The NYT just ran an article about the trend of teen-agers playing what doctors and teachers call “the choking game”.  which involves children and teenagers taking turns choking either themselves or each other in order to get high without the use of drugs.

While the article claims that almost two thirds of children in Oregon state have heard of the choking game, it appears that not that many American children have actually died as a result of the “game”.  As little as two years ago, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported 82 deaths attributable to the choking game and related activities”, which seems low considering the fact that the United States has 300 million inhabitants. However, it should be noted that it is possible that some of deaths may have been inaccurately reported as suicides.

According to the CDC, the choking game is actually most popular amongst kids who are around 9 to 14 years of age. Some of the warning signs that are listed on the site seem fairly obvious including “ropes tied to furniture” or “unusual marks on the neck”.  Some names for the choking game include “the pass-out game, Space monkey, and Suffocation roulette” and the CDC report lists more names for the game on their site.

The choking game  involves strangling with a noose and can lead to neurological damage for the participants. The scary part of the choking game is that death can take place after just three minutes of being denied breath, which means that if the rope cannot be undone quickly enough or if the child can’t get down in time, serious problems will occur.

While researching the choking game, I wasn’t able to find out the origins of the game, which is not the same as auto-asphyxiation and is not sexual in nature.

When I was younger, the danger for youths was not the choking game, but sniffing household products (glue, cleaning supplies, etc.) to attain a high. I’m thinking that it is not such a leap to imagine that the “kids” who are into the choking game have the same risk-taking behavior as the people using inhalants inappropriately. In fact, the age and demographics of the people sniffing glue and playing the choking game are roughly the same.