Why do people who hang themselves shake when they do it?

[alexthegreat]

What is the biological reason for it? I've seen multiple videos of hanging and I don't understand. Thanks

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

Hypoxic convulsions - Due to lack of oxygen in the brain, persons may appear rigid or stiff, may jerk violently, and/or froth at the mouth.

(Did a site search of "hanging convulsions," found the name for it, googled the definition.)

 

[PrettyMoose]

Internal blockage of carotid arteries by plaques causes strokes. Hanging is basically inducing a stroke.

 

[devil]

isn't it because your body is fighting against it, basically your body's natural reaction is to fight to breathe but when the rope or whatever is not allowing that then you start to shake to try to get free from it? idk i feel like that sounds logical, maybe i'm wrong.

 

[GoodPersonEffed]

isn't it because your body is fighting against it, basically your body's natural reaction is to fight to breathe but when the rope or whatever is not allowing that then you start to shake to try to get free from it? idk i feel like that sounds logical, maybe i'm wrong.

If you look at the hanging megathread in the Resources Compilation, people lose consciousness, then go into convulsions. There are videos of both full and partial hangings, and a while back I posted a link there to a published study of eight videoed partial suicides, and all went into these convulsions.

 

[Pan]

Internal blockage of carotid arteries by plaques causes strokes. Hanging is basically inducing a stroke.

Hmmm..A very interesting way of defining it.

 

[PrettyMoose]

Hmmm..A very interesting way of defining it.

I believe this also explains why in a lot of cases people who hang themselves make awkward movements with their hands, sometimes with hands curling up and making repetitive motions very similar to how many stroke victims do.

 

[TooLate2582]

I believe this also explains why in a lot of cases people who hang themselves make awkward movements with their hands, sometimes with hands curling up and making repetitive motions very similar to how many stroke victims do.

That's Decerebrate posturing. Indicative of a brain injury

 

[PrettyMoose]

That's Decerebrate posturing. Indicative of a brain injury

I didn't realize there was an actual name for those movements. Thanks for letting me know!

 

[SuiSqueeze92]

I didn't realize there was an actual name for those movements. Thanks for letting me know!

Decorticate posturing is the other. Basically with decorticate, hands/arms are clinched more toward your core. That's how I had always remembered it for notes, deCOREticate.

 

[Halnas]

The body gets some weird or mixed signals from the dead brain and during that it does that abnormal posturing.

Abnormal posturing - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It's not the body fighting against it (when it occures you are already gone) and a stroke doesn't do the same. A stroke just affects a part of the brain with symptoms like not seeing on one eye or half of the body being stiff, etc.
This is what happens on a stroke: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spastic_hemiplegia

If you see some video about someone hanging and you see them doing that, it means that they were successful and found the easiest way to go. They successfully blocked the cartoid artery while not blocking the airway and went away in seconds. That occuring is literally the goal that you want with hanging. You might not like it how it looks on video, but it is neither a "body fighting" or "having a stroke".
It is as comfortable as dying can get.