I thought for a while about how much sensitive information I wanted linked to my kiwifarms account, and I’m trying to keep this brief.
I attempted suicide earlier this year, and did read Sanctioned Suicide, but not until I had already firmly decided to do it. It took a few months to set up and I felt very isolated, I had pushed everyone out of my life in preparation. Reading there actually turned me away from trying sodium nitrite. Sounded to me like it might be painful if survived, and too easy to mess up a step. The people discussing their personal attempts helped me not do that one. I used the discussions at sanctioned suicide to figure out how I was going to do it, and really develop a plan instead of just desperately trying something that wouldn’t work, and might damage me or anyone else. Without that resource I still would have attempted, but it would have been in a more awful way, and my time leading up to it would have felt so much more desperate and suffocating.
Decided to end it after falling through the cracks far enough. Like the poster on pg 101 I have an extensive trauma history. Tried to engage with help many times but lots of systems are inadequate for severe trauma. Fought the good fight for a long time, was functional enough to get a degree but eventually in mid-adulthood fell far enough to be homeless. Couch surfed until options ran out, spent a couple of years struggling to connect with help (looked functional, not addicted, but had deep mistrust of mental health services) and figure out a way back into a world I hated and didn’t want to participate in any more. When I realized winter was coming, my PTSD was so bad I could not feed myself or keep my space clean, and I was so fucking exhausted and could see no possible way back up, in that mental state I believed I was giving myself compassion. My feelings around assisted suicide and whether it should be offered to severe mental illness is still complicated.
I attempted by figuring out how to access a drug that would be lethal in overdose, went far away from anywhere I’d ever been, and overdosed. Thought I was dying and the feeling of finality, ok I’m done now, was so peaceful. But the drug wasn’t entirely what it was supposed to be.
Left a note at the scene to make sure only EMTs entered (didn’t want to traumatize a rando wandering on the scene) but drug was mixed with another drug and I was found alive, treated medically, got a week of really awful inpatient psych treatment, then wound up living in a homeless shelter way far away from fucking everything familiar. Ironically, that was where I connected with the people who could really help me, and I started putting pieces back together.
I’m doing really well now, found myself an apartment and am making it work, while actually processing my PTSD in the present and moving on with acceptance. To be honest, if I was suddenly back to that moment in time and given the choice to either succeed with the suicide, or go through everything I’ve gone through since, I would still choose to succeed with suicide. But I’m trying to build a life that doesn’t feel that way any more, and I’m a little proud of what I’ve been able to do so far.
If I hadn’t turned to Sanctioned Suicide to read, I think I would have been much more likely to have wound up in a cycle of failed attempt after failed attempt, or have succeeded desperately in a painful, horrible way that traumatized others. I wouldn’t have wanted that to be how I gave myself compassion. I ignored the despair posts, and the troll posts. A subset of visitors there must get some kind of harm reduction benefit from it like I did.