If you shoot yourself in the head do you feel pain?

Answer 1

Pain and a Gunshot Wound

Here are opinions and input from WikiAnswers contributors:

The consensus: The answer is YES

I sure hope you aren't considering this. People think because they shoot themselves (especially in the head) that they die, but you could end up with brain damage and laying in a hospital bed for the rest of your life. I don't think you'd like that, or anyone else you know.

Since I've never shot myself in the head I couldn't say first hand how it would feel, but according to some scientific education I have had in this line, done correctly the effect is so sudden that it is quick. Still, I've seen a few people with a hole in their head that lived and it's one ugly scene! I'd rethink this one and if you should be contemplating suicide PLEASE take what energy you have and go for help. It is as close as your hospital or Outreach Center. Sometimes many of us feel like taking the "silver bullet" but most of us don't and before you know it, all is right once again and you are sure glad you didn't do anything about it.

If something goes wrong, you could end up a vegetable for the rest of your life. Taking your own life with a bullet to the head is almost never fatal instantly. More than 60% who try, flinch. There is no easy way out.

Talk with someone, even a stranger. Hotlines are available everywhere.

Pondering oddball questions can be fun, even with gruesome topics. One caution: If you're thinking of shooting yourself, get help NOW. I have known two men who shot themselves in the head. One foolishly put a .22 caliber pistol to his head, and ended up taking half a day to die. I'm not sure what he felt, but I'll bet it wasn't enjoyable. What his surviving family felt was awful. The other man tried to kill himself by placing the muzzle of a 12 gauge shotgun under his chin, and firing. He calculated the angle wrong, and the barrel was pointing too far forward to accomplish his intended goal. He only succeeded in removing his jaw, nearly all of his face, and both of his eyes. He lived. Think about that if you feel like shooting yourself.

Yeah, there's no absolute to bullets or anything in killing. A person can get shot in the head many times (usually to suffer horrible pain for the rest of their lives). Others get shot in the toe and die shortly later. You just never know.

I agree with the other answers if you are thinking about this get some help. Yes we all go through times where it feels like you are alone and lost. God can help you through anything in this world. I too know a guy who tried to put a shot gun in his mouth in front of his wife and kids only to blow off the side of his face. He lived only to have half a face and for his wife to hate him forever for doing this in front of the kids. Good luck. John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

My younger brother was under more and more pressure and coping with more problems than he felt he could deal with. He held a 22-caliber pistol to his temple and pulled the trigger, and lived. Bleeding from his mouth, nose, and the hole in the side of his head, he lay for around twelve hours before someone found him. The right side of his head and face was swollen beyond recognition and was black and purple, his right eye was swollen to the size of a large egg, the bone around his eye was shattered, and the left side of his face was paralyzed. His brain was leaking out of the bullet wound, and he had to have brain surgery. They removed a lot of dead brain tissue from his temporal lobe, and bullet and bone fragments. He had a bullet fragment embedded in a major artery in his brain that could not be removed. He was in the hospital for seventeen days, undergoing treatment, surgery, bone reconstruction and physical and mental therapy. The pain he has in his head is excruciating, and he will suffer this pain for a long time. He doesn't remember shooting himself, has memory and speech problems, and has difficulty chewing food, talking, and smiling. He has three precious little boys, four siblings, parents, relatives, and friends who were devastated that this happened. The pain is both physical and emotional for him, and mentally horrifying for those who love him. We're all so glad that he's alive and wonder what we could have done to offer more support in his time of need that could have prevented this from happening. To anyone who feels they have more burdens than they can bear, I urge you to seek help before it's too late. If you have a loved one who is having difficulty coping with life and suffering from depression, don't take it for granted that they will come out of it on their own. Get them help in any way you can. If you are contemplating suicide, you should know this: you aren't the only one who will feel the pain of that bullet. All those you love will feel the pain for the rest of their lives.

On a purely technical level, it's possible if doubtful. Myelinated nerves transmit at around 200 metres per second. As it's obviously less than 200 metres from the point where the bullet penetrates the skin to the nerve root in the spinal column, sensation is more or less instantaneous. However, if enough destruction is inflicted on the brain then sensation will be effectively meaningless as the signal will have nowhere to go, and the shock of the event will more than likely stun and disorient the subject long enough for death to occur with no recovery of cognition. The brain itself has no feeling and requires no anesthetic during surgery. Only if the brain stem, which controls essential function, was destroyed would death be instant.

Frankly from my own experience of suicidal urges, if you feel like killing yourself, what you actually want is for your life as it exists in its current form to end, rather than to genuinely paint the wall with your brains (your corpse won't get much respect from the morgue staff, trust me). Go talk to your doctor and get a referral - you're not the first and you won't be the last person to need a helping hand when the world looks gray.