Girls' deaths spark community alert over 'choking game'

[Cubby]

The recent deaths of two young girls linked to the potentially fatal “choking game” has prompted police to issue an alert to parents warning them of the dangers involved with the activity.

Angelena Ohanessian, 14, was found sitting “Indian-style” in her closet with a radio cord around her neck on July 28, her mother, Violette Amato Ohanessian said. The Northwest Side girl died from her injuries three days later.

This week, another Northwest Side girl, 15-year-old Rebecca Toia, died from hanging connected to the choking game, authorities said. Like Angelena, she died at her home.

<snip>

&#8220;It&#8217;s been popular with children who might be getting good grades and are afraid to do drugs, and thinking this is a safe way to get high, which it&#8217;s absolutely not,&#8221; Grand Central Area Detective Valerie Lymperis said. &#8220;It becomes an addictive act, just like drugs.&#8221;

The behavior is not new &#8212; it&#8217;s been around since at least the 18th century, Lymperis said &#8212; but seems to rise and fall in popularity. Both boys and girls, typically between 9 and 16, have been known to take part, using anything from ropes and bed sheets to hands and other objects to constrict blood flow, then release it, causing a high.

Full article and signs to watch for in your children at link.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/2595232,choking-game-chicago-dangerous-081310.article



I had no idea kids as young as 9 are doing this!
This sounds much more dangerous than what I've read in other similiar threads. Going to make sure I talk to my almost 8 yr old about this now. Especially since there are some kids he plays with in the neighborhood 2 or so years older than him. Just a few weeks ago he and some friends were playing outside. They had a rope and were joking/playing trying to tie him up. How naive I was to think this was just boys playing cops and robbers. They did ask him to put the rope around his neck but he said NO and came right home and told me. I told a few of the boys parents....

I only remember some kind of variation of this game around someone's chest nothing ever around anyone's neck.

Prayers to the family and friends of these two young girls and all parents who have lost their children to this deadly game.

 

[Cubby]

Another article.

Two beautiful young girls gone too soon.

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/story?section=news/local&id=7609298

 

[butwhatif?]

How can they call it a game? They should really take that word out of the equation.

It's self harming. And anyone doing it needs serious help.
And how can they tell if it's a suicide attempt, or they're just going for a high?

Never heard of it before, except in a sexual scenario.

This is seriously scary stuff. It seems like self harming is becoming more prominant than drug use now.

Kinda OT: My 10 yr old neice was telling me the other day that there's at least 3 kids in her class who's arms are covered in cuts from self harming.

WTH is going on to make such young kids do this sort of thing?

I just googled choking, and the second top result was choking game!
Here is one of the results:

The game has gained notoriety in the US where it has been blamed for 82 deaths among children since 1995, most recently last month's strangulation of a 12-year-old boy in Colorado.

Now Australian kids are also trying their hand at the dangerous pastime according to teenagers in Queensland, Victoria and New South Wales, who have told ninemsn the practice is widespread.

Former Queensland high-school student Tanya, 19, said groups of up to eight girls would make daily trips to the toilets to press on each other's chests "until they fainted" at her school in Pine Rivers, north of Brisbane.

According the American Medical Association, 86 percent of the 82 children thought to be killed by the choking game in the US were boys, with an average age of 13.3.

But the number of victims could be higher given death certificates do not distinguish between choking game and other strangulation deaths, said the AMA report, which was published in March this year.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=561808

 

[rabidstoat]

The Games Adolescents Shouldn't Play web site, set up by families of victims, has the goal of raising awareness about the dangers. They have brochures and a pretty sobering video designed to get kids to think about the consequences of what they do.

 

[Melanie]

Interesting, I was just talking to my son about this yesterday as we watched a re-run of intervention. It was about:

At age 8, Joe learned "the choking game," in which a person uses his hands to cut off the oxygen to his brain to get high. Joe choked himself daily throughout childhood. In high school, Joe discovered drugs, and now he's a heroin addict.

If anyone is interested in watching here's the linky.

http://www.aetv.com/intervention/video/?bcpid=53411497001&bclid=490887579001&bctid=475218863001

And this guy started choking himself at the age of 8, and did some major damage to his neck.

Anyway, I've definitely had this talk with my son and we watched portions of it together. They really need to know the dangers out there.

MOO

Mel

 

[Cypros]

As a teenager, I remember a game we would play at slumber parties in which we would hyperventilate by doing rapid, deep breathing, and then quickly stand up and run and then faint (nobody ever actually fainted but some pretended). I realized years later that the real purpose was to get a high feeling.

I cannot imagine choosing to choke oneself in order to feel high. Why are 8 year olds seeking a high feeling?