Okay, so, like so many other young innocents, I attended summer camp. Among other things, some of the girls there amused themselves by “choking” each other, placing a hand on either side of another’s neck and squeezing, and making her pass out. Sounds very odd and sadistic, but it was giggly and we’d all have much fun waking up, unaware of what had just happened, and recounting what it was like (usually we described it as being asleep for hours, when one was really just “out” for a few seconds).
Older, wiser, I now see the error of my ways and am actually a bit horrified that I took part in the game (not to mention introducing it to others. Oops). While no one was ever noticeably injured, occasionally I think about it and wonder if my IQ would be higher (I mean even higher, of course!) had I not done that.
So, give it to me straight, doc- how many brain cells did I kill? Could I have caused serious brain damage?
If you had crushed blood vessels or some girl’s airway, yes, serious damage. Any loss of consiousness through trauma is potentially damaging. We lose brain cells all the time but hypoxia does leave damage. There’s lots of ways to compensate for brain damage, so you probably haven’t lost a lot of IQ points but please don’t try to kill any more of your friends…it’s just not nice.
A bunch of the “cool kids” did the same type of thing when I was in 8th grade, but instead of strangling each other, (which I dearly hoped would have actually happened) one kid would stand up against a wall and another kid would push up from the bottom of his rib cage. Fairly homo-erotic if you ask me.
You don’t really have to worry about brain damage unless the brain has been without oxygen for 2 minutes, after which time, really bad things start to happen.
While some brain cells may have been killed off, they were probably just the ones that gave you that crush on Simon LeBon;) !!
This practice has appeared in France several years ago, and several deaths have been reported. There has been some sort of information campaign in the schools to prevent more letalities. I can’t say anything more, but apparently it’s a serious concern for parents and teachers.
lol, my junior high school used to do this all the time, there would be a huge line up in the back of the school to each to get a turn to be knocked out.
there were 2 people who did it, and if each person conducting the neck thing both had a girl n a boy, they would place them on top of each other and run, it was quite hilarious actually…but cough very bad
Yep, same thing in my English elementary school circa 1961: one boy would wrap his arms around you from behind and start squeezing the chest while you held your breath, and in a few seconds you were out cold. It lasted a couple of minutes. Apart from one guy, who started spasming when he was out, but came to OK, I saw no ill effects. Wouldn`t recommend it though.