Failed Suicide Attempts

Most people who attempt suicide do not succeed. Many are left disabled or disfigured. In his book The Forever Decision (read or download online), psychologist Paul Quinnett addresses the problem 'What if you Don't Succeed?' He mentions several cases:

• the man who tried to stab his heart and missed by a fraction of an inch. It wasn't until several months later that, with the help of the staff and a vocational rehabilitation plan that would train him in a new profession, that he was able to return to a full life.
• Tom, a teenage boy, put a .22 pistol to his head and pulled the trigger. The bullet entered his temple, ripped through his brain, ricocheted around the inside of his skull, and lodged in his jaw. He did not die. Now severely brain-damaged, he lives on in a nursing home- unable to work or go to school.
• Mary jumped from a high bridge into a river. Many people have died making this same jump. Mary did not. Rather, she entered the water at a bad angle and broke her back. She was rescued before she could drown. Mary lives in a wheelchair.
• George shot himself with a large-caliber pistol in the stomach. He destroyed a kidney. Fortunately, he had two.
• Bryan, arrested on a drug charge and fearful of his parents' reaction, attempted to hang himself in jail. He succeeded only in strangulating himself and losing consciousness. The loss of oxygen to his brain caused permanent brain damage.
• Janice cut her wrists sideways. One of the cuts ran deep enough to sever a tendon. Janice used to play the piano. She still plays, but not so well.
• Ann was a fifteen-year-old girl when she first cut her wrists. She helped make me aware of another problem I hadn't, at the time I met her, thought of. "I have to wear long-sleeved blouses all the time, even in the summer. When those big, clunky bracelets were in, I could sometimes get by. They would just cover the scars -provided no one looked too close. I never go swimming or to the beach because you can't hide these scars when you're in a bikini.
  Ann said that when people did notice the scars on her wrists, they would sometimes innocently ask, "What happened to your wrist?" Then, realizing how such scars are usually gotten, they would catch themselves and apologize. "It's very embarrassing," Ann said. "You feel like you have to make up some story - otherwise they'll think the worst."

Humans Are Hard to Kill

Quinnett says:

"If you think about suicide attempts the way we counselors do, you would know that there are serious, first-degree attempts, second-degree attempts, and third-degree attempts. First-degree suicide attempts are planned, deliberate, premeditated acts involving the most lethal means. Second-degree attempts are more impulsive, unplanned, and not as well thought out.

Third-degree attempts are those in which the person deliberately puts himself in a dangerous situation in which he may die, but his intent is not so clear. But all attempts, even very serious, first-degree ones, do not guarantee results.

Maybe these fine distinctions don't matter to you. Or maybe you haven't thought through all the possible outcomes But if you are thinking about killing yourself, please be aware of at least one other potential outcome: You may not die!

The general rule is that the more lethal the method you try the more damage your body will sustain and the greater the likelihood that you will end up disfigured or disabled if your attempt fails. As cold and hard as that sounds, it is nonetheless true.

Overdoses of pills can lead to respiratory failure and may cause a coma from which you may never recover. Even modest overdoses of some over-the-counter pain remedies can destroy vital internal organs. A high-speed crash in a car may leave you a cripple for life. Slashing your wrists will not only leave scars, but you may permanently damage the tendons and muscles that control your hands. "

Consequences of failure

Having failed to succeed in killing themselves, these people may find themselves confined to a nursing home where staff will be on the wach to make sure they can't make another attempt, Quinnett points out that suicide attempters live under severe restrictions and are permitted very little privacy.

"Even if the consequences of a failed suicide attempt are not so disastrous as a lasting disability or confinement to a nursing home or mental hospital, there are other unpleasant consequences.

[] I will quote Murphy's Law, "If a thing can go wrong, it will." And Murphy's Law, I'm afraid, applies just as well to suicide attempts as anything else.

Beyond the possible damage to your body if you fail to die in your attempt, there are a host of other complications. Most of these have to do with the way people will react to your attempt, how you will feel and think about yourself, and how your life will change as a result of not dying.

There is nothing romantic or mysterious about dying by suicide. Failing to die by suicide is not only unromantic it is a sad and tragic irony. If the newspapers printed all the stories about what happens to people like Tom and Charles and Ann and the thousands of others whose plans to suicide have failed and who have ended up crippled or disfigured or disabled, it just might cause all of us to think, not twice, but three times before we tried to kill ourselves.

As Ann said to me, "Tell them not to try. It's stupid."

To help save lives, the best-selling book Suicide the Forever Decision, For those Thinking about Suicide and for Those who Know, Love and Counsel Them, by Paul Quinnett, Ph.D. is herewith made available in a free electronic format to anyone in the world who wishes to read it or share it with others. Electronic copying, translation and distribution is strongly encouraged.