The other day we were studying the blood circulation and saw the route of the aorta and the carotid. We touch the neck to feel the blood and thus better understand how to push to the brain. And then my son remembered one thing that left me overwhelmed: in the courtyard of his school the children played at choking or handkerchief game When they were in children. A mortal danger.
The choking game, a mortal danger
He "choking game”Is a voluntary extrangulation, carried out alone or in groups, with the objective of living an experience, of knowing new sensations. Although it seems harmless, especially for children, it can have very serious consequences, irreversible consequences and even death.
Children can start practicing it, usually in the schoolyard, from the age of four and it does not imply a suicide attempt, simply, in its origin, it is a very dangerous game.
They start playing in a corner of the yard. A partner squeezes the neck of the other, until the blood flow decreases or causes suffocation. The sensation is dizziness, tingling in the limbs, loss of vision and even fainting.
Then there is a risk that the child will continue to practice it alone, using a handkerchief, a rope or a belt, which means that, if there is an accident, the danger of death from suffocation is greater.
In the United States, for example, it is estimated that since 1995 at least 82 children and adolescents have died as a result of this practice, approximately 1% of deaths attributed to suicide, and usually the child was alone and his Parents had no idea I was doing these practices.
And it is that for anyone, and especially for a child, it is very difficult to detect the moment when the dizziness caused by lack of oxygen and irrigation comes to imply a serious risk of death or neurological sequelae.
Children play for innocence and for the desire to demonstrate their value, for seeking intense emotions at a time when, in addition, risk seems to be a value appreciated in society and that adults themselves look for with behaviors and sports. They begin to play to feel powerful or important, impressing others and also, subsequently, for a strange enjoyment of physical sensations to the limit.
The choking game in my environment
My son told me that when he was little, in the yard, his friends played choking game, and that he thought that that could not be good, because he cut off your air and blood and advised them to stop doing it because he thought they could die. But, boy he was, he didn't give it much importance and he didn't tell anyone then, but he knows that some continued experimenting.
It was not a particularly complicated school, quite the opposite. There was normal surveillance in the yards, but this one, and not only for this case, I have always considered it insufficient. The problem is not the concrete school, but this is done and nobody is attentive or trained to detect it.
In Spain, this topic is barely publicized and I do not know if there are studies on fatal cases or with sequelae in a statistical way, which I do know is in other countries, but I was very scared to discover that it was happening normally and without being detected in the courtyard old school.
In fact, when discussing it with my friends, many remember that when they were children it was practiced at recess and that none, then, knew how to understand it was dangerous. Besides, they didn't remember it until they read me, and neither, obviously, neither the parents nor the teachers had thought about explaining to the children how dangerous it is.
Nor did they know if it was practiced in their schools, because if there is no case with consequences, it hardly attracts attention and there is also no special training to prevent or detect it.
The choking game in Spain
Recently, in Spain, if the case of a child who had died as a result of practicing this is hard for me to call play.
Then I started reading on the subject and came to the page of a French association of families who have lost a child for this reason, APEAS. Terrible discovery that I think all parents should know. On the page, in addition to a lot of scientific information and resources you can read the testimony of parents who have lost their children to this "game" and who want to fight for anyone to go through the same.
The need to prevent
Sometimes we are afraid to talk to children about horrible things, fearing to traumatize or encourage them, in a sense, to try risky behaviors. In that sense I have always been calm, because my son is enormously prudent, but I also feel guilty for not explaining that this is not played.
Explaining to children the danger of this "game" has a deterrent effect, I am sure, and, on the other hand, offering them inadequate and sweetened information can make them think that it is not so serious. It is essential to warn them of how dangerous it is.
I think so, that you have to talk about everything, taking the issues to their level of understanding and without terrorizing them, but keeping them in ignorance is much more dangerous. That is why I write this post, so that our readers are aware of the danger of these behaviors and so that they know how to detect and avoid them.
I have decided to tell you about this because precisely, in addition, another case has just happened, in Barcelona. An eight-year-old boy has had to be hospitalized for playing to hang himself with a towel in the school bathroom and could almost have died as a result of suffocation. All for a gambling game to see who endured more.
Prevention of “choking game
The way to act is first prevention, both in school and in the family, giving information that can save the lives of children. In addition, it can be detected by paying attention to signs such as conversations about the game, bloodshot eyes, neck marks, headaches, disorientation after spending time alone and the appearance, when they are older, of ropes or straps in their Room without logical explanation.
On the APEAS website there is sufficient information in Spanish, in addition to testimonies that families who have lost a child have counted or collected, with the desire to avoid by all means that other children suffer what their children suffered.
For all this I encourage you to be prepared and to help your little ones not to fall for the call choking or handkerchief gameWell, and that still overwhelms me, it seems that after four years there are cases in which it can occur.
