Suicide or Choking Game

There has been a lot of press lately about the choking game. Two kids from the same high school committed suicide within a week of each other by hanging? Someone should investigate if these were in fact accidental deaths resulting from the now popular choking game.

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Depression
Submitted by lrr on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 5:10pm.

Depression can happen to anybody - Rich or Poor! It is not because some poor little rich kid is upset about something!!!!
It can be a chemical imbalance, something bad in the past or other things can cause it. Yes, suicide is mostly because the pain inside is so great. I used to think it was a selfish thing but since having clinical depression for the past 12 years I now know it is not. It has nothing to do with anything but what is happening inside that person at the time. I used to think Depression was "fake" and "those people" were weak but it can happen to ANYBODY!!! Those out there that think not, better think again and quit living in the world of Tom Cruise!

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NOT the "choking game"
John Munford's picture
Submitted by John Munford on Wed, 02/08/2006 - 2:31pm.

Neither of these deaths involved the "choking game."

But you can bet that rumor's been around town about a thousand times or more. It's a shame that people are willing to gossip like that at the drop of a hat.

It's bad enough that these families are having to deal with the loss of their son and daughter.

We will never know exactly what drove these kids to kill themselves. The best we can do to honor their memories is to make sure we let all teens know there are other options and no matter your problems ... bad grades, brushes with the law, drug addiciton, you name it ... the most wonderful thing about the human spirit is a person's ability to redeem themselves.

A recent poster on our site speculated that people commit suicide because they are in such pain that they want to make it go away. That sounds plausible to me. Any mental health professionals out there want to chime in? I am far from an expert on any of this.

But I just wanted to clear up that from EVERYTHING I've been told from DIRECT SOURCES, that the "choking game" is not in play here.


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A recent poster
Submitted by leber on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 9:33am.

>>A recent poster on our site speculated that people commit suicide because they are in such pain that they want to make it go away. That sounds plausible to me. Any mental health professionals out there want to chime in? I am far from an expert on any of this.<<

I am the recent poster that offered this explanation. Although I am not a mental health professional, i offered this as a person who at a young age tried (thank God) unsuccessfully to prematurely end my life at 17 yrs of age. Now at 40+ I am so thankful that I was not successful. The teen yrs are extreamly rough for some of us. If there is any out there thinking of this as a solution to their pain/problem I have to say the easiest way to get past those feelings is taking life one day at a time, one hr at a time if needed. Things do get better with time.

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Suicide
Submitted by PTCRES on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 2:34am.

John, great piece. I have suffered from extremely severe bi-polar depression my entire life. I have thought about suicide every single day of my life since I was a child. I have had so many attempts and have been hospitalized so many times