Ben: Here are a few more suicide-related links that might interest you.

FUCK THAT. The back of my neck hasn't stopped tingling for five minutes after reading the end of the first section. That is, by far, the most intense, horrific thing I have ever read.

Ilan, why aren't you tagging these to me? (Admittedly, I'm 500+ behind on my reader).

Alex, I know dude, I know.

If you ever do get to the end of the article, it starts talking about Dr. Ramachandran. He wrote a book on phantom limbs and nerve damage that is fascinating. It's called "Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind"

Ben: Retagged those links for you.

By the way, I just learned the hard way that this article is not so good to read when you have poison ivy from your neck to your ankles...

Dammit Ben... I read this article a few weeks ago, FINALLY managed to put it out of my mind, and you've sent me right back into a near fit.

Thanks a lot.

I did send it to my roommate though.

Aww man, I know the exact part you put this thing down. Despite all the itching and clawing, it turned out to be a great read, except for the fact it's a fucking cliffhanger.

I wonder if my dog has phantom balls?

I had to stop once the words "surgery NOW" came into play.

I almost can't wrap my head around the fact that there's something written that makes my skin crawl so badly I can't finish it.

I've tried to read that article five or six times now and every time I get to the surgery I have to close the window.

I really hope I don't dream about this tonight.

Wow.

Contrary to the other responses here - thank you so much for that link, Ben. That was one of the most fascinating articles I've read this year. Yeah, the first section was freaking intense, but the author explains some seriously interesting concepts in the later half. I urge you to try and finish it.

Thanks again!

Ben,

Only the length of the article made me cringe.
But what happened to the woman was only a little bit disturbing. Didn't really send me in a flurry of disgusted twitches. The article as a whole is really interesting [I admit, though, I skipped over a lot of the medical stuff.]

If you want disgusting, go watch maggot videos on YouTube.
There's one where it's a huge open wound and I believe there are maggots living inside it, and the wound pulses. Thinking about it gives me the heebie jeebies.

Mel

Andrew and Mel, you're both way more hardcore than I am. I've taken to drinking to get that article out of my head.

And I've seen all the maggot / tapeworm / etc videos. Yes, they skeeve me out but nothing like what this article did to me.

Excellent royally fucked up link. After the initial story, I had to stop and come back to it. I thought it was going to get much more gruesome, but it was fine.

Haven't been that freaked out since reading "Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark" as a kid.

She lives. But of course, she has some mild paralysis from the whole 'digging into her own brain' part. Also, there's a guy in the ward next to her who scratches into his carotid artery and subsequently dies.

I'm weird. I was fine with that article, and I've read a paragraph or so of the butchering the human carcass and was fine, but damn if I didn't spend a few minutes in stunned, terrified silence after reading one of the cannibal scenes in American Psycho. I can't take the maggot videos either.