Thank you for this - had no idea but it’s really useful. You’ll be able to spot a frau in the wild now as we’ll all be telling each other this fact!(CONTENT NOTE: the part after the spoiler also discusses overdoses in general but doesn't contain anything graphic or especially upsetting. I haven't spoiler tagged that part because the point is to make as many people aware as possible, but you may wish to skip this whole post if it's an especially sensitive topic for you.)
I have a friend who worked in a school where a Year 7 (age 11/12) pupil took a paracetamol overdose. She woke up the next morning feeling alright so came to school without telling anyone, but by later in the day she felt terrible and he ended up having to rush her to hospital in his own car while she was crying and screaming in pain. Very sadly it was too late and she died a few days later. Unsurprisingly my friend was still pretty fucked up about it for years afterwards.
The whole thing was over a boyfriend who'd broken up with her. I don't know the full circumstances of course and she may also have had other issues, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if in her mind she was just going to sleep for a few days and wake up in hospital with everyone making a fuss and the boy begging forgiveness. Instead it had the most tragic outcome imaginable.
I really think there needs to be much more awareness of just how dangerous a paracetamol overdose is, especially among children and teens, who are prone to impulsive actions and will usually be able to access pain more easily than other methods of self-harm or suicide. The fatal dose for some people is just three times the recommended dose, much lower than most readily available drugs, so accidental overdose is easy too if people aren't aware of the risks.
I was a smart and well educated teen and didn't know any of this until I was about 17, when a nurse visiting my school for something else got sidetracked into discussing paracetamol overdoses. She talked about how it can be a common choice as either an intended fatal overdose or a cry for help, because it's such an innocuous seeming drug and people assume it will send them painlessly to sleep when the reality couldn't be further from that. I still get sleepless nights thinking about how much worse some of my own episodes of the bad mentals in my 20s could have gone if she hadn't happened to mention it.
Please please please, if you have children make sure they're aware that a paracetamol overdose will kill you in a really horrible way if you don't get immediate medical assistance, and unlike most easily available drugs it's absolutely not 'safe' to take a small overdose as a way to let people know you're struggling (obviously no overdose is actually safe but ykwim). Children and teens get a lot of "x is dangerous" advice from adults and much of it is exaggerated, so it's really, really important they know that in this case it's not.
Sorry, very tangential to Jack but this is one of my big soapbox topics and it was relevant to some of the earlier discussion.
On topic to Jack: don’t want anything that’s dropped off a chicken thanks
