5 ms·

Choking game, also known as the fainting game

25 points by amingilani 7y ago

ttul 7y ago
I wonder if this is one of those things that kids should be taught to do safely, rather than just saying “don’t do that.” Being hypoxic briefly isn’t likely to kill you. But doing it over and over and over, or using a plastic bag, or... fainting and hitting your head. Those are reasons you might die.
huhtenberg 7y ago
This appears to be a variation of "do a bunch of sit-ups quickly, with your back against the wall, stand up, hold your breath and let a comrade push on your solar plexus". Not sure about feeling high, but the faint rate is around 100%.
- benj111 7y ago
  The version I 'heard of' involved a joint also.
  - ksaj 7y ago
    Yup, the Super Toke. It didn't really make you higher, but it did give you headrush for a completely unrelated-to-pot reason.
caymanjim 7y ago
When I was around ten years old, way back in the early 80s, friends of mine used to do this. I never took part, because skating the edge of death didn't seem like any fun to me. To this day, I've never been unconscious other than to sleep. If I had to have my leg amputated and there were a local-anesthetic-only option, I'd choose that (not that I'd likely be able to convince a surgeon to do it).
- amingilani 7y ago
  I actually did partake, as a 90's kid, but I didn't know how dangerous it could be. To us, it was a harmless game the older kids had played in their time. I tried Googling this at the time but the information on it was scarce. The Wikipedia article has fleshed out since then to include some risks, and links to asphyxiation for a more thorough analysis. We had no idea why it happened at the time.
  - uhhOkay 7y ago
    We had no idea why it happened at the time. You mean you didn't know why the game induced a loss of consciousness? Or are you referring to the mystery of the emergent social phenomenon, for why information got around via word of mouth, and kids were discovering the game? You have no idea "what" happened? What do you mean?
tokai 7y ago
"that since 1995 at least 82 youths between the age of 6 and 19 have died in the United States as a result of the game" That doesn't seem too dangerous to me, compared to many other dangerous activities teenagers do.
- Waterluvian 7y ago
  This falls in my perspective of having solved so many problems, we re-weigh the ones that are left. The number of children who died on farms back in the 1800s early 1900s probably eclipses this number by a few orders of magnitude. Not saying this is a bad thing. But I think about it a lot as a new-ish parent trying to navigate the layers upon layers of extra safety that my parents find a little absurd.
- jayd16 7y ago
  This probably has more to do with the low population than the incidence race.
kennyadam 7y ago
What does this have to do with anything Hacker News-related?
- Jgrubb 7y ago
  This might be the first article to hit the front page in 10 years on this site that made me think the same thing.
- amelius 7y ago
  Self-experimentation is not an uncommon topic, and in fact can be seen as a form of hacking.
- guessmyname 7y ago
  > What does this have to do with anything Hacker News-related? Nothing, although some people will come up with explanations to say that “this article is interesting and that’s why it was upvoted” but the reality is, today is Sunday, and Sundays are always characterized by random —usually non-tech related— articles in the front page. I personally don’t mind it, this is a good way to learn about topics that usually people don’t talk about. To me, it feels like clicking the “Random Article” link on WikiPedia [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
- amingilani 7y ago
  Fair question. From the guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. As I've learned over the years, what's off-topic for me, isn't necessarily off-topic for everyone else. Lots of articles on HN that have left me bored, but turns out they work for other people. I posted this because I found it interesting to finally understand what the fainting game was, and how dangerous it could have been. I suppose it resonated with other people too.
ChuckMcM 7y ago
Two of the people I've known in my life have died this way[1]. There are many ways to die, and we all die eventually, but dying from intentionally inflicted asphyxiation has always struck me as exceptionally stupid and tragic. I understand that people place a different value on their life, and things like skydiving are thrilling and life changing with a chance of death if something goes wrong. I don't always share the same risk/reward profile that is neccesary for someone to asphyxiate for thrills. [1] One as a child doing this using a plastic bag and one as an adult presumably practicing the erotic version.
- malms 7y ago
  Skydiving isnt more dangerous than riding a motorbike daily. Also even though a agree with your bigger point its not really what happens here. People are just being stupid here, not even understanding they are playing with their life.
  - happytoexplain 7y ago
    I think of driving a motorcycle every day as being quite dangerous. In fact, I would have assumed occasional skydiving would be safer. Though of course it depends on how often one is skydiving.
  - londons_explore 7y ago
    What is the chance of death per hour of skydive? I bet it's considerably higher than per hour of crusing around on a motorbike...
    - AstralStorm 7y ago
      Actually it is much lower, because people who skydive tend to carefully check safety and many motorbike drivers don't - and other road users do not take care either.
      - londons_explore 7y ago
hlieberman 7y ago
Moral panic.
ozzmotik 7y ago
oh i remember this all too well. when i was in high school, there was a kid in the same grade as me who ended up dying because he did this. and then me being the curmudgeon that i was, decided to go on MySpace af the time and essentially say that the kid was stupid for doing something like that and deserved what he got (not sure that I feel that way anymore, as it turns out, aging is a great way to develop empathy!) and then suddenly started receiving threats on my life from his "friends". good times!
beckler 7y ago
I had a few friends in high school that did this. I only witnessed it twice, and both times made me pretty uncomfortable. The very first time I saw one of my friends do this, I didn't believe he had actually passed out, so I lightly tossed a tennis ball at his crotch and he didn't react at all. I felt bad when he woke up in pain though, but I honestly thought he was faking. He was out for maybe 20-30 seconds. The second time this girl we all knew did it, and we freaked out because everyone normally woke up in under a minute, but she didn't wake up for almost four minutes. We started discouraging people from doing it after that.
thatswrong0 7y ago
Wow I totally forgot I had this done to me as a freshman in high school by an older kid who claimed he had practiced it at his martial arts class. Interesting experience - kind of psychedelic and dream like. Heard music and saw weird dancing elephant visuals. Woke and was extremely confused - completely forgot what I had agreed to. Apparently I was sort of shaking and seizing for some amount of seconds. Glad I wasn’t killed now that I think about it. Definitely would chalk it up to curiosity and a bit of peer pressure.

