Choking game [DANGEROUS]

I just found out that there is a trend going on with children, teens, and probably some adults that is called the choking game. The game is basicly using different techniques to get passed out. A lot of these people also think it's completely harmless, it's not obviously! Each time u do something like this brain cells die!

When i found out about this game, i felt like i needed to do something.. So this is why im posting this. Hopefully nobody is playing this game around here, but perhaps u could use this information for your children or your friends.

A lot of children have died in this game, and this is probably not gonna stop any time soon, because they think it's a good alternative to drugs. I rather have it that people smoke weed, then play this 'retarded' game!

I just wanted to cause awareness about this. It's really sad that so many people die from this.. :(

Heard about this a few years ago. Probably the stupidest fucking game I've ever heard.

Natural selection hard at work.

This used to be a craze amongst dope smokers where I used to live. I never played it as I know it is a very stupid game to play. Though I have been known to be very stupid at other times. My friend Robert and I played lets throw petrol bombs at each other. We only played it once as I burnt my hand really badly and we accidentally burnt down a garage, and we had to run away from the police.

Well stupidity pays off some times.

Is this from stimulation of the vagus nerve by tightening the upper chest.. or are you referring to something else and more ridiculous?

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Originally Posted by Wolfwood

Is this from stimulation of the vagus nerve by tightening the upper chest.. or are you referring to something else and more ridiculous?

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I've seen photos of it. Children were literally strangling one another to make them pass out.

I used to play that game back in high school when I was 14... Crouch - hyperventilate, count to 20-30, get back up as fast as you can, sqeeuze your two big arteres in your neck - pass out.

Eversince that time my memory has gone fuzzy and I forget more easily. Braindamage [V]

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or are you referring to something else and more ridiculous?

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It's literally what it sounds like.

In other news: not breathing is bad.

This is old "news"

I know it's old news, but still way to many people die from this game because a lot of them think it's safe. Nothing wrong with spreading some awareness.

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Originally Posted by Wolfwood

Is this from stimulation of the vagus nerve by tightening the upper chest.. or are you referring to something else and more ridiculous?

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I had a goofy classmate try to get me to do this back in '91 in Physics class. From what I remember, he wanted me to hyperventilate by breathing in through the nose and out through the mouth for several minutes. Then I was to take a deep breath, lean forward, and clamp off the blood flow in my Carotid arteries in my neck (although at the time he wasn't medically knowledgeable to know what they were called) by placing the palms of my wrists on both sides of my Adam's apple, and wrap my fingers around towards my spinal column. I squeezed my neck... and the room very quickly (and frighteningly) faded out white.

I let go, and I regained sight of my physics teacher and my classmates (much to my relief).

lol

Someone in the elementary school died doing this while I was in junior high. I guess he was alone, and they thought it was suicide at first, but then decided that he must have been trying to get high by himself. So it goes.

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Originally Posted by ThePreserver

Someone in the elementary school died doing this while I was in junior high. I guess he was alone, and they thought it was suicide at first, but then decided that he must have been trying to get high by himself. So it goes.

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This is what happens when you make marijuana illegal.

Oh seriously now.

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Originally Posted by mcwillis

This used to be a craze amongst dope smokers where I used to live.

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Originally Posted by Xei

Oh seriously now.

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Yes seriously now. Anyone up for a hotknife session :evil:

I think he meant something along the lines of "People will always try to find a way to get high; burying safe drugs in red tape just pushes those thrill seekers to look for alternatives."

And I really don't think mcwillis' anecdote is representative of the bigger picture. Most of the people who play the choking game are just everyday kids who want to have a little fun. If cannabis were a viable alternative for them, I doubt very many would bother strangling themselves.

I was going to respond to Xei, but GavinGill stated my response for me.

I'm strongly against the prohibition of drugs; I just don't see how people doing stupid and dangerous things to achieve something that's otherwise problematic (legally or physically) is a legitimate argument for my position. Maybe I'm too young to legally drive and so to get my kicks I ride a bathtub down a 45 degree slope and crash into a tree and die. That doesn't demonstrate that I should have been allowed to drive, it just demonstrates that I'm an idiot.

And in any circumstance, the people who do this actually seem to tend to be the people with access to pot, so the argument can't possibly be right.

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Originally Posted by GavinGill

I think he meant something along the lines of "People will always try to find a way to get high; burying safe drugs in red tape just pushes those thrill seekers to look for alternatives."

And I really don't think mcwillis' anecdote is representative of the bigger picture. Most of the people who play the choking game are just everyday kids who want to have a little fun. If cannabis were a viable alternative for them, I doubt very many would bother strangling themselves.

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No - it was big among dope smokers in my area too. It was called a Texas Power Hit. You'd do it while high. It consisted of taking ten deep breaths, then filling your lungs and the person standing behind you wraps his arms around your chest and starts to sqeeze. You rapidly pass out, but you're being held up and the person then gently lays you down, then you wake up in a few seconds, having experienced powerful and vivid dreams.

I got talked into it a couple of times, but then stopped doing it.

So, access to weed doesn't necessarily stop people from doing this - in fact they sort of go together.

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Originally Posted by Darkmatters

No - it was big among dope smokers in my area too. It was called a Texas Power Hit. You'd do it while high. It consisted of taking ten deep breaths, then filling your lungs and the person standing behind you wraps his arms around your chest and starts to sqeeze. You rapidly pass out, but you're being held up and the person then gently lays you down, then you wake up in a few seconds, having experienced powerful and vivid dreams.

