SO YOU WANT TO COMMIT SUICIDE

SO YOU WANT TO COMMIT SUICIDE

         Suppose you are writing a story in which someone is supposed to commit suicide. What are the factors you need to include to make such a desperate action believable? Cut the wrists and bleed to death or take a few pills and never wake up--sounds simple enough. It's not!
         Motivation to commit suicide is hard to establish. Life is tough. Most people deal with problems, needs, failures, threats and disaster on a daily basis. To make suicide a believable act you must provide some logical and reasonable succession of events. I do not suggest that the suicide be reasonable to the reader. Indeed, the reader will probably be saying, “No, no, don’t do it.“ What you can do is show that in the character’s mind or from his viewpoint, it is reasonable. Depression is the classic symptom. The person who feels he has nothing to look forward to or has no hope of bettering his already wretched situation is the best candidate for suicide. No matter how well it integrates with your story line, most people do not want to die, and your reader may not want to identify with a character that is planning it. Most people who are successful in committing suicide have a long history of suicidal ideation or behavior. It may be remembered only after the person is dead.
         Cutting an artery is serious and, if it is the jugular in the neck or a major artery in the groin or chest, you might die. But more than likely, it is going to be a long slow process. Peripheral cutting, that is to the arms or legs, usually causes a big mess and lots of panic. But the body has made the decision not to die. The blood coagulates and pretty efficiently conserves enough to keep the motor running. If you choose to use cutting, make sure your terminally depressed person is on a blood thinner, and you might have a better chance of success. But, remember, it is going to be slow.
         Suicide by the chemical method is risky, too. There is such a thing as a lethal dose of minor tranquillizers like Valium. The problem with that is that when a person takes that large a dose, he usually gets sick and throws up. He may be very sick, but likely will be found before he dies. You can complicate the whole thing by having him aspirate when he vomits, but it’s terribly messy and not necessarily lethal. It might even give you life on a kidney machine, life support, etc. To make the best use of the drug method, mix the Valium with alcohol. Taking uppers and downers at the same time can stress the heart and cause death, but it’s relatively inefficient. You might succeed accidentally that way. Dosages are difficult. Body weight, food consumption and tolerance may complicate things. You should check the interactions of drugs in a PDR (Physicians Desk Reference). Minor tranquillizers potentiate with alcohol but not all drugs do.
         If you don’t want to do the research, then make it very hush-hush and don’t give any details. Lots of people don’t want to talk about suicide anyway. But if you really want to use it, make your details match the reality of self-destruction.
         Suicidal gestures for attention or secondary gain are another matter. Later.