate and finicky it is, and how it's so easy to mess up and how you could end up with brain damage if you fail (similar to hanging) I reconsidered my decision. And it's way easier to mess up a carbon monoxide suicide attempt than it is to mess up a full suspension hanging suicide attempt. The odds are greatly against you with this method due to its complexity. You basically need to get everything perfectly right and pray you succeed. For example, look at [LINK 1] and [LINK 2]

3) Cutting carotid arteries
Note: most people that try don't end up cutting the carotid arteries. Your body doesn't allow you to do that.

4) Cutting wrists/arms/legs

5) Decapitation (train)
Note: after you jump in front of the train, you could end up getting your legs chopped off instead of your head. Also, if you lie on the tracks, there's no guarantee you can't get scared at the last second and flinch so that it misses your head.

6) Electrocution

7) Gunshot to the head

8) Head crushed by the wheels of a large vehicle
Note: the vehicle could stop suddenly after partially crushing your head while you're still alive or the vehicle might miss your head entirely.

9) Heart trauma (stab/gunshot/explosion)
Note: you could miss your heart.

10) Hypothermia

11) Immolation

12) Jumping from height

13) Poisoning/overdose (antifreeze)

14) Poisoning/overdose (cyanide)
Note: not everyone that gets poisoned by cyanide dies.

15) Poisoning/overdose (drain cleaner)

16) Poisoning/overdose (opioids + benzos combo)

17) Poisoning/overdose (opioids)

18) Poisoning/overdose (over-the-counter drugs)

19) Poisoning/overdose (pesticide)

20) Poisoning/overdose (sodium nitrite)
Note: the whole range of consequences of failing a suicide attempt with sodium nitrite isn't fully documented. Keep in mind that survivorship bias is a thing. The people who are incapacitated by brain damage aren't going to be able to log back on to SS and report their experiences to us, so we assume that they're dead. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that there's a lot more to the spectrum of outcomes than simply "survived with no damage" or "dead."

21) Seppuku

22) Stabbing abdomen

23) Suffocation (helium)
Note: there have been reports of people who have tried it and just woken up with a really bad headache – they tore the hood off when they were in a state of semi-consciousness, because their body was trying to fight for life.

24) Suicide by cop

25) Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking


From this you can see that full suspension hanging is one of the few methods that are guaranteed to always work.

I hope this has been a good resource in helping you decide what might be the best suicide method for you!




This thread is part of my complete guide on how to hang yourself, which you can find here:

Evelyn's complete guide on how to hang yourself with both partial and full suspension hanging

Are you new to hanging? Or maybe just trying to find out if hanging is the right method for you? This reading guide has you covered! This is your one stop shop to both partial suspension hanging and full suspension hanging. This is a reading guide to the guides I published on this forum so far...

sanctioned-suicide.net

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Just curious, did you produce this so you could convince yourself that hanging is the best way to go?

One HUGE error you make in your presentation is that, if done correctly, hanging should not obstruct your trachea in any way. A successfully set-up hanging should only constrict your carotid arteries. If you constrict your trachea, you are going to have one very uncomfortable death. There are ways to accomplish this.

I'll stick with CO. I like the idea of unconsciousness (like sleep) before death comes a calling.

Pay particular attention to the "Agony" column: higher numbers = more agony.

 

[Evelyn Lane]

One HUGE error you make in your presentation is that, if done correctly, hanging should not obstruct your trachea in any way. A successfully set-up hanging should only constrict your carotid arteries. If you constrict your trachea, you are going to have one very uncomfortable death. There are ways to accomplish this.

Ok, then tell me every way you can perform full suspension hanging without constricting your trachea. I'm genuinely curious, maybe you know something I don't.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Ok, then tell me every way you can perform full suspension hanging without constricting your trachea. I'm genuinely curious, maybe you know something I don't.

I just did in your other thread.

 

[locked*n*loaded]

Here's some more reading if you're interested. If you've already seen it, I apologize, and please just ignore it.

https://archive.ashspace.org/ash.xanthia.com/suspension.html

 

[Karl Heisenberg]

If you don't mind my asking, why exacly is gunshot to the head not painless?
Thank you for your comment.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

Concerning comfort:
You can reduce the pain if you use a thicker rope, you need a certain amount of pressure to flatten your arteries. Additional pressure is only additional pain. For me (90 kg) a 20 mm rope leads to unconsciousness within 5 to 15 seconds.
In this short period of time I did not feel the urge to breath.

