> It is complicated, and even statements like ”access to firearms has been shown to affect suicide rates” are could be misleading because you could be putting the cart before the horse, if someone has chosen to kill themselves, it reasons they will chose a fast/painless, and effective tool.

But choice of method does affect rate of death, so it's correct to say that increased access to any method that's commonly used affects the rate of death. Decreasing access to that method is valid if its one of the measures taken to reduce suicide rates.

The unique thing about guns is that they're generally more effective at suicide than the other chosen methods. It's less about the speed of access people are mentioning, but more that when someone uses a gun to commit suicide it's more likely to work than other methods.

So it's less that guns increase the rate of suicide, and more that they increase the suicide rate to suicide attempt ratio due to their efficacy. Which, similar to the point you're making, means America probably has less suicide attempts to begin with than its suicide rate would indicate relative to other countries.

Less painful in my opinion would be a helium tank from a childrens party store and a gas mask from a hardware store. Syncope -> Mortality. Probably closer to Kevorkian's assisted method but more involved.

One of my friends borrowed nitrogen and a mask from work to pull it off. It's the most ideal way to go out from what I understand.

On the shittiest days I see the lines of nitrogen tanks we use at work for Gas Detector calibration and remember my old buddy.

They no longer put pure helium in those tanks for this reason.

Ah yes, it appears that has fallen in favor of nitrogen. [1] I never would have imagined nitrogen would do the same thing. Apparently there are a variety of inert gasses that have the same effect. [2]

[1] - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29684846/

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inert_gas_asphyxiation#Suicide

The autonomic system responds not to lack of oxygen, but to a rise in carbon dioxide levels. (More specifically I think it has something to do with pH, which decreases as carbon dioxide increases.) So as long as you can expire carbon dioxide, you'll pass out without any sensation of asphyxiation or struggle. You still need to inhale to exhale, though, and the inhaled air needs to have a sufficiently low partial pressure of carbon dioxide.