This extremely dangerous game has been played out all around school yards, homes and camps. The Choking Game also known as The Fainting Game, Choke Out, Dieing Game, Dream Game, Flatline Game, Flat Liner, Trip to Heaven as well as a whole slew of other names.
This so called game may be new to adults, but it’s most likely been around for quite a long time. Younger kids that get talked into playing the game don’t realize they can die from it until it’s too late.
It’s believed that up too 1000 children are killed due to this activity each year, but the real numbers are not known because so many of the deaths are reported as suicides.
This Game involves inducing unconsciousness by choking, hanging and Strangulation. There are several ways of inducing this state but the most common ways are pressing the thumbs against the Carotid Artery on either side of the neck at the same time and then wait to lose consciousness. While this method is dangerous it is not as dangerous as others because it’s stops automatically when the inducer loses consciousness.
The second and more deadly way is the use of a ligature. Whether it be a rope, belt, tie or something else this method is most dangerous because they can’t always stop at the right moment before they lose consciousness and sometimes die. Some believe that many deaths by teens that were labeled suicide were actually self-asphyxiation and they were not intending death when they did it.
Kids who play this deadly game have heard it’s a drug free way to get a high and they think they won’t get hurt. The kids who do this often say they feel a kind of euphoria or giddiness and tingling throughout their bodies right after doing it and they regain consciousness. They don’t realize what they are actually feeling the a lack of oxygen to their brain. Though these kids don’t know it , they may suffer brain damage after ‘blacking out’ even just once.
The danger of The Choking Game/ Self-Asphyxiation gets even higher when it’s done alone or by one’s self, especially if some sort of ligature is used. If the child loses consciousness and is by them self and has no one there to immediately release the pressure from their necks, it takes mere minutes for the child to die. Parent’s may find the child hanging in the closet where they were hiding or just tied to their bed’s frame and sitting on the floor. Some of the kids who died after playing this game were found just minutes after losing consciousness but it was already too late and they died.
Kids need to realize that they can die the very first time they play and it’s not really a game, that it’s all entirely too dangerous to be doing. Most of the kids that have died from this were not “troubled” kids, but good kids who got good grades, had good families and were intelligent. Any kid from anywhere can be a victim of this game. Parents need to know this and not think their child is to smart to do something like this.
Because the only way we are going to prevent more children from dieing is to get he word out, to parents, schools, camps, physicians, teachers and anyone else who interacts with out children and can look for the signs and maybe prevent this from happening.
Parents need to have open communication with their kids in order to prevent this from happening. Most kids believe they can’t be hurt by this, especially when they see their friends do it and they are fine afterwards. We as parents need to be pro-active and talk with our children about this game before their friends do. Talk with your children’s friends parents and let them know about this game as well. The more people who know the better.
