Help How lethal is tylenol/paracetamol/acetaminophen overdose

[RandomDude1234]

So I've been doing a lot of research on this particular overdose for various reasons, (which I will maybe get to in a later post)
From what I have find, there is no solid opinion on if it works or not. I have read about people dying with a dosage of as low as 15g to people apparently surviving dosages of upward of 60g.

The most recurrent theme is that people chicken out and go to ER in a few hours, which makes the OD unsuccessful as doctors can pump out your stomach.

But what if I am to take 26g Tylenol (for the uninitiated Paracetamol, Acetaminophen, Tylenol are the same thing) and manage to not report for 12-24 hours. I have read that the risk increases multi-fold after 8 hours.

Also, some people have pointed out that your body will make you vomit out. What if the dosage is spread out over multiple hours, say four.

So what I'm trying to ask is, how lethal will be a dosage of 26g of Tylenol spread over 4-5 hours if it's not reported for over 12+ hours.
I know it will be painful and my last days will suck but that's a discussion for some other time. Right now, I'm only concerned about the effectiveness of the method.

 

[lv-gras]

lethal possibly but not certainly, nasty yes

 

[RandomDude1234]

Okay. So there is a chance of survival with very high level of liver damage?

 

[Miss clefable]

I would rather od on caffeine

 

[RandomDude1234]

That seems to be the common sentiment everywhere that it sucks. I know that; that's not something I'm doubting here.

 

[Over n' Out]

https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/courtney-smith-inquest-goodbye-notes-1038684

26g isn't much, 75g better, spread over a day. Alcohol helps.
Musn't report for 3 days, 12 hours is way too short.
Won't be nice but yes it often works.

 

[Justanotherconsumer]

If it did work,liver failure id research that, time it takes ect.

 

[RandomDude1234]

75g sounds way too much though. That's like 150 500mg pills O_O
Wouldn't this much dosage trigger vomiting?
Also, any source on that 75g?

 

[RandomDude1234]

@Justanotherconsumer: I have been relentlessly researching this but the information I can find is never consistent. Everyone agrees that a lethal dose not reported for a couple of days will kill you but the dose and days are up in the air.

 

[Burned out]

I read on the internet that 12 grams of acetaminophen can be lethal. I once swallowed 15 grams of it. First, I knew there was a possibility of it not working, and I told myself if I started to puke it out, I would go to the hospital just in case I still had enough inside me to permanently damage my body, but no kill me.

Obviously it did not work since I wrote this. What had happened is, I managed to keep it down for about three hours, but at some point I knew I was going to vomit involuntarily so I made it to the bathroom and puked. After that, and because of my fear that what was still in me would be harmful but not lethal, I drank a bunch of water and forced myself to vomit again until I was dry heaving, then I went to the ER. I was expecting to get my stomach pumped, but instead I was given an IV of what I think was only saline solution and had my blood levels for tylenol checked twice. The tylenol did not even make it to a toxic level, but a good 8-10 hours after having swallowed the pills (and having been in the hospital for hours by this point as well), I vomited involuntarily again, and that was after being given an anti emetic there in the hospital.

First, I was aware that pills sometimes have a coating on them that causes you to vomit if you swallow too much of them. I heard this is the case in Europe, but I'm in America. I never found out if the pills I used had this coating or not. Internet research says you can be asymptomatic or you can have vomiting episodes. It was after I puked in the hospital that it occurred to me that I may have only vomited because I had consumed a meal. The first time at home, I was getting really nervous after having swallowed the pills and had a bowel of cerial, not thinking anything of it. About an hour later is when I puked for the first time. No pills were in the vomit. At the hospital, after being told the tylenol hadn't made it to toxic levels, I felt hungry and so asked for a meal. Again, about an hour later and this time with an antiemtic, I vomited uncontrollably. I ended up doing a week in a psych ward after being discharged, as well.

