Youngsters Seeking Cheap Thrills And Highs Are DyingToronto (eCanadaNow) - As many as 7 percent of all young people in Ontario are believed to have tried a game that is literally killing young people around the world.
The game is simple. It uses strangulation to halt oxygen blood to the brain, and releases it all at once, resulting in a temporary high. But it misfires, and often kills the person being strangulated according to the Toronto Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Called the Choking game, it is a game where a young person self-administers, or with the assistance of another person, strangulation to the point of losing consciousness. When the person is losing awareness, the strangulation is released, resulting in a rush of blood.
It is this rush of oxygen rich blood to the brain that is sometimes thought to bring with it a euphoric state, or a rush. There is one problem though.
It is highly dangerous and many times the attempts at near strangulation results in actual strangulation, and death. In addition it causes hundreds of deaths around the world since the early 1990’s when it first came into vogue.
“We knew it was a problem but didn’t realize it was as big of a problem as it is,” said Jurgen Rehm, a senior researcher at the Toronto Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