Concerning relibility:
You need sufficiant vertical space to make sure that your feet will not touch the ground and you hang in the end öpartial.

Additional advantage:
You can test everything in advance when hanging non letally. This reduces the fear from the unknown.

 

[Evelyn Lane]

If you don't mind my asking, why exacly is gunshot to the head not painless?
Thank you for your comment.

In the video I linked you can hear the guy groan in agony shortly after shooting himself. Doesn't seem 100% painless to me. You might feel a brief moment of pain.

Here's some more reading if you're interested. If you've already seen it, I apologize, and please just ignore it.

https://archive.ashspace.org/ash.xanthia.com/suspension.html

In your link, there's a section about the ring that says:

"Make 2 loops around the ring. Then move the loops to opposite ends. You will notice a piece of slack, make that piece of slack face so that it will not come into contact with the neck, when the rope is applied."

This part is really confusing and hard to understand; could you explain what it should look like or maybe could you draw it?

Thank you very much

 

[Karl Heisenberg]

In the video I linked you can hear the guy groan in agony shortly after shooting himself. Doesn't seem 100% painless to me. You might feel a brief moment of pain.

In your link, there's a section about the ring that says:

"Make 2 loops around the ring. Then move the loops to opposite ends. You will notice a piece of slack, make that piece of slack face so that it will not come into contact with the neck, when the rope is applied."

This part is really confusing and hard to understand; could you explain what it should look like or maybe could you draw it?

Thank you very much

I am sorry, but I must disagree. From what I know is that the speed of the bullet/shot is faster than the body can transmit the pain signal (under the condition you are aiming right onto brainstem). This groan, which you can hear in the video can be caused by many factors, including the gun itself.
The gun he used, which is .38 caliber Smith & Wesson Model 10 revolver (at least as far as I know) is very small calibre for this purpose, so technically the bullet could not made it into the brainstem, which didn't caused instant death and made him suffer till he died to the consequences of bleeding/head damage.
Another possibility is simply that he successfully shot himself and the moaning could be caused just by emitting vapors and blood from the dead body.

Conclusion of this text is that the painlessness depends on the choice of the weapon, calibre and place where is the person shot.
I am sorry if I did any grammar mistakes, english is not my main language to speak with.

 

[badtothebone]

I'm sure some of you might be wondering how does full suspension hanging compare against the vast majority of other suicide methods.

So I decided to create a thread comparing both the comfort and reliability of hanging compared to other suicide methods.

I intentionally omitted some suicide methods in this comparison to comply with this forum's rules and views.

I sorted the methods in alphabetical order.

Disclaimer: this is purely for educational purposes, not meant to encourage suicide. How you use this information is your responsibility.


Explaining the comfort and reliability of full suspension hanging

First of all, we need to understand what are the uncomfortable aspects of hanging yourself:

1) You will feel pain in your neck (around the area of the rope) once the weight is placed on your neck.

2) You won't be able to breathe in or out.

3) Your chest might try to forcibly expel air without success (note that this only occurs some of the time, if you stay conscious for that long).

By the way, keep in mind that you will lose consciousness within 20 seconds.

And that's it. Now, in terms of reliability...

Full suspension hanging never fails if:

1) You're using a strong enough rope.

2) Your anchor point is sturdy enough.

3) Nobody interrupts your attempt.

If you take care of these aspects, your hanging attempt will definitely be successful. 100% success rate.


Comparing the comfort of full suspension hanging against other suicide methods

Comparably comfortable or more comfortable than hanging:

1) Carbon monoxide poisoning

2) Explosion of head

3) Gunshot to the head
Note: not painless, contrary to popular belief. See this for example: https://videos.watchpeopledie.tv/1703798499452568.mp4

4) Hypothermia
Note: according to survivors of the Titanic feels like being stabbed with a 1000 swords, and according to another Reddit thread it feels like you're on fire during the paradoxical undressing phase. But other sources claim it to be relatively peaceful.

5) Poisoning/overdose (sodium nitrite)

6) Suffocation (helium)


Less comfortable than hanging:

1) Bugchasing

2) Cutting carotid arteries

3) Cutting wrists/arms/legs

4) Decapitation (train)
Note: you will stay conscious for up to 20 seconds after your head is cut off.

5) Drowning

6) Electrocution

7) Head crushed by the wheels of a large vehicle

8) Heart trauma (stab/gunshot/explosion)
Note: you will stay conscious for up to 20 seconds after your heart stops beating.

