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Max Gilardi, 38, who posts animations on YouTube under the handle hotdiggedydemon, made a shocking announcement on a livestream Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\nA popular YouTuber says he\u2019s considering euthanasia in Switzerland because chronic pain has made it too difficult for him to create content and left him with hordes of bills.<\/p>\n
Max Gilardi, 38, who posts animations on the site under the handle hotdiggedydemon, made the shocking announcement on a livestream Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Max Gilardi, 38, who posts animations on YouTube under the handle hotdiggedydemon, made a shocking announcement on a livestream Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAfter considering every option I could think of, ultimately that solution has taken the form of doctor-assisted euthanasia,\u201d Gilardi said.<\/p>\n
Gilardi rose to fame partly by posting animated videos parodying popular franchises such as Five Nights at Freddy\u2019s and My Little Pony, amassing more than 2.1 million subscribers and nearly 500 million views.\u00a0<\/p>\n
But a series of health issues, starting with a diagnosis of fibromyalgia \u2013 an illness that causes chronic pain throughout the body \u2013 in 2024 have slowed down his ability to produce videos, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m tired all the time. I spend a lot of my time lying down. I get a lot of bad pain in all my joints and my muscles, ankles, shins, hands, knees, hips, neck. I have a lot of difficulty sleeping,\u201d Gilardi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The animator also detailed a series of health issues he claimed doctors still can\u2019t seem to explain, such as sudden drooling and difficulty speaking \u2013 as well as the rising cost of his medical bills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s nothing more expensive than living,\u201d Gilardi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His decision to potentially end his life came after a long deliberation and looks like a \u201cnatural conclusion,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy existence has become one where I suffer and barely scrape by so I can continue to sustain\u00a0an existence where I barely scrape by and suffer,\u201d Gilardi said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Gilardi rose to fame on the site by posting animated videos, amassing more than 2.1 million subscribers and nearly 500 million views. YouTube\/@hotdiggedydemon<\/p>\n
He said he plans to go to Switzerland for the life-ending move, erroneously stating that euthanasia is legal in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Swiss law bans euthanasia, which is mainly administered by a health professional, though the country allows for assisted suicide, meaning that the person who wants to die technically administers the death blow themselves.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Backlash to the announcement has led to Gilardi saying that he plans to reconsider ending his life, at least for the time being.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDecided I\u2019m not thinking clearly, will reassess,\u201d he said in an X post Sunday.<\/p>\n
If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts or are experiencing a mental health crisis and live in New York City, you can call 1-888-NYC-WELL for free and confidential crisis counseling. If you live outside the five boroughs, you can dial the 24\/7 National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988 or go to SuicidePreventionLifeline.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A popular YouTuber says he\u2019s considering euthanasia in Switzerland because chronic pain has made it too difficult for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[30512,18075,17,1048,18864],"class_list":["post-110989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-switzerland","tag-euthanasia","tag-suicide","tag-switzerland","tag-us-news","tag-youtube"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ch\/117028395802857680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}