I got talked into it a couple of times, but then stopped doing it.

So, access to weed doesn't necessarily stop people from doing this - in fact they sort of go together.

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I wasn't implying that it stops people altogether - stupid people will always find new ways to top their friend's feats of idiocy. Think of t this way, the people who play the choking game fall into two categories - people who just want to try something for a bit of fun, and retards. Now, the retards will try anything regardless of the consequences. Those people smoking bud and playing the choking game to make their high better? Double retards.

The other half, or even the majority who play the game though? Their simply thrill seekers. Now if they were given a safer alternative, don't you think they'd go that route? Most kids stay away from marijuana because their told it's dangerous, addictive, *insert s'moar lies here*, and because it's illegal. So what do they try? Legal things like synthetic marijuana or the choking game. If they weren't force fed the prohibitionist dogma and cannabis were legal, how many of them would still be playing the choking game? Sure, some would continue but a good portion wouldn't bother because they'd now have a safer alternative.

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Originally Posted by Xei

I just don't see how people doing stupid and dangerous things to achieve something that's otherwise problematic (legally or physically) is a legitimate argument for my position. Maybe I'm too young to legally drive and so to get my kicks I ride a bathtub down a 45 degree slope and crash into a tree and die. That doesn't demonstrate that I should have been allowed to drive, it just demonstrates that I'm an idiot.

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Maybe I misunderstood, but what does that have to do with cmind's post, or mine for that matter? Him and I were talking about risk management, not... whatever that was. Again, I probably misunderstood what you were getting at so I'd appreciate a reiteration (preferably one that isn't laden with sarcasm D: ).

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Originally Posted by Xei

And in any circumstance, the people who do this actually seem to tend to be the people with access to pot, so the argument can't possibly be right.

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You mean kids who stay away from cannabis because they believe the reefer madness myths their parent(s) and teachers have drilled into them? Sure they have access to cannabis, in that anyone who can speak English is able to find a supplier within 30 minutes, but that doesn't exactly mean it's seen as a viable alternative in their eyes.

There wasn't even a trace element of sarcasm there. Honestly. I was just trying to give a silly but hopefully a simultaneously sober and pertinent analogy.

As far as I can tell I am directly replying to what you were saying; namely that people do this because it's hard or risks punishment to get high by other means.

And no, I mean that in any case, the fact that if anything this behaviour is more prominent among people who do smoke weed shows, as darkmatters said, that this is not simply 'what happens when you make marijuana illegal'.

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Originally Posted by Xei

There wasn't even a trace element of sarcasm there.

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Oh I know, I just meant I was hoping you're reply to that post wouldn't be sarcastic. Because your biting wit stings, yo.

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Originally Posted by Xei

As far as I can tell I am directly replying to what you were saying; namely that people do this because it's hard or risks punishment to get high by other means.

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Sure, some do it for those reasons. But what about the kids who do this just for the sake of experiencing that feeling you get after trying this? (ie. the majority) They do it simply because they think it's fun. Not necessarily the act itself, but the feeling. Surely if they were able to acheive a similar (well, better...) feeling without risking injury or even death, don't you think those people would go that route?

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Originally Posted by Xei

this behaviour is more prominent among people who do smoke weed

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[correction]This behaviour is more prominent among people of certain regions and age ranges.[/correction] Strangling yourself isn't common among recreational smokers.

Take the non-smokers and put them in one group, then take the smokers and put them in another. Then conduct a survey asking if anyone has ever participated in the choking game. The percentage of participants may be slightly higher for the smokers but it'd only be because that demographic includes more risk-takers.* That's all there really is to that correlation.

*Not that smoking cannabis makes you take risks, it's just that risk-takers are more likely to be nonchalant when it comes to breaking a law. An outstanding citizen with a white picket fence is less likely to smoke cannabis simply because it's illegal. Bob The Bum doesn't really care about the law and tries it anyway. He decides he likes it so he begins smoking recreationally. The illegality of the drug has made the demographic somewhat one-sided.

Also, a bit of an interesting and slightly related read: opiates - Narco Polo
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Sorry if I strayed a bit.

Unless there have been studies on this, I doubt we can find a strong relationship between choking and pot smoking, but wouldn't kids who are making "poor decisions" be more likely to do both than kids who avoid getting high? Just an unsubstantiated thought.

Consider the general group of people we'll call "thrillseekers". We define thrillseekers as the union of "pot smokers" and "chokers". Therefore any thrillseeker is either a pot smoker, a choker, or both.

Now consider two scenarios: pot being legal, and pot being illegal. I'll make 4 statements, and Xei can tell me which ones are wrong and give evidence/reasoning.

1) pot is legal

a) some chokers switch to pot
b) almost no pot users switch to choking

2) pot is illegal

a) almost no chokers switch to pot
b) some pot users switch to choking

If these 4 statements are true, then my statement that "prohibition causes more choking games" is true. So which of the 4 statements is false, and why? I await your response, Xei.

Nice try, but putting something in quotation marks doesn't make it true that you actually said it. What you actually said of this phenomenon was, "This is what happens when you make marijuana illegal." The implication of this statement is that the phenomenon is solely, rather than partially, caused by making pot illegal. If you also believed that this happens when you don't make marijuana illegal then your statement would have been meaningless; I'm taking the liberty of assuming you wouldn't write a tautological post.

I don't disagree with "prohibition causes more choking games". Neither, I hasten to point out, do I disagree with "prohibiting minors from driving causes more bathtub deaths".