Fainting

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In the so-called game of fainting or choking , a faint is deliberately induced, which is based on a reflex slowing of the heartbeat, a drop in blood pressure and thus an acute lack of oxygen in the brain. Waking up may be associated with a feeling of euphoria or a dream caused by the lack of oxygen ( hypoxemia ) . Various procedures are possible, for example hyperventilation followed by strangulation , compressing the chest, breathing against resistance (similar to the Valsalva experiment ) or pressing the carotid artery . Numerous other names (scarf game, tomato game, pilot test, blood test) are known in the youth language .

Occasion and mode of action

This process is about inducing an oxygen deficiency. Young people in particular seek experience in unusual states of consciousness in this way . Motives can be tests of courage, peer pressure and adolescent desire to experiment.

Autoerotic self-strangulation to increase sexual sensation (cf. breath control ) is generally not counted as a game of fainting and is mainly practiced by adults.

The asphyxia caused by the low partial pressure of oxygen in the blood can cause permanent brain damage. In particular, the dangerous strangulation method has led to deaths in the United States ( Choking Game ) and in France ( Jeu du foulard , French for "scarf game").

history

In the southern French town of Manosque , the practice is said to have been used many times since the beginning of the 20th century. The local writer Jean Giono described the method in his 1948 novella Faust au village . In England, the game is said to have been popular shortly after the Second World War.

Deaths

An evaluation of media reports by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified 82 game-related deaths of American adolescents between the ages of 6 and 19 in the period from 1995 to 2007 - most of them in a failed attempt to remain unmolested briefly squeezing off the carotid arteries with aids such as belts, which led to fatal strangulation. The first death in Germany to be picked up by the media occurred on December 5, 2009 in Falkensee . However, several deaths are said to have occurred in Germany before. Even Michael Hutchence , lead singer of the Australian rock band INXS , should have come in this way killed. In Austria there was the first known fatality in May 2016 in Graz .

The Frenchwoman Françoise Cochet, whose son died in this way, founded an initiative of affected parents, the Association de Parents d'Enfants Accidentés par Strangulation (APEAS). Another French initiative for those affected is SOS Benjamin .

reception

In the episode Five Minutes of Heaven in the crime series Tatort , the game of fainting among schoolchildren is the theme.

In the episode "Lügen Have Short Legs" (season 7, episode 13) of the series Alphateam - The lifesavers in the operating room , a 13-year-old girl is admitted to the emergency room who has tried the game of fainting with her stepsister.

The topic was also taken up in the television series Auf Streife - The Specialists on Sat.1 and Berlin - Tag & Nacht on RTL 2. In the feature film Century Women (2016), the young lead actor has to be hospitalized after a game of fainting.

In the film Blue My Mind (2017), the fainting game is also performed by some young people. The protagonist has a short vision that relates to the (supernatural) ending of the film.

literature

  • Wolfgang Schwerd: suffocation (lack of oxygen). In: Wolfgang Schwerd (Hrsg.): Brief textbook of forensic medicine for doctors and lawyers. Deutscher Ärzte-Verlag, Cologne-Lövenich, 3rd, revised and expanded edition 1979, ISBN 3-7691-0050-6 , 71–84, here: pp. 72 and 78–80.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Fainting game until the emergency doctor came ( Memento from July 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive ). Fainting until the emergency doctor came . In: Hamburger Abendblatt. No. 20 of January 24, 2001, p. 18. Retrieved on Thursday, April 2, 2009.
  2. ↑ Unintentional Strangulation Deaths from the "Choking Game" Among Youths Aged 6--19 Years --- United States, 1995--2007 / Editorial Note . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  3. ↑ Sigrid Neudecker: Choking game: Not new, but very dangerous. In: The time. December 18, 2009.
  4. ^ According to Anne Corrêa-Guedes, professor at the private Universidade Autónoma de Lisboa and member of APEAS, reproduced in: Before the computer itself strangled. In: Potsdam's latest news. December 10, 2009.
  5. ↑ Unintentional Strangulation Deaths from the "Choking Game" Among Youths Aged 6--19 Years --- United States, 1995--2007. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
  6. ↑ Havelland: 14-year-old dies while choking. In: spiegel.de
  7. ↑ Sascha Lehnartz: The perfidious addiction to the intoxication without drugs. In: The world. December 9, 2009.
  8. ↑ 13-year-old from Graz dies in "Würgespiel". In: Kleine Zeitung , May 12, 2016
  9. ↑ Website of the parents' initiative APEAS ( Memento of the original from December 7th, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jeudufoulard.com
  10. ^ Website of the organization SOS Benjamin