25 points by amingilani 7y ago

ttul 7y ago

I wonder if this is one of those things that kids should be taught to do safely, rather than just saying “don’t do that.” Being hypoxic briefly isn’t likely to kill you. But doing it over and over and over, or using a plastic bag, or... fainting and hitting your head. Those are reasons you might die.

huhtenberg 7y ago

This appears to be a variation of "do a bunch of sit-ups quickly, with your back against the wall, stand up, hold your breath and let a comrade push on your solar plexus". Not sure about feeling high, but the faint rate is around 100%.

benj111 7y ago
The version I 'heard of' involved a joint also.
- ksaj 7y ago
  Yup, the Super Toke. It didn't really make you higher, but it did give you headrush for a completely unrelated-to-pot reason.

caymanjim 7y ago

When I was around ten years old, way back in the early 80s, friends of mine used to do this. I never took part, because skating the edge of death didn't seem like any fun to me. To this day, I've never been unconscious other than to sleep. If I had to have my leg amputated and there were a local-anesthetic-only option, I'd choose that (not that I'd likely be able to convince a surgeon to do it).

amingilani 7y ago
I actually did partake, as a 90's kid, but I didn't know how dangerous it could be. To us, it was a harmless game the older kids had played in their time. I tried Googling this at the time but the information on it was scarce. The Wikipedia article has fleshed out since then to include some risks, and links to asphyxiation for a more thorough analysis. We had no idea why it happened at the time.
- uhhOkay 7y ago
  We had no idea why it happened at the time. You mean you didn't know why the game induced a loss of consciousness? Or are you referring to the mystery of the emergent social phenomenon, for why information got around via word of mouth, and kids were discovering the game? You have no idea "what" happened? What do you mean?

tokai 7y ago

"that since 1995 at least 82 youths between the age of 6 and 19 have died in the United States as a result of the game" That doesn't seem too dangerous to me, compared to many other dangerous activities teenagers do.

