Method Hypothermia

[gone-with-the-wind]

what temperature would it need to be outside for hypothermia to set in? and if the person was dressed in completely wet clothing, for example if they went for a late night swim fully dressed and then sat on the beach, how cold would it need to be then? If the person begins to achieve hypothermia but ultimately fails, will they suffer any long term affects? Genuinely curious about this but if you ask anywhere, people think you are insane and need to be hospitalized.

 

[Kokobushi_bae26]

I'm sorry I don't have an answer for you. The only thing I hate more than myself- is being cold

Really just wanted to tell you, your user name is genius

 

[Severen]

I've been in situations where I was freezing to death but received shelter before it was too late. So up until you reach hypothermia, it will be like burning in hell except freezing in hell. And then you fall asleep and die.

 

[KnightOfEnceladus]

@gone-with-the-wind: if you are going to try and freeze to death, I would suggest being very drunk and having maybe a few doses of benadryl or some other strong sleeping agent. There are somewhat unpleasant parts of freezing, including a stage where the body thinks it's actually badly overheated, as alluded to above.

 

[snowman626]

For wet clothes and sitting on a beach it will probably require lower temperatures, my guess is around 0 degrees celcius. I plan to take a similar route.

My method is going deep into the wilderness in winter and finding a big body of water like a lake. Take an inflatable boat and go into the middle of the lake, jump in the lake to wet my clothes, then climb back in the boat. Take my alcohol to feel warm and just lay down and watch the stars, hopefully fall asleep and ctb.

 

[Sayo]

Seems suboptimal to try to do it outside water (although I seriously don't recommend doing it in water). It will take a lot longer in air as opposed to water (due to convection - you'll lose heat faster in water). This will increase your chance of rescue. My personal experience from attempting to drown myself in the ocean is that people come out on the beach early, even in winter. They like to walk their dogs or just get some exercise in. Medical attention will be called. So you will go through an unbearable pain for a lot of nothing. I have a fear of cold years later because of what I went through, and my hypothermia was not even severe. It takes a long time to die irrevocably from hypothermia - there are some very famous stories of people revived from extreme hypothermia (mountains, submersion in icy water for some time, etc.) because their body shut down almost completely and CPR was able to be administered.

Things you have to worry about if you survive: it depends how far it progresses. You could come out unscathed or end up with serious issues in your organs (liver, kidney, other organs might fail), arrythmias, tissue damage, pneumonia, etc. Frostbite is also possible in the process of attempting to get hypothermia. Brain issues are possible from long-term severe hypothermia, end stages.

'Burning in hell except freezing in hell' is a really good description.

I understand why someone might want a passive method of suicide. But try and avoid this one. It's prolonged, somewhat unreliable, your survival instinct will fight you until you can't make decisions any more, it leaves you at great risk of rescue, and it's so, so painful.

 

[snowman626]

Thats why i dont do it at a beach where people walk their dogs, i do it in the mountain wilderness, the type of place people get lost in and i would hike a few miles into it. Id Get rid of the rescue risk and its suddenly a very reliable way to go.

 

[LifeIsNotFun]

I've been in situations where I was freezing to death but received shelter before it was too late. So up until you reach hypothermia, it will be like burning in hell except freezing in hell. And then you fall asleep and die.

Couldn't one take a sleeping pill, and go sleep in a forest during winter. I'm sure that could work.

 

[mrwonderful]

I've attempted this way before. I live in central Canada (sk) and I downed about 1.5 bottles of absolut vodka (750ml each). I laid on my back yard deck at 1am while it was probably -25c and I probably would've succeeded if I didn't go back inside to grab a jacket. I didn't even wear the jacket just lay it over my torso so I could nod off. I unfortunately woke up with numb hands and a sore neck. It was a very unpleasant attempt and it would take a very long time for it to actually work. I do not recommend, I was very desperate to leave a wasted 2 good bottles of alcohol.

 

[KnightOfEnceladus]

The general takeaway from this thread is that hypothermia on its own sucks, is difficult, takes a long time, has risk of terrible sequelae if interrupted, and isn't all that practical.

If you're going to do this, it sounds like a combination method is needed: large doses of sedatives and such to knock you out and make your body more vulnerable, and to ensure you don't suffer.

 

[Soul]

The general takeaway from this thread is that hypothermia on its own sucks, is difficult, takes a long time, has risk of terrible sequelae if interrupted, and isn't all that practical.

If you're going to do this, it sounds like a combination method is needed: large doses of sedatives and such to knock you out and make your body more vulnerable, and to ensure you don't suffer.

And go somewhere well away from dogwalkers and down parkas

 

[snowman626]

I like the fact that this method takes a long time to kill you because its less of a shock to the mind than say jumping or hanging or even drinking SN. You wouldnt really panic because you can always get up and put on dry clothes at any time, and being in cold weather is something most people have experienced before and so its familiar.

You have hours and hours to reflect on your entire life and everything that got you to this point, feeling the relief that its all over now and its going home time.

Also i dont think cold is that painful. At first yes, but the body gets acclimated and then it gets numb and your mind will probably wander and drift into a zombie like dream state.

 

[Sayo]

Finishing a post I didn't finish yesterday, but what Knight said.

Thats why i dont do it at a beach where people walk their dogs, i do it in the mountain wilderness, the type of place people get lost in and i would hike a few miles into it. Id Get rid of the rescue risk and its suddenly a very reliable way to go.

Yeah, I was primarily addressing OP. It's a horrible way to go, and you're still fighting yourself and your own raw survival instinct (as well as your body's obvious attempts not to lose its heat), but your chances of dying are a lot higher if you go somewhere genuinely isolated (not somewhere people hike or rangers hang about). It can take time to fully die.

I skimmed over your post a bit. To be clear, before you fall asleep, you'll be shivering, etc. But alcohol will accelerate the heat loss somewhat. I've never drunk alcohol so I generally don't comment on things involving alcohol unless it's pharmaceutical, but that one is well known and easily verified through the literature.

I'm hesitant to link external resources or rehost them here any more. Google things like 'hypothermia chart' and 'hypothermia water temperature chart'. The data seems to be the same across sites. The other good chart to look at is NWS (National Weather Service) Windchill Chart, which shows time exposed at various temperatures to risk frostbite.

The problem is not getting out of the water and the drown risk vs. the time it will take to die of air exposure. Wet clothes do help with the conduction issue.

I just found this and it's pretty good. I will link it, and leave it at that. Anyway, you should always know how whatever you're trying to do is treated, especially if you can treat yourself if you can't go through with it to prevent further damage. But it has other good information as well. https://www.princeton.edu/~oa/safety/hypocold.shtml

I'd rather drown for what it's worth, but it takes a lot of guts (guts in the sense of raw impulse or ability to override SI or whatever can allow one to subject oneself to pain, not courage).

 

[purplemoon]

I've been in situations where I was freezing to death but received shelter before it was too late. So up until you reach hypothermia, it will be like burning in hell except freezing in hell. And then you fall asleep and die.

was your hypothermia painful? if so, how was it painful?
thank you

 

[MaybeMaybeKnot]

Many of the climbers who freeze to death are overcome by hypoxia first. So maybe if you could get some altitude the thinner air could help you sleep faster or deeper.