The Very Scary Choking Game

I just wanted to be sure to provide this link as a PERMANENT link - or for as long at the website features this article about the choking game.

It hasn't ended...children are still playing the game - and children are still dying.

Please - PLEASE - educate yourself about this awful activity. Please learn the signs to look for in case your child - or someone else's child that you are in contact with is playing this quite common game.

Here's the News Link:

Parents Learn Danger Signs of The Choking Game (wbay com website)

(bare link below)

http://www.wbay.com/global/story.asp?s=7203353

This article is dated October 12, 2007.

I just watched a Canadian Television program last night, "The Fifth Estate," on the topic of 'The Choking Game.'

It wasn't the first time I'd heard of this, nor the first time I'd actually watched this exact program, however, it did strike me that this story has not been updated since 2001 (obviously, I watched a re-run of the program). This means, to me, that somehow, not many people have taken this issue seriously. Perhaps the program hit a still sensitive nerve because primary highlight of the show is on a family from my own regional area - in Alberta, Canada.

The Fifth Estate aired this documentary/info-show a few years ago and I have expected a new report on this topic since (over 5 years old now). In our age of science, surveys, and communication, it leaves me baffled to realize that people ARE NOT not so very frightened about this 'game' yet that they'll talk incessantly about it. They SHOULD. I can't believe that people aren't talking more to their children about this, along with paying close attention to the topic! It's not a 'phase' or part of growing up - it is a game that causes brain damage each and every time it is played, whether immediate effects are noticeable or not.

Over a dozen pages display on You Tube about this very dangerous game, which is how I was reminded of 'The Choking Game' documentary from last night! I was doing a search on 'cowboys,' in the hopes of finding RODEO coverage, but what turned up first was 'Space Cowboys' - another name for 'The Choking Game.'

It concerns me that the authorities involved in the 2001 broadcast have not been able to further their research in a marked way. I've been keeping my eyes and ears open for about 2 years on this topic and have heard little except more reports of death via 'The Choking Game.' Rarely have I heard of new breakthrough information, however, I do still consistently hear about 'unexplained' and 'undetermined' deaths of children at home or near home, whereby there are no marks on the body to indicate abuse, and the term 'asphyxiation' is thrown in.

The CBC website has the documentary available for online viewing, if you're interested, under the name 'Choking Game.'

If you're still looking for more information, there's a site called 'Deadly Games Children Play.' This site has recent posts that tell about kids, mostly adolescents, who have died from playing The Choking Game, The Blackout Game, The Pass Out Game

Also called, Space Cowboy, The Fainting Game, Blackout, Airplaning, Suffocation Roulette, The California Choke, Flat-liner, Dream Game, and by many other names, this game is about losing consciousness. It's about bringing oneself so close to the edge of death - in order to lose consciousness - that no mistakes are allowed. Errors are PERMANENT and children ALL OVER from the ages of 6-20 are playing this game! Over at You Tube, there are videos of teens actually performing this game and filming it - from ALL OVER the place - Korea, America, Britain, Malaysia, Canada...there are even 'how to' videos about the 'game.'

Kids don't realize that the 'shaking' (The game is also called by variants with the name 'Chicken' and 'Funky' in them) that happens when their friends pass out is not really funny - it's a side-effect of instant BRAIN DAMAGE. It's not their body struggling to 'chill out' or 'wake back up' - it's their brain and body reacting to BRAIN CELLS DYING - it's their body trying not to die!

The "Deadly Games Children Play" website has several free downloads, as well so that if you feel you'd like to share this information with other people, you can send them a textfile. There are separate documents for teachers, students and parents - as well as information geared for children who might be tempted to play this game, or who might know others who have tried or might try this dangerous game.

Kids KNOW that this game is unusual and wrong to play, however, they may not know exactly why it is not a good game. This is why they play this game in SECRET and away from parents - they know it's not a wholesome activity, however, they may not realize that it should be a game called 'Brain Damage!'

The game has an addictive quality, as well, so if you wonder about changing behaviors that concern you about your kids - ASK QUESTIONS! The game causes BRAIN DAMAGE...this will affect behaviors and moods. There are often warning signs - an increased amount of headaches (brain damage), irritability (addiction and brain damage), marks on a child's neck (choking marks). Lord help a child if he or she decides to play this game ALONE, away from friends who might catch him or her as he or she passes out.

The whole point of the game is to completely lose consciousness, so it is no wonder that children DIE when they play this game in solitary, when using various apparatus to restrict their air and blood flow to the brain. Kids think they are getting a 'thrill,' but what they are really doing is cutting off oxygen and blood to their brain. Most experts will say that a person whose brain lacks oxygen and blood flow for about one minute will often sustain noticeable aftereffects, called BRAIN DAMAGE, that will affect a life and those around forever. 3 minutes or so of lack of blood and oxygen to the brain is almost always lethal. So - if a child plays this game alone, a matter of a split-second mistake with certain choking apparatus means they will literally pass out and hang...until whenever. It's not about 1 minute then - or 2 or 3 minutes, either. It's about the fact that a child would EVER attempt to cut off the blood and oxygen flow to their brain in the first place for even a second.

From the CBC's Fifth Estate program, I remember that those interviewed - those who lost children due to this game, went through a very unreasonable time of feeling shame and confusion about the nature of the death in their midst. The death was almost always likened to 'suicide,' and by this, the death marked as 'taboo' for conversation - making the acceptance of death much harder for the parents and siblings of the families affected. The incredible guilt of the parents and siblings, due to having no better associations to make than to associate the death with 'suicidal' death - really takes its toll on families, in what I saw of the interviews. With people refusing to talk about accidental but self-inflicted Choking Death games, all that families have to go on are wondering if their child was suicidal. These deaths are not purely accident either, so one can't draw from the same reasoning in a death like this as with a car accident death, long-term illness, etc.

What an awful thing for a parent, sibling, friend or loved one to come to terms with!

Why does suicide have to be so 'taboo,' anyway? Don't we all experience contact with suicide quite often in all our lives? In the presence of mental illness that is rampant throughout North American society - with depression, stress, inequalities that trickle through the whole of our societies, don't we all encounter people who lose hope? Suicide, itself, should not be something to hide, anyway. In fact, it is due to SECRECY and the hiding of feelings and information that suicide actually progresses from scary thoughts, into non-retractable actions, am I right?

If so, why are we so reluctant to talk about suicide then? When it affects us all? By the same token, why should The Choking Game be shoved off so easily as a 'taboo' subject when so many kids fall victim to this awful game?

If you're an adult and you're just hearing of this - talk to some people under the age of 16 - or even 12. They already know this game! They've already heard about it, have had friends tell them about their experiences with the 'game,' or they have tried it.

The Choking Game is not suicide, however, a morbid curiosity in this activity can lead to the exact same results as a suicide that plays all the way through to the end of the tape.

How do we let our children know how DANGERIOUS and FINAL this game is - when they already know the game better than adults do?