If you have a child age 9-16 or work with teens, this post is a must read! As I sit here, aghast…I have been moved to tears. I’m speechless and was totally unaware of this terrible and unsafe trend among our young people.Yesterday, I saw something on TV that confused me…teens playing a ‘game’ called the Choking Game. It didn’t sound like a fun game to me, but I watched anyway to find out more about it. I found out that “it’s not a game at all—just an act of suffocating on purpose. Adolescents cut off the flow of blood to the brain, in exchange for a few seconds of feeling lightheaded. Some strangle themselves with a belt, a rope or their bare hands; others push on their chest or hyperventilate. When they release the pressure, blood that was blocked up floods the brain all at once. This sets off a warm and fuzzy feeling, which is just the brain dying, thousands of cells at a time.” (http://www.stop-the-choking-game.com)

The Washington Post (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/14/AR2008021402089.html) states that at least 82 Choking Game Deaths have been reported. In all of these cases, the parents were unaware that the game exsisted or that their son/daughter was playing it. Therefore, it’s important that parents, educators and health-care providers become aware of the choking game and learn to recognize the warning signs. Because the choking game is not listed on death certificates or in any public health database, there probably have been more deaths than reported. More than 86 percent of the deaths involved males, with most fatalities occurring in the 11 to 16 age range (the age range overall was 6 to 19 years, with a median age of 13).

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www.stop-the-choking-game.com lists the following as the WARNING SIGNS: