The Choking Game:

Parents, Be Alert to Increasingly Popular Risky Behavior

The media, school officials and parents are only now becoming aware of a surge in dangerous behavior that young people call “The Choking Game,” “the pass-out game,” “the tingling game,” “space monkey,” and a variety of other names. Children playing the “game” cut off oxygen to their brains with bags, belts, ropes or their bare hands. Sometimes the “game” is played alone, at other times in groups. The activity seems to be most popular among middle-school aged children. The danger includes heart attacks, strokes permanent brain damage, and death. Incidents have been reported from Seattle and Tacoma to small, rural communities.

Parents should be on the lookout for several signs that their child may be participating in this activity: Unusual marks, bruises or pinpoint blood spots on the neck, or blood spots on the eye and inside of the eyelid, bloodshot eyes, complaints about headaches, ropes or scarves or belts tied to bedroom furniture or doorknobs or found knotted on the floor; increased hostility, and closed doors.

Several website resources are available if you want to learn more.

• This ‘game’ has consequences that can be lethal
  Kathleen Merryman; The News Tribune
  Published: September 26th, 2005 12:01 AM
• http://www.komotv.com/stories/39509.htm
• The Choking Game
• www.teenchokinggame.com

September 30, 2005