"I want to be dead, but only for a couple of weeks, or until this trauma goes away." Nobody has ever actually said that to me, but, after all these years, I believe that it is a common motivation Trouble is, you o/d and you sleep for a couple of weeks, then you wake up, and it is as if no time at all had passed; the trauma is still there. Ian Huntley's "Oh, God, no!" when he awoke comes immediately to mind. We used to wash people out on the basis that: a. It helped preserve life. b. It was so unpleasant that "attention seekers" would not wish to undergo the experience twice. A study in Scandanavia showed that (b) was spot on - but not because washing out made people o/d no more. On the contrary, it made them make sure that they would do a proper job the next time!