Suicidal? Don’t Hold your Breath

It’s impossible to die from holding your own breath.

In case you’re contemplating suicide and think suffocating yourself over simply slashing your wrists is a viable option or are scared to death of someone waltzing into your home one dark, dreary night and suffocating you to death- with a pillow or their raw, dirty hand- you can consider yourself terribly misunderstood and even a little delusional. You can’t kill yourself by holding your breath. Or BE killed by someone else holding it for you. You would effectively lose consciousness before you could consider yourself brain dead. This is because the brain requires oxygenated blood to function. When your brain loses its supply of oxygenated blood, it simply shuts down rendering you unconscious. This is when your autonomic nervous system kicks in and maintains your breathing regularity as it knows you wouldn’t have intended it to stop. You can see then, how trying to end your miserable life by holding your breath wouldn’t exactly be the most successful maneuver or the brightest of ideas.

A process of deep exhalation that rids the lungs of stagnant gasses such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen is an instant reflex action that commences the minute you pass out. There is thus, absolutely no way to overcome this reflex action because when you’re knocked out you lose control over your body’s functions while involuntary functions such as the heart pumping blood, brain activity and regular breathing still continue to govern your body full force
.