A friend of mine committed suicide yesterday. I don't know the exact details, but his girlfriend who found him said that she found an empty dihydrocodeine bottle, some Xanax and booze. At some level we all knew something bad might happen, since he was clinically depressed and had some serious suicide attempts before. He had all the support in the world, and I don't know if anything else could have been done to avoid this tragedy. I just want to know if he felt any pain or if he departed this world peacefully. I feel that knowing he didn't suffer might bring some comfort to me and his family.
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My friend just died from opiate OD, did he suffer?
- Thread starter Niiirvo
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Swerlz
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More than likely didn't feel a thing.. drifted off to sleep and never woke up.. I'm to hear about your loss, it sucks to lose a friend like that.. I've OD'd before and I dont remember a thing to felt anything.. just went black and woke up with people over me bringing me back to life.. Definitely not something I want to experience again
herbavore
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I am so terribly sorry for your loss. It sounds like your friend just got exhausted with the effort to make his particular paradigm sustainable. Try your hardest not to focus on anything that creates a sense of guilt--like thinking you could have saved him. A good friend of mine committed suicide two years ago and while I know that if I had been there to receive his call he would have stayed alive longer I also accept that it would have been at most a matter of a few more years of misery for him because he had given up years earlier.
My own son overdosed. We will never know how intentional or accidental it was. One thing that gives me a small kernel of comfort is the fact that his body was in a very comfortable and relaxed position when I found him. If he had been in pain, or in a panic, it would be unbearable for me to think about. I do not believe that either your friend, my friend, my son, nor any other physically healthy human being has to die to find peace but I do take comfort that his death at least released him into a peace without physical pain to get there.
My own son overdosed. We will never know how intentional or accidental it was. One thing that gives me a small kernel of comfort is the fact that his body was in a very comfortable and relaxed position when I found him. If he had been in pain, or in a panic, it would be unbearable for me to think about. I do not believe that either your friend, my friend, my son, nor any other physically healthy human being has to die to find peace but I do take comfort that his death at least released him into a peace without physical pain to get there.
JessFR
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It's very unlikely that he suffered.
Some people suggest that there is suffering involved because of what they believe to be apparent suffering when they witnessed the overdose. But that's a misunderstanding. When people die, their bodies to certain things, like for example gasping for air. That looks to witnesses like pain or discomfort. But we know from what we know both about consciousness and the first hand reports of people who've survived that such behaviors are automatic and aren't experienced by the person.
The reason I mention this because I've heard it suggested in various contexts about suffering in various drug overdose scenarios, and I wouldn't want anyone to take that and think their loved ones might have suffered based on that.
Based on everything we know it is extremely unlikely he would have suffered. Most who survive such overdoses don't even know anything happened until they regain consciousness much later.
I'm sorry for what you've experienced. I hope any of this helps at all.
Some people suggest that there is suffering involved because of what they believe to be apparent suffering when they witnessed the overdose. But that's a misunderstanding. When people die, their bodies to certain things, like for example gasping for air. That looks to witnesses like pain or discomfort. But we know from what we know both about consciousness and the first hand reports of people who've survived that such behaviors are automatic and aren't experienced by the person.
The reason I mention this because I've heard it suggested in various contexts about suffering in various drug overdose scenarios, and I wouldn't want anyone to take that and think their loved ones might have suffered based on that.
Based on everything we know it is extremely unlikely he would have suffered. Most who survive such overdoses don't even know anything happened until they regain consciousness much later.
I'm sorry for what you've experienced. I hope any of this helps at all.