9) Immolation

10) Jumping from height
Note: potential to be almost painless if you fall head-first, but most of the time that's not the case.

11) Poisoning/overdose (antifreeze)

12) Poisoning/overdose (cyanide)

13) Poisoning/overdose (drain cleaner)

14) Poisoning/overdose (opioids + benzos combo)
Note: more info at [LINK]

15) Poisoning/overdose (opioids)

16) Poisoning/overdose (over-the-counter drugs)

17) Poisoning/overdose (pesticide)

18) Seppuku

19) Stabbing abdomen

20) Suffocation (plastic bag and handcuffs only)

21) Suicide by cop

22) Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking


As you can see, full suspension hanging is more peaceful than a lot of suicide methods. What's a little neck pain in comparison to the pain of those other methods?

Comparing the reliability of full suspension hanging against other suicide methods

This will compare the reliability of the suicide methods in a practical sense, considering how easily and successfully can you do it and die from it. For sake of fairness, I will assume that you never get interrupted by anyone during any of these suicide attempts.


As reliable as hanging (100% success rate):

1) Drowning
Note: the only way to fail is if you get rescued.

2) Explosion of head

3) Suffocation (plastic bag and handcuffs only)
Note: assuming the plastic bag used is strong enough so that it doesn't pop or get ripped when you start thrashing.


Less reliable than hanging:

1) Bugchasing

2) Carbon monoxide poisoning
Note: initially I wanted to kill myself with carbon monoxide, but when I realized how elaborate and finicky it is, and how it's so easy to mess up and how you could end up with brain damage if you fail (similar to hanging) I reconsidered my decision. And it's way easier to mess up a carbon monoxide suicide attempt than it is to mess up a full suspension hanging suicide attempt. The odds are greatly against you with this method due to its complexity. You basically need to get everything perfectly right and pray you succeed. For example, look at [LINK 1] and [LINK 2]

3) Cutting carotid arteries
Note: most people that try don't end up cutting the carotid arteries. Your body doesn't allow you to do that.

4) Cutting wrists/arms/legs

5) Decapitation (train)
Note: after you jump in front of the train, you could end up getting your legs chopped off instead of your head. Also, if you lie on the tracks, there's no guarantee you can't get scared at the last second and flinch so that it misses your head.

6) Electrocution

7) Gunshot to the head

8) Head crushed by the wheels of a large vehicle
Note: the vehicle could stop suddenly after partially crushing your head while you're still alive or the vehicle might miss your head entirely.

9) Heart trauma (stab/gunshot/explosion)
Note: you could miss your heart.

10) Hypothermia

11) Immolation

12) Jumping from height

13) Poisoning/overdose (antifreeze)

14) Poisoning/overdose (cyanide)
Note: not everyone that gets poisoned by cyanide dies.

15) Poisoning/overdose (drain cleaner)

16) Poisoning/overdose (opioids + benzos combo)

17) Poisoning/overdose (opioids)

18) Poisoning/overdose (over-the-counter drugs)

19) Poisoning/overdose (pesticide)

20) Poisoning/overdose (sodium nitrite)
Note: the whole range of consequences of failing a suicide attempt with sodium nitrite isn't fully documented. Keep in mind that survivorship bias is a thing. The people who are incapacitated by brain damage aren't going to be able to log back on to SS and report their experiences to us, so we assume that they're dead. I can't say for sure, but I suspect that there's a lot more to the spectrum of outcomes than simply "survived with no damage" or "dead."

21) Seppuku

22) Stabbing abdomen

23) Suffocation (helium)
Note: there have been reports of people who have tried it and just woken up with a really bad headache – they tore the hood off when they were in a state of semi-consciousness, because their body was trying to fight for life.

24) Suicide by cop

25) Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking


From this you can see that full suspension hanging is one of the few methods that are guaranteed to always work.

I hope this has been a good resource in helping you decide what might be the best suicide method for you!




This thread is part of my complete guide on how to hang yourself, which you can find here:

Evelyn's complete guide on how to hang yourself with both partial and full suspension hanging

Are you new to hanging? Or maybe just trying to find out if hanging is the right method for you? This reading guide has you covered! This is your one stop shop to both partial suspension hanging and full suspension hanging. This is a reading guide to the guides I published on this forum so far...

sanctioned-suicide.net

In the video where the guy shot himself is kind of weird. he didn't put the gun all the way it hardly touched his lips and then he dropped on the floor. Gunshot suicide is not painful at all there is no time to feel pain. The police told me my son didn't suffer any pain but I question this I think it's fake

If you don't mind my asking, why exacly is gunshot to the head not painless?
Thank you for your comment.

Gunshot to the head or anywhere in your body is painless. I get GSW patients all day long and if it's a crime not suicide sometime they survive shots to body part and I was told a million times by each one of them that they just felt something hot but not pain. Suicide attempt always successful we never saved one. Just FYI I'm a registered nurse covers trauma & ICU so I've seen it all. This will be my way to go if I decided to end my life

 

[sugarb]

As others have said you're downplaying the effectiveness and comfort of firearms.

A properly aligned intraoral shotgun blast to the head is instant, painless (or if we're being pessimistic and assuming the brain can register it it'd only be painful for a fraction of a second) and has a 99%+ chance death.

Firearms are staggeringly effective. There're endless studies on this. No other commonly available method is comparable.

Gun Suicide | Everytown

Gun suicide claims the lives of more than 25,000 people in America every year. We must address this public health crisis to reduce gun violence.

www.everytown.org

"Most people who attempt suicide do not die—unless they use a gun. Across all suicide attempts without a gun, 4% result in death. But when a gun is involved, that figure skyrockets to 90%."

 

[pharmameddamaged]

As others have said you're downplaying the effectiveness and comfort of firearms.

A properly aligned intraoral shotgun blast to the head is instant, painless (or if we're being pessimistic and assuming the brain can register it it'd only be painful for a fraction of a second) and has a 99%+ chance death.

Firearms are staggeringly effective. There're endless studies on this. No other commonly available method is comparable.

Gun Suicide | Everytown

Gun suicide claims the lives of more than 25,000 people in America every year. We must address this public health crisis to reduce gun violence.

www.everytown.org

"Most people who attempt suicide do not die—unless they use a gun. Across all suicide attempts without a gun, 4% result in death. But when a gun is involved, that figure skyrockets to 90%."

What about hanging?

 

[sugarb]

What about hanging?

Everything OP said about hanging's lethality/reliability is correct from what I've seen, it's the third most lethal common method (1st is guns, 2nd is drowning). As they said, an uninterrupted hanging with a solid anchor point that uses a strong rope is as lethal as a shotgun. A firearm has less chance of interruption, however.

As stated above intraoral shotgun is so fast the pain most likely can't even be perceived, and hanging simply can't be quicker / less painful than that. That said I have no clue about hanging's exact painfulness and I'd suggest looking up accounts of how it feels yourself.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

Everything OP said about hanging's lethality/reliability is correct from what I've seen, it's the third most lethal common method (1st is guns, 2nd is drowning). As they said, an uninterrupted hanging with a solid anchor point that uses a strong rope is as lethal as a shotgun. A firearm has less chance of interruption, however.

As stated above intraoral shotgun is so fast the pain most likely can't even be perceived, and hanging simply can't be quicker / less painful than that. That said I have no clue about hanging's exact painfulness and I'd suggest looking up accounts of how it feels yourself.

In most countries including my own, firearms are not easily available. And as mentioned above, you can get familiar with hanging by doing it non lethally but you cannot send a bullet through your head for testing. If you are not grown up with firearms you may miscalculate the aiming angle and blow your face away instead of brain even when you use a shotgun.

 

[sugarb]

In most countries including my own, firearms are not easily available. And as mentioned above, you can get familiar with hanging by doing it non lethally but you cannot send a bullet through your head for testing. If you are not grown up with firearms you may miscalculate the aiming angle and blow your face away instead of brain even when you use a shotgun.

Acquisition is another conversation. Even in a red state in the US (where I live) a rope is obviously easier to buy. That doesn't factor into the discussion of pain/lethality/quickness.

An intraoral shotgun blast has a pretty wide margin of error and there are guides on here for the correct angle. You also can't (or at least shouldn't) take just a little bit of SN or jump off a shorter building to test. I'm not particularly worried; firearms have every statistic behind them, as long as one's not massively misaligning the shotgun it shouldn't be an issue.

 

[Gustav Hartmann]

That´s the usp of hanging, you can test it in advance. Concerning pain and quickness I completly agree, the muzzle velocity of a shotgun is about 4 times faster then the nerve conduction velocity.