Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
A young woman, aged 25, has courageously revealed the heartbreaking reason behind her decision to pursue assisted suicide.
Annaliese Holland, hailing from Australia, spent much of her childhood in hospitals. It wasn’t until she moved to an adult hospital that her condition was accurately diagnosed.
“I’ve been sick since being a child really, I lived in and out of the hospital ever since I went in for nine months,” she shared with news.com.au.
“It actually took until I transitioned to the adult hospital that we found the diagnosis, and it came back that I did have this autoimmune disease that was causing it all along.”
She was diagnosed with Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy, a rare condition that impacts heart rate, blood pressure, digestion, and urination.
Due to the late diagnosis, Annaliese’s condition rapidly worsened, resulting in her inability to eat for the past decade.
The South Australian endures daily nausea and vomiting, which has made her everyday life painful and exhausting.
“My stool would back up so much that I would throw it up or drain it out my tummy,” she detailed. “I was put on something called Total Parenteral Nutrition or TPN and that’s basically a bag of nutrition that’s delivered directly into your bloodstream through like, a line in your chest.”
Over the years, Annaliese has undergone numerous surgeries, and mentioned on a GoFundMe page she launched for charity that she has lost more than 10 feet of her intestines, resulting in Intestinal Failure.
Although she receives nutrients medically, Annaliese still experiences hunger when exposed to food smells.
Discussing her choice for assisted suicide, she expressed that it provides a sense of comfort knowing she can choose to end her suffering when it becomes unbearable.
“For me, I don’t want to have to wake up every day with anxiety about the pain that I know is ahead for me,” she stated.
“The pain of starving to death when they can’t feed me anymore, or the horror of sepsis. Knowing I can go when the time is right is just a huge relief.
“It’s so weird to be happy about it, but I am so happy and I feel so lucky that I do have this choice. It’s controversial and I haven’t really talked about it properly yet. But it’s so important.”
Despite her heart-wrenching decision to end her life, with voluntary assisted dying being legal in all of Australia’s states, Annaliese has a list of desires she hopes to fulfill, which she refers to as her ‘F*ck It List’.
One of these wishes includes trying on a wedding dress.
“No man wants to date someone dying, I get it,” she remarked. “But I would love to try one on, see what it feels like.”
UNILAD has reached out to Annaliese Holland for comment.
If you or someone you know is struggling or in a mental health crisis, help is available through Mental Health America. Call or text 988 or chat 988lifeline.org. You can also reach the Crisis Text Line by texting MHA to 741741.