I think trying to off yourself through violent means might be more of a struggle than one might think. Especially if you are infirm and in poor health. Which one would expect to be if considering this option in their old age. And nobody wants to go out in a blaze of agony. [...]
Depends on how determined you are. There's an old gender stereotype here: Women
attempt self-deletion more often than men, but men
accomplish self-deletion more often than women (men supposedly
accomplish self-deletion at rates that are four times higher than women).
The difference is--supposedly--that self-deletion in women is a cry for attention, so women use less lethal means and hope to be caught in time and rescued. Whereas men are more determined to actually get the job done, so they use genuinely lethal, quick-acting means.
You just have to you get it done before you're so sick that you become permanently bedridden or institutionalized. Unless you're permanently bedridden or institutionalized, it's really not that difficult. Of course once you become bedridden or institutionalized, you're fucked. Then you're at the mercy of others as to how long you live. They can potentially keep you alive as a zombie forever.
However, perhaps the biggest self-inflicted killer of both sexes these days is so-called "deaths of despair": Going out slow via alcohol and drug addiction of the more lethal variety. Tough way to go, but I guess it's for those who have permanently given up on life but don't want to pull the trigger themselves. Not my cup of tea, personally. I have more personal agency than that. But it demonstrates that when people no longer want to live, they'll find one way or another to kill themselves off. People are resourceful when it comes to such things.
[...]I think perhaps an overdose of meds might be the answer although that can go wrong too and presumes access to the right kind of pills. I have access to medically assisted dying though, so it should be there if I ever need it.
Medically-assisted dying is the ideal. And it would help to catch and filter out for treatment those who are just using self-deletion as a cry for attention. But whatever. I don't have medically-assisted dying available in my state; and I would have to jump through a bunch of hoops to try to get somewhere where it would be available. So I have a nice easy, quick lethal exit lined up for myself. It'll be messy to clean up, but that won't be my problem. In any case, I don't need the permission of bureaucrats to make it happen.