CHOKING GAME    Article

“Warning to Parents,” Associated Press, 15 February 2008.

OVERVIEW

This article cites the CDC study published this week in its publication: “Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.” It began its first study of fatalities in the choking or passing out game in 2007 as a result of a letter from a Dr. Patricia Russell whose son was found hanging in a closet. This mother later found her son had talked to a friend about the passing out experience. This mother sadly noted: “At the time I had never heard of this. One thing that really needs to happen—and is starting to happen—is to get more information about how common this is.”

The CDC study of records counted 82 deaths from 1995 to 2007. But those who have study the phenomenon say the total is much higher, due to underreporting.

The Associated Press describes this game in this way:

In the game, children use dog leashes or bungee cords wrapped around their necks or other means to temporarily cut blood flow to their head. The goal is a dreamlike, floating-in-space feeling when blood rushes back into the brain.

(CDC urges parents) to be aware of the fad and to watch for signs such as marks on the neck, disorientation after spending time alone, and ropes, scarves, or belts tied to bedroom furniture or doorknobs or found knotted on the floor.

The CDC itself recognizes its figure of 82 fatalities to be very low. “They could only rely on death certificates, which do not differentiate choking-game deaths from other unintentional strangulations. Also, many media outlets were missed.”

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

1.   Does our initial Overview or Introduction to this topic along with this article give parents and others who serve children and youth enough information about this practice?

2.   If fatalities have reached somewhere around 100 youths a year (as Dr. Tom Andrew, chief medical examiner and expert regarding this topic, estimates), are we making too much of this danger?

3.   What brought you to this topic? What do you have to add or to question here? What more do you want to know?

4.   In your opinion, what social and emotional factors lead young people to risk their lives in this way?

5.   What prevention against accidental or semi-intended deaths might parents, teachers, youth workers and others employ? Are positive approaches more likely to succeed than negative means, or should there be a combination of the two?

IMPLICATIONS

1.       In 1997 Lynn E. Ponton published a book: The Romance of Risk: Why Teenagers Do the Things They Do (HarperCollins Basic Books). Although you may not agree with it all, this book suggests that healthy risk-taking in an adolescent’s life may prevent them from unhealthy and dangerous risks. The broader study of risk-taking and this book’s case studies are worth considering. Life is risky, and teenagers are preparing to take the risks necessary to enter adulthood—with all its risks.

2.       When life seems hopeless or unbearably boring, young people are likely to take risks, from getting high, to risky sexual activity, to shoplifting or stealing cars, to violent fights that promise some relief or euphoric escape. Our challenge is to establish the kind of relationships, particularly with those who don’t have healthy relationships, that we may help them discover hope for themselves and the satisfaction of “natural highs.”

3.       When parents, teachers, or youth workers suspect a child to be engaging in this or other dangerous risks, they need to collaborate and often seek further professional help.

Dean Borgman   c. CYS