Let’s discuss the surprisingly LOW number of successful overdose suicides

[Drewpeterson519]

So if you do a quick search on the success rate of suicide methods, you'll see that using a firearm and hanging have quite high success rates. Overdosing on the other hand, has a VERY low success rate. And I'm beginning to wonder why.

Over 120 people in the United States ALONE die from overdose per day. That's a lot. That adds up to over 43,000 a year. I also happen to know several people who died by overdose. I'm sure many people on this forum do as well. So needless to say, drug overdoses are very deadly. Which is why you would think that the statistical rate of success of suicide by overdose would be much higher. But apparently it's not. I myself have done a lot of drugs but never overdosed or attempted to do it intentionally. I've experimented with fairly high doses of opioids (100+ mg of hydrocodone) but never with the intention of killing myself. And I never had any fatal reactions from these high doses. Never had to go to the hospital, or anything like that. So I personally don't know what it's like to overdose, I just know a lot of people die from it, but according to statistics online, very few people die from it when they do it intentionally.

So what I wanna discuss in this thread is basically: why do you think that it is this way? How come so many people die unintentionally from drugs but so few die when it's intentional? Is there a chance that many intentional overdoses are written off as unintentional?

What do you guys think? Post your ideas and opinions below. Also, if you have any 1st hand experience with overdoses, you're encouraged to share! Will definitely help this discussion.

Thanks everyone!

 

[k75]

Overdosing on the other hand, has a VERY low success rate. And I'm beginning to wonder why.

It's not a mystery. Drugs are very safe these days. Prescription meds are made so it's difficult to overdose with them. Most pills are formulated with added emetics to make you sick long before you can overdose. Most of the older ones that were deadly are banned or not used very much anymore. As far as opioids, substances like Narcan make it easier to prevent a fatal OD.

 

[adios]

As k75 said, OTC drugs are engineered to be extremely safe, and often have emetic properties. I also think part of it might have to do with the fact that ODs give someone a while to change their mind, making them far less deadly than a gunshot, where you really don't have time. When someone ODs accidentally, they usually don't know they're doing it, so this wouldn't apply. Idk, that's just my theory.

 

[Fragile]

They usually count overdoses as a whole instead of as a substance by substance basis. An OD on literally any OTC drug is extremely unlikely to kill most people and it's usually used in an impulsive way without much research/knowledge, the reason a lot of people fail, regardless of the drug is because SI kicks in and they underestimated the pain of an OD, or simply woke up the next day with the worst hangover of their lives. But if we are talking about controlled and illegal substances then we'd see a much, and I mean much higher lethality rate.

And also, violent methods will always be more successful because of a wide variety of reasons, including their simplicity. Hanging, for example, is by far one of the most tried and tested methods in all of human history, it's also extremely simple and everyone, even the people with absolutely no intention to kill themselves, know enough about it to make it work. It's not as simple with most substances, since you need a high dose of them, careful preparation and luck, because there are a lot of factors that play a role in these methods, and your body may react very unpredictably, there's not a lot of science or variables in tying a rope or loading a gun.

 

[oblivion_seeker]

My ex partner died of a mixed drug overdose deemed as accidental, and I think it was mainly the case of WHAT he took and how they interacted with one another which killed him. Seems to be a lot more common with illegal drugs as well because you don't know what your really putting in your body - I guess over the counter stuff is designed to take into account that people might use them to overdose, whereas with illegal drugs the suppliers don't care whether you live or die.
But yeah in conclusion, I think a lot of it is to do with what you take and what you mix it with - mixed drug overdoses are hardly ever heard about but are actually carries a really real risk of accidentally overdosing when you think about it. Although saying that, my ex partner was mixing all these things for a while until it eventually killed him, so maybe I'm wrong.

My ex partner died of a mixed drug overdose deemed as accidental, and I think it was mainly the case of WHAT he took and how they interacted with one another which killed him. Seems to be a lot more common with illegal drugs as well because you don't know what your really putting in your body - I guess over the counter stuff is designed to take into account that people might use them to overdose, whereas with illegal drugs the suppliers don't care whether you live or die.
But yeah in conclusion, I think a lot of it is to do with what you take and what you mix it with - mixed drug overdoses are hardly ever heard about but are actually carries a really real risk of accidentally overdosing when you think about it. Although saying that, my ex partner was mixing all these things for a while until it eventually killed him, so maybe I'm wrong.

Well...he had been mixing the type of drugs (opiates, benzos and pregablin) for a while. I actually think it was the methadone that he had recently started that killed him as he wasn't educated on how much to take or how to use it safely, but that's just a theory.

 

[Luz]

Have there been cases of successful OD here on the SS forum?

 

[sudohope]

Have there been cases of successful OD here on the SS forum?

even I wanna know this! although there are articles you can find on google that mentions SS forum