Medications for Suicide

[Wiglaf]

I was wondering if anyone here has considered suicide or knows someone who has attempted it or commited it. Also, how do you deal with people making suicidal threats all the time, and are just generally unhappy. Any medications anyone is aware of? ANYONE GOT experience with any medications? Are they HUMANE or do they just make people feel GIDDY and change their essence.

This is a question I am not trying to r uffle any feathers but instead gain your input with this. Everyone except MRT144 because he's a d-bag.

[SlowwHand]

Yes, there are meds for it.

[Wiglaf]

Right

I know someone on them

A dental hygenist

She is ****ing peppy as hell

That seems...inhumane

[Kuciwalker]

Re: Medications for Suicide

Alcohol works if you drink enough, so I've heard.

[KrazyHorse]

Alcohol-poisoning-to-death is actually fairly difficult to achieve.

The timescale for absorption is long enough (along with the difficulty in simply drinking the large volume of liquid required) that most people will puke out enough of the alcohol before absorbing it to avoid death.

[KrazyHorse]

Coke and smack are much easier to OD on because the ingestion route doesn't allow the user to rid himself of the drug before absorption.

[Q Classic]

--The medications I've had are less happy-making pills and more akin towards ameliorating the listlessness that attended the dark periods.

I stopped taking them because the during switchover period of roughly two weeks between/going on/going off them, I'd wake up dizzy; while on them, while I was able to better regulate the darkness, I also felt dulled.

Not so much less alive, not so much dumber, but... not sharp. I hated them, to be honest, too. While I'm okay with taking chemicals to alleviate other biological situations such as physical illnesses (better living through chemistry, natch), I'm leery of the ones that are meant to alter brain chemistry.

Take from that what you will.

--As far as suicides go, if they're telling you, they want the attention. Subconciously, anyway. Though it's not always a reliable indicator of such thoughts, as I know there have been plenty of times and instances (as recently as early last year) where the urge has been phenomenally great, but I didn't mention it to others.

--As far as medications to use, I don't know. But I'm convinced that the coating on many drugs is meant to stimulate emesis if taken in high quantities at once without grinding them up.

It's not a path that I'd recommend, as there are other methods that are quicker and more effective, if pain isn't a concern (though many drugs do cause enormous amounts of discomfort).

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Coke and smack are much easier to OD on because the ingestion route doesn't allow the user to rid himself of the drug before absorption.

They're not as easy to obtain, though. Well, unless you livei in Baltimore.

[notyoueither]

Morphine is used in palliative care.

I don't know if I consider it suicide.

A very ill person who has no hope of recovery is allowed to order the dose to be raised to relieve pain and suffering. The increased dose is lethal, but you go out without pain and you're unconcious as your lungs shut down.

To me it is humane.

[Aeson]

I've rewritten this about 15 times now... don't know how to say it. My experiences with psychiatric meds were very bad. Lets just say I bought in initially with a diagnosis of insomnia, and cashed out after a couple suicide attempts, several hospitalizations, and ECT... I'd recommend dealing with it with counselling, or even just using the money for something enjoyable from time to time instead.

I've been off of meds, and haven't seen a shrink, for a bit over a decade now. I met a lot of people going through similar issues while in hospitals, and no one I ever met was cured by a pill either. In my own case the medications actually were one of the biggest obstacles to overcome.

I think for milder cases meds (for a short time) can make sense to help someone get back on track. But when someone has come to the conclusion that death is preferable to life, they have to find a reason to live. Otherwise to change "it" chemically requires suppressing or destroying the very essense of who they are.

As for how to help someone who is suicidal, I don't know. You can listen if they want to talk, but they have to reach out first or you'll just push them further away. Reasoning and logic about the good things in life won't help. In the end it's about a choice they will make, whether they think it's better to live or die, and with mental illness the reasons for that choice probably aren't going to make much sense to anyone else.

If it's any condolence, none of the people who've attempted suicide that I've known had ever broadcast their plans to do it. (But I wouldn't confront someone making threats with that sort of statement, people can be very stubborn...) To someone who is serious, bringing attention to their plan, if they even realize they have one, is the last thing they want. (Spur of the moment type things tend to be more rash and visible, but it would already be over if that was the case.)

[snoopy369]

In my opinion, most psychiatric medications are symptom treatments rather than treating the causes. The symptom cures generally are not good, and don't really work that well. The exception to that, and probably the only class that's worth considering, are the Seritonin affectors (SSRIs mostly). This includes prozac, paxil, etc. Even then, they're prescribed to way more people than they actually help. But, some people are 'depressed' because of an inability to maintain high enough Seritonin levels. Those people, SSRIs help to some extent. (Usually a lack of Seritonin causes frustration, an inability to complete thoughts, and a sort of indecisiveness. It also may cause compulsive snacking.) Other than that, I don't recommend any psychiatric medications, and even SSRIs and similar are not always great.

[Q Classic]

Serotonin.

And yes, SSRIs are not happy pills, just... stasis-removal pills.

[Colon™]

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Alcohol-poisoning-to-death is actually fairly difficult to achieve.

Can be, but attempting it is entertaining.

[pchang]

art not science

No one really knows the mechanics of exactly psychiatric drugs affect mood and outlook. It is very much empirical. Unfortunately, there is also a large of amount of individual variability in terms of their affects and the dosage levels required to achieve them. It can easily take more than a year of experimenting with different drugs and dosages to achieve any benefit. There are new genetics tests available that can identify how fast individuals metabolize certain classes of drugs. But, using the results of those tests to try and shorten the experimental phase of drug treatment is a new art and the only psychiatrists I know who are trying to do this are involved in university research. So unless, the psychiatrist is affiliated with a university (like UCSF - often psychiatrists at SF General have UCSF affiliations), I think it is unlikely that an SF area psychiatrist would be really familiar with this new stuff.

[Dis]

thought about it. even put a gun to my head. But in the end, I think I always knew I wouldn't do it. I don't know if it's lack of courage or what.

But what I think it really is, is I still have hope. I don't know why I have hope, but I do.

I was doing pretty ****ty in December, but I'm doing real good this year.

Check this link out. Supposedly the happiest man in the world.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article2171679.ece

Meditation is the key to this guy. Though I'm thinking he's only so happy because he knows his book is going to sell millions of copies. Money can make you happy (for a little while)

I'm thinking maybe I should try this meditation thing.

But I do think he has a point. The brain can be trained to be "happier". It isn't easy. I haven't been able to do it. But I hear cognitive therapy works wonders. And it is recommended to be used in conjunction with drugs. Much better than taking drugs alone. But most people want the easy way, which is just to take a pill, and aren't willing to devote themselves to any serious therapy. Myself is included in that group (except I refuse to take drugs that will case my willy not to work).