I want to warn anyone thinking of trying this: don’t.
Obviously there’s the don’t commit suicide part, and that’s the most important part. But also, as someone who has unfortunately spent time considering various methods, I can tell you: don’t even consider doing it this way.
Genuinely sorry to be contradictive, but you absolutely would have been in a painful situation if you’d continued. The only explanation is that you didn’t get to the point that your body 100% takes over from you and forces a desperate, painful, writhing attempt to get air.
You would die of increased CO2 concentration in your blood long before you actually ran out of oxygen. That increased CO2 would be very painful. Like, lizard brain stem absolutely taking over, full panicking levels of painful. Don’t try it!
You DON’T GET the CO2 concentration in proper nitrogen suffocation. Most people that are in oxygen-free environments don’t even realize that it’s happened; they get lightheaded, short of breathe, then black out and die. Any gas that’s heavier than air and isn’t CO2 can cause that kind of suffocation in an enclosed space, which is why SCBA equipment gets used in a lot of industrial applications. For instance, welding in enclosed spaces? The argon or nitrogen can easily kill you before you realize you’re in any danger.
If you, for instance, connected your CPAP mask to 50# nitrogen tank, and cracked it open, you’d be breathing in straight nitrogen, and exhaling CO2. There would be zero CO2 buildup. As a result, zero panic. The problem is when you try to displace oxygen, but not CO2; you need to be displacing both so that you’re not rebreathing your own CO2.
I want to warn anyone thinking of trying this: don’t.
Obviously there’s the don’t commit suicide part, and that’s the most important part. But also, as someone who has unfortunately spent time considering various methods, I can tell you: don’t even consider doing it this way.
Genuinely sorry to be contradictive, but you absolutely would have been in a painful situation if you’d continued. The only explanation is that you didn’t get to the point that your body 100% takes over from you and forces a desperate, painful, writhing attempt to get air.
You would die of increased CO2 concentration in your blood long before you actually ran out of oxygen. That increased CO2 would be very painful. Like, lizard brain stem absolutely taking over, full panicking levels of painful. Don’t try it!
You DON’T GET the CO2 concentration in proper nitrogen suffocation. Most people that are in oxygen-free environments don’t even realize that it’s happened; they get lightheaded, short of breathe, then black out and die. Any gas that’s heavier than air and isn’t CO2 can cause that kind of suffocation in an enclosed space, which is why SCBA equipment gets used in a lot of industrial applications. For instance, welding in enclosed spaces? The argon or nitrogen can easily kill you before you realize you’re in any danger.
If you, for instance, connected your CPAP mask to 50# nitrogen tank, and cracked it open, you’d be breathing in straight nitrogen, and exhaling CO2. There would be zero CO2 buildup. As a result, zero panic. The problem is when you try to displace oxygen, but not CO2; you need to be displacing both so that you’re not rebreathing your own CO2.
Yes, this is true. Using an inert gas doesn’t cause CO2 toxicity, but rebreathing atmospheric air does.