Waterluvian 7y ago
This falls in my perspective of having solved so many problems, we re-weigh the ones that are left. The number of children who died on farms back in the 1800s early 1900s probably eclipses this number by a few orders of magnitude. Not saying this is a bad thing. But I think about it a lot as a new-ish parent trying to navigate the layers upon layers of extra safety that my parents find a little absurd.
jayd16 7y ago
This probably has more to do with the low population than the incidence race.

kennyadam 7y ago

What does this have to do with anything Hacker News-related?

Jgrubb 7y ago
This might be the first article to hit the front page in 10 years on this site that made me think the same thing.
amelius 7y ago
Self-experimentation is not an uncommon topic, and in fact can be seen as a form of hacking.
guessmyname 7y ago
> What does this have to do with anything Hacker News-related? Nothing, although some people will come up with explanations to say that “this article is interesting and that’s why it was upvoted” but the reality is, today is Sunday, and Sundays are always characterized by random —usually non-tech related— articles in the front page. I personally don’t mind it, this is a good way to learn about topics that usually people don’t talk about. To me, it feels like clicking the “Random Article” link on WikiPedia [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
amingilani 7y ago
Fair question. From the guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. As I've learned over the years, what's off-topic for me, isn't necessarily off-topic for everyone else. Lots of articles on HN that have left me bored, but turns out they work for other people. I posted this because I found it interesting to finally understand what the fainting game was, and how dangerous it could have been. I suppose it resonated with other people too.

ChuckMcM 7y ago

Two of the people I've known in my life have died this way[1]. There are many ways to die, and we all die eventually, but dying from intentionally inflicted asphyxiation has always struck me as exceptionally stupid and tragic. I understand that people place a different value on their life, and things like skydiving are thrilling and life changing with a chance of death if something goes wrong. I don't always share the same risk/reward profile that is neccesary for someone to asphyxiate for thrills. [1] One as a child doing this using a plastic bag and one as an adult presumably practicing the erotic version.

malms 7y ago
Skydiving isnt more dangerous than riding a motorbike daily. Also even though a agree with your bigger point its not really what happens here. People are just being stupid here, not even understanding they are playing with their life.
- happytoexplain 7y ago
  I think of driving a motorcycle every day as being quite dangerous. In fact, I would have assumed occasional skydiving would be safer. Though of course it depends on how often one is skydiving.
- londons_explore 7y ago
  What is the chance of death per hour of skydive? I bet it's considerably higher than per hour of crusing around on a motorbike...
  - AstralStorm 7y ago
    Actually it is much lower, because people who skydive tend to carefully check safety and many motorbike drivers don't - and other road users do not take care either.
    - londons_explore 7y ago

hlieberman 7y ago

Moral panic.

ozzmotik 7y ago

oh i remember this all too well. when i was in high school, there was a kid in the same grade as me who ended up dying because he did this. and then me being the curmudgeon that i was, decided to go on MySpace af the time and essentially say that the kid was stupid for doing something like that and deserved what he got (not sure that I feel that way anymore, as it turns out, aging is a great way to develop empathy!) and then suddenly started receiving threats on my life from his "friends". good times!

beckler 7y ago

I had a few friends in high school that did this. I only witnessed it twice, and both times made me pretty uncomfortable. The very first time I saw one of my friends do this, I didn't believe he had actually passed out, so I lightly tossed a tennis ball at his crotch and he didn't react at all. I felt bad when he woke up in pain though, but I honestly thought he was faking. He was out for maybe 20-30 seconds. The second time this girl we all knew did it, and we freaked out because everyone normally woke up in under a minute, but she didn't wake up for almost four minutes. We started discouraging people from doing it after that.

thatswrong0 7y ago

Wow I totally forgot I had this done to me as a freshman in high school by an older kid who claimed he had practiced it at his martial arts class. Interesting experience - kind of psychedelic and dream like. Heard music and saw weird dancing elephant visuals. Woke and was extremely confused - completely forgot what I had agreed to. Apparently I was sort of shaking and seizing for some amount of seconds. Glad I wasn’t killed now that I think about it. Definitely would chalk it up to curiosity and a bit of peer pressure.