Since I didn't get very far I won't be able to answer all your questions. One thing I was not expecting was an unpleasant sensation shortly after swallowing the pills that lasted most of that day. I seemed to be able to smell what the pills smelled and tasted like in my nose for hours, and in addition, it was also reminiscent of pus and hydrogen peroxide. The other thing was feeling drowsy and semi-conscious for a good 30 minutes, beginning about 15 minutes after having swallowed the pills. I was still able to walk and talk around this time, but as it was happening, I almost thought I was going to pass out. The pills were actetaminophen and nothing else, such as tylenol pm.

 

[satou]

The liver is toughest organ (along with the skin), because its job is to deal with toxins, so it has great survivability and it needs to be nearly completely destroyed before it will truly fail. This is why liver disease for example can go completely unnoticed for ages and why it is possible to donate part of your liver and have it regain its original size.

My point is, destroy the brain instead. It is a much more vulnerable organ.

 

[SamK]

I would say it's not very reliable. If it is, its a horrible way to go.

 

[RandomDude1234]

@Burned out Thanks a ton for sharing your information. Lots of valuable information in that post

@satou The thing is, I don't have any convenient way of getting my hands on a firearm and also, the shock of finding my dead body will be a bit too much for my family so I'm trying to look for methods which will rapidly deteriorate my health (with definite chances of death) so that my family can inform my extended family so when I do die, they have all the support they need. Right now, it's Tylenol; every other is too fast acting. But thank you very much.

 

[Arak]

Aside from dose I think it should work. As long as you don't get 'help' in time.

Crunching the numbers ... the offical LD50 numbers are likely too low. You know how they want to 'protect' people. Per my recollection, if spread around time (a few days at least, cumulative effects) and in sufficient dose it should work as long as you avoid getting help till it is absolutely lethal ! Per my recollection, major abdominal issues, cns issues.It can take a long, long time to actually die though. Possibly one of the worst methods.

 

[Duqu]

I've tried twice. Once at age 15 (woke up in a pool of vomit, didn't know about entiemtics) and once at 18 (woke up in ICU on a ventilator). Both times I took 3 bottles (unsure of size/dose).I was very lucky not to have permanent liver damage and don't recommend this method.It wasn't very peaceful; I was in a great deal of pain until I passed out both times. I didn't' have access to anything to help me sleep.

 

[RandomDude1234]

@Arak The official LD50 (for the uninitiated, LD50 is the chance of 50% people dying using a particular method) is 2g/kg of body weight which is stupid high.

@Duqu Thanks for sharing your experience. And yeah, the more I research this method, the more uncertain it looks.

 

[Arak]

The cumulative load on your liver also matters.

 

[weedoge]

So I've been doing a lot of research on this particular overdose for various reasons, (which I will maybe get to in a later post)
From what I have find, there is no solid opinion on if it works or not. I have read about people dying with a dosage of as low as 15g to people apparently surviving dosages of upward of 60g.

The most recurrent theme is that people chicken out and go to ER in a few hours, which makes the OD unsuccessful as doctors can pump out your stomach.

But what if I am to take 26g Tylenol (for the uninitiated Paracetamol, Acetaminophen, Tylenol are the same thing) and manage to not report for 12-24 hours. I have read that the risk increases multi-fold after 8 hours.

Also, some people have pointed out that your body will make you vomit out. What if the dosage is spread out over multiple hours, say four.

So what I'm trying to ask is, how lethal will be a dosage of 26g of Tylenol spread over 4-5 hours if it's not reported for over 12+ hours.
I know it will be painful and my last days will suck but that's a discussion for some other time. Right now, I'm only concerned about the effectiveness of the method.

No solid opinion is exactly right...

Toxicity can occur over an acute dose or even sustained moderate doses.

This thread is most of what I have to say on overdoses. OTC you might be better looking at cwe on opiates like co-codamol. Diphenhydramine or promethazine if you're in Canada. You generally want some sort of cocktail but a researched one not just ransom. Doses you need are pretty specific (ally high) too.

Good luck

https://sanctioned-suicide.net/threads/drug-overdose-thread.4186/

 

[RandomDude1234]

@Arak Thanks
@weedoge Thanks will look.

On the plus side, anyone searching to go out using this method won't have to do as much research. Generally all the information you can find via quick google search can be summed up as "Don't do it" which doesn't tell much.

 

[Trashcan]

Possibly lethal, not certainly. I took 33 grams of Tylenol when I was 95 pounds. Never got medical treatment. It's been 5 1/2 years and it didn't do any permanent damage. Taking it with alcohol is supposed to ingress the damage.

 

[ChaosDergon]

Not a good idea really. I remember 2 times I decided to just do it this way. Obvi did not work out. The first time was a few years ago, when I took a leave from work and went to visit my parents. While there I ended up taking about 26 grams worth over several hours. All that really happened was that I got very, very sick for a while. Threw up a fuck load and then basically slept for 3 days. Did not feel normal physically for about 2 week there after. Not a pleasant experience at all, though IMO would have been worth it if over successful.

You would think after one failed attempt with that method I would leave it behind for another. But I ended up convincing myself it was amount. The 2nd time I ended up taking about 50 grams (within about 1 hour), combined with a bunch of seroquel I think was about 4 grams and also several grams of sprio (10ish g). Did not think it would hurt to just through those into the body too. This did not end up with the desired effect, though it might have. I got interrupted due to my own foolishness of saying goo bye in an IM rather then a note that can be found later. I was rushed to hospital. I do not remember much about that night or next day. But I do know things were bad, and my heart felt like it would explode, and I also remember the nurses/docs being mad at me for a mess but I have no idea what mess. I assume I vomited bad, but by that time I was super out of it. Only registered in my memory due to the anger/frustration I heard. Ended up in hospital for a week, 3 of those days I could not actually support myself when standing and needed help to the washroom and stuff. Total loss of dignity and hated the whole after experience.

In short do not use Tylenol for a CTB method, it will more likely then not end in disaster. Find a better method, though I have no sugesstions really, as I am still figuring it out myself. But SN seems promising from other posts.

 

[RandomDude1234]

@Trashcan & @ChaosDergon Thank you both for sharing your experience.

And about the dosage, yeah. LD50 for Tylenol is 200gm for a 200lb/100kg individual. That's a lot of tablets. Of course if someone doesn't report the dosage for a significant amount of time (24hr+), even relatively small dosage (60gm+) will be lethal though chances of panicking and reporting or someone noticing are high as the person will probably be very sick.

 

[Wannadie]

My overdoseses when I was young (12 to 15 maybe) were always on paracetamol and aspirin. I've taken up to 60 tablets (that's 30 grams) and at that time I was about 170 cm and 40-45 kg. Needless to say I always survived, but did end up multiple days in the hospital, vomiting excessively (seriously, you won't be able to stop vomiting for hours) and I almost needed a liver transplantation that someone else could have benefited from way better (they were already contacting the university hospital but at the last moment my liver recovered). On top of all this it's super hard to hide and you'll have to be alone for 2 to 3 days because people will suspect what's going on when you vomit that much. I CAN'T RECOMMEND THIS AT ALL. And I would never do this again now I'm older and wiser and now a lot more about suicide, toxicology and the human body. It's your choice but please think about it

 

[Burned out]

I attempted again with this method, same 12 grams. This time I fasted 17 hours, no food or liquid. Made it 5 hours before I started to vomit, holding it in was not possible.
Notes:
-The odd smell was there, again. Highly offensive at times.
-Having an empty stomach enabled me to keep it in longer, although plenty of vomit still was produced.
-Extreme pain in the stomach and especially right side of lower abdomen where I think the liver is. More scary than painful, however.
-No medical treatment was sought; vomiting continued for 12 or so hours after it initially began.
-Avoided in patient by not talking about it.
-Had diarrhea for about a month straight, presumably from irritated internal organs..
-Forced myself to vomit when vomiting began because the attempt at that point was deemed a failure and priority was to minimize bodily damage I would have to live with. Seemed to have gotten out of it with zero permanent damage.
-Either the acetaminophen itself or a coating on the pills is what is causing the unreliableness of this method (vomiting too soon).
-5 hours uncertain if you're going to live or not gives a unique opportunity to know yourself.