Suicide and Attempted Suicide | 
 enlarge | Author: Geo Stone
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Category: Book
Buy Used: $122.45
Used (9) Collectible (1) from $122.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  39 reviews
Sales Rank: 608426
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6 x 1.3
ISBN: 0786709405
Dewey Decimal Number: 158
EAN: 9780786709403
ASIN: 0786709405
Publication Date: September 1, 2001
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Too often attempted suicide leads to unintended consequences, because ignorance is deadly and desperation can be fatal. In this morally courageous book, Geo Stone sets out to diminish the lack of awareness about suicide, from the tragedy of teenage suicide to the debate over assisted suicide.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 34 more reviews...
 The Ultimate " How To " September 14, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Well, after reading this I can truly see where I messed up during my two attempts. Not enough drugs. Ahh!!. This book is clinical in it's analysis of suicide. It gives the reader precise details on how to commit suicide and what methods are effective. There is very little written about the toll it takes on a suicide's family and friends. It's a book about pure destruction. I guess it is useful to those who wish to end their lives. Speaking from experience I found it frightening. The mere fact that I was moments away from permanent death shook me to the foundations of my being. My hand started to tremble as I turned each page. What gruesome vision would come into my head? What sad song or fleeting memory would drive me to the brink of insanity? But it also begs the eternal question of the meaning of life. Is everyone's life valuable? Is every life sacred? Does committing the act of suicide upset GOD's plan? How important are you really in the great scheme of things. Will you be a forgotten memory or ghost of some ancient time? No one really can answer that question. When I was a younger I had a misearble time of it and things in my life weren't going very well. So, I figured that I had nothing to loose by committing suicide. My method was some pills I found in a medicine cabinet. I took all of them except for a couple. I went to bed and fell asleep in no time flat.
I had weird dreams, none of which I can remember in great detail. I remember feeling a deep sense of regret and extreme sadness. Being that I was never a happy child to begin with, I absorbed misery and harshness like a sponge. To anyone who really knows me( which is very few, I'm very selective and protective of my "world")they would say that I'm well grounded and maybe even well liked but oh no that's not the case. After this period of " suicide attempt by medical perscription" I awoke the next morning to my amazement with a severe headache and even more torturous stomach convulsions, blurred vision and hearing loss that I know deal with from time to time. My initial reaction was anger because I wasn't dead but after the intense pain of a failed attempt sadnes and failure creeped in and overwhelmed the physcial pain of what I had tried to do. It took me almost a week or two to get the chemicals out of my system. I recovered and tried a second attempt a few years later and failed again. After the second attempt I gave up. I figured that it wasn't my time to go. So I eventually had to cope with fleeting feelings of failure and sadness and deep depressions on my own.
Anyway I digress. The book does cause the serious reader to really take into consideration all the options and none of the consequences. Would I recommend this book or the other famous book on the subject " Final Exit "? I guess I would and only as a cautionary tome about what makes you tick or not tick. The final decision is yours.
 The Power To Choose July 15, 2007
19 out of 19 found this review helpful
When I was 11 years old, my brother and I were walking to our favorite swimming spot on the Colorado River. We passed through a dusty, overgrown lot where an old man had been living in his trailer. We saw him working around his car, with a tube that he'd taped to his exhaust pipe. He looked up, smiled and waved. When my bro and I were done with our swim, we walked home the same way we'd came. We noticed the old man's car running...amber smoke in the car, the long tube taped from his exhaust pipe to the rear window...his head was leaning against the passenger window. We knew then that he'd killed himself.
The thing that strikes me about that memory is the peace that I saw in the old guy's face prior to his making his exit. He wasn't obviously tormented - he looked happily resolved. And if my life was deteriorating in an uncomfortable and irreversible way for myself, I'd like to think I have the backbone to go ahead and pull the plug like he did. Why is there so much stigma attached to this act? I guess the key word here is "irreversible". Some dire situations, certain emotional pains - seem to have no end, so suicide appears to be the best solution to some people...in the moment. If they'd just work through the pain of a temporary situation...they can go on to a happier existence. Is this a dangerous book for people at that threshold? My life partner reacted badly to the mere idea of my owning this book, and brought that point up. I reminded him that he and I come from a generation that was used to hiding all the smut and dirty little details of reality...the new generation is the "Information Age". If a person really wants to learn how to do something, they can research it on the net and forums dedicated to certain controversial topics. But this book DISSUADES someone from making a foolhardy gesture - going into detail about the consequences (pain/crippling) of certain common methods of trying to "dispatch" oneself. It's presented in a very realistic, responsible way. If I had to lose my entire library and only keep one book - this would be the one book that I would keep - tucked safely under my arm - as a valuable reference for the moment I might need it in the (hopefully distant) future. Throughout the tumultuous journey that is life, I find great comfort in having my guidebook, my "map", of how to gracefully, and with dignity, be able to find my final resting place - should I need it.
XXX...As a final note to this review; I found out later that the old man my brother and I saw commit suicide had been pining for his life-long sweetheart, who had died the previous year...in addition to facing grave health problems of his own. I used to go into his abandoned trailer to play "Go-Fish" with my little friends, and never felt weird about what I'd witnessed. I felt like he would have welcomed me being there.
I wish people would start giving up their fear of death in our narrow-minded little western society. Other, comparitively primitive societies have much healthier and more realistic attitudes than we do.
 Geo Stoned, more like. May 8, 2006
2 out of 96 found this review helpful
Whenever I feel helples and awfull (which is SO offen) I look up at the stars and wonder why, GOD, did you put me on this earth to suffar? I suffar SO MUCH! i just want to thank you, geo, for helping poeple liek us (the depresed) realize that there is really so little to live for. i might as well die. geo... i'll shake your hand in hevven! i <3 <3 <3 geo!
i have never read this book.
Geo's Tome May 8, 2006
1 out of 86 found this review helpful
This does not help anyone. Everyone around me is committing suicide to this book. It's awful... awfully good... awfully good to die to.
Kill me if I pay this much for a book! September 6, 2005
13 out of 81 found this review helpful
Anyone who pays a thousand bucks for a $20 book deserves to die. Give me a break!
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