Choking Game - Accident or Sign of Something Else?

While watching television over the summer (2007), I viewed a program called 'The Choking Game' that made me check around some more until I gathered some information that partially confirmed more about the information from the documentary show.

I wondered whether the game 'played' by children could be a kind of addiction-forming activity and I did find some reports that said YES.

I wrote an article about this scary childhood activity over at Hub Pages:

The Very Scary Choking Game on HubPages
(opens in new window)

In the article I provided the name of the program and TV network that aired the documentary that piqued my interest in this topic. I also mentioned additional sites where some studies show that the 'euphoric' feeling that children may experience when they play the Choking Game can become addictive. You'll also find a 'support' site mentioned in the article, dedicated to spreading the word about this deadly game.

The 'game' is also called the 'passout' game and is known by a variety of names. Children actually design methods to make themselves pass out and lose consciousness, however MANY CHILDREN ARE DYING from playing this game.

It's not new...just 'covert.' People don't talk about it.

Just like people don't talk about OTHER things that they SHOULD talk about...

I hope you will visit the link and read the article as I've decided to take a little time off from the topic. It's quite an upsetting topic to research because kids who have died from playing this game often receive the cause of death label of 'suicide.'

While searching around, I had to go through a lot of articles and sites dealing with childhood suicide as well as abuse issues. Child abuse issues are more closely linked to childhood suicides, however, 'choking game deaths' are often not related to child abuse at all. The problem was - to get to the right topics, I had to wade through a great deal of the non-related stuff, anyway, so I've decided that now is a good time to take a break with this topic and try to process all the information I went through.

The Very Scary Choking Game on HubPages
(opens in new window)

I'll let you visit the hubpage and read. I think this information is very important to display in many locations - I'm just not up to writing a fresh article with prime details about 'The Choking Game' at this time.

I think the issue has been glossed over - in part, because the deaths are so senseless, and also, because the causes of death are often not uncovered until quite some time has passed. Typically, a family who has lost a child due to this game will suffer for many months, thinking that the child was suicidal and they are to blame because they missed all the signs...usually another child will come forward - one who played 'the game' with the deceased before - and admit that the friend was engaged in playing 'the game' for a while.

The issues surrounding this problem are very complex, but are typically hard to even determine because the game is almost always 'a secret,' within childhood circles. It is kept away from adults. Kids KNOW there is something wrong about 'the game' but they aren't quite old enough or mature enough to know what this great 'wrong' is. They also know that it's wrong to keep 'secrets' but the game doesn't work if everyone - especially adults - knows about it.

To Find Out More:

The Very Scary Choking Game on HubPages
(opens in new window)

There are 'signs' that children will display when they have been engaged in playing 'the game' for a while. My other article gives a few tips about what 'terms' to watch for in your child's vocabulary - to make sure that your child isn't involved with The Choking Game.

Please don't forget to rate the hubpages article - it's easy - just look for the thumbsup or thumbdown button

Self Harm

Often, people with Mental Illnesses will deliberately harm themselves. This is a serious issue for obvious reasons. Please consider the less obvious form of self-harm (passive form, 'neglect'), as well - because this is often overlooked when placed beside the VISIBLE forms of self-harm like 'cutting,' visible substance abuse and other visually apparent evidence of self-harm.

NEGLECT if often overlooked - a mis-represented or hidden form of self-harm as well, so be careful to remember about this important element, too, when you are considering the topic of self-harm.

Sometimes, a person with Mental Illness will believe that they must punish themselves and will hurt themselves for this reason. Sometimes this punishment is in DENYING themselves something that healthy people do not deny themselves. These 'somethings' can be basic human needs that are being denied, such as food and water, human touch, human support, sleep, etc.

The reasons why someone might plan, obsess in the mind over, or engage in methods of self-harm are all quite complex...

I'm not a professional, so I won't pretend to delve into the complexities of this. I'm not attempting to explain away all the functions and elements related to 'self-harm' in this post - but rather, just tossing the topic in the air, offering some links to where 'self-harm' is explained in better and more thorough terms.

I believe that self-harm topics are uncomfortable - VERY UNCOMFORTABLE for most people to discuss and are, therefore, often pushed to the sidelines or even pushed under the carpet when they are present. For this reason, I am putting this post ON TOP OF THE CARPET and away from the sidelines.

Self-Harm can graduate all the way to the height of SUICIDE...but for some reason, people still find the topic an embarrassment and a discomfort - even despite the very serious nature of self-harm concerns! This attitude and way of dealing with the self-harm details will never allow many solutions to develop around this serious, sometimes life-threatening area.

People do not get embarrassed and try to hide other behaviors - even behaviors that are deliberately nasty and violent - like FIGHTS, unhealthy verbal exchanges and things like that - sometimes even violent actions like fighting are praised in society - if the actions were said to serve a good purpose. Fighting is almost never really a good action but it is accepted well above a person's QUIET cry for help in the form of self-harm (especially when in the passive form, the 'cry' is stifled into silence) - which might not physically harm anyone but the self-harming victim.

Even WARS are praised, but few people voice that this is an insane notion and occurence... where hundreds and thousands of people are deliberately killed, for any number of political agendas. By contrast, suggestions of 1 lone, single person experiencing Mental Illness and who engages in self-harming activities...is usually universally frowned upon as someone horrendously twisted - the acts themselves, horrifically perverted - that necessarily need be shoved in the closet as soon as possible before too many people find out about it!

Self-harm is often hidden by the individual, anyway - whether the self-harm is of a violent physical form or of a passive, neglectful form...so altogether, 'self-harm' is a very difficult subject that needs as much reasonable EXPOSURE as possible...rather than the typical or past blanket thrown over it!

Here is a site that has several articles about the nature of, some of the reasons for and some suggestons for intervening in self-harm.

This site contains a great deal of information - under such headings as:

"Understanding Self-Harm"
"What is Self Injury"
"Self Perfection"
"Smoking"
"Drinking"
"Drug Use"
"Positive Responsibility"
and
"Relationships"
Along with a lot more topics, too.

Some of the information at the "Accept and Adapt" portion of the "Project Spears" website will be disturbing to some people who didn't realize that they engage in self-harm - even though they are not diagnosed with an illness whatsoever...although they have never considered 'smoking' as such a bad thing - even if they just smoke a few cigarettes a day.....

Because of this last point...really - the problem of Self-Harm really isn't all connected ONLY to people diagnosed as having Mental Illness, either! This was a hard point for me to realize, but I have to conclude - after reading this information - that this is simply a rational, true statement! People who are considered 'mental-illness-free' are performing self-harm against themselves, in certain instances within our society, and they aren't even aware of it!

I encourage readers to go ahead and sign in to this site, instead of simply clicking on the available free article links. There are free downloads (You'll need Adobe for these), a 'diary' available and also, information about 'long term' dangers of self-injury.

Here's the 'Accept - Adapt" part of the site:

Accept Adapt Training

And here's the entrance to the full "PROJECT SPEAR" site:

Project Spear Website

Thanks for Reading...

I will post more about this topic once I learn a great deal more...

tr~~