They say that our brains continue to function for about seven minutes after death, during which they recreate our most cherished memories, allowing us to relive those moments in a dream-like state.
As I lay on my deathbed, having chosen to end my life at the age of 25 by overdosing on sleeping pills, I couldn't help but wonder if this moment was just another stage in that process.
It's not that my life was devoid of happiness. On the contrary, I was blessed with incredible friends, a loving girlfriend whom I had spent nearly a decade with, and a successful business that provided more than enough income.
From an outsider's perspective, I was living the dream. So why, then, had I decided to end it all? If I were to articulate my reasons, perhaps many would understand.
The First Reason: Everything in my life was the same and once my youth was gone, it would all be downhill all the way, with old age leaving irreversible marks, the onset of illness, and the departure of friends. I would gain nothing by continuing to live; the only likelihood was that only suffering would increase.
The Second Reason was more philosophical: I had read newspapers, watched TV, and was aware of what was going on in the world. Everything was wrong and I had no way of putting things right. It gave me a sense of complete powerlessness.
I had been trying to get hold of those sleeping pills for a couple of months now with no luck. But last week I found a pharmacy that sold them. I had to lie saying that I was having trouble sleeping due to past trauma just to convince the shopkeeper to sell a few packets of sleeping pills.
Instead of crushing them and taking them with water. I decided to take them one by one, just in case I wanted to change my mind. For the first few minutes, nothing happened and I just lay there thinking about what would happen then, not that it mattered since I was about to find out. Then I felt my body trying to get those pills out through vomiting. But I stopped myself, dedicated to finishing what I had started.
Soon enough I was in death's arms as my brain started its short 7 minutes of dreams, dreams of my life, from birth to death.
YOU ARE READING
7 minutes
General FictionThey say, human beings, after we die, even after our hearts have stopped pumping, our brains will still be active. The brain will be active for 7 minutes after you die. In these 7 minutes, our entire life plays back from the moment we were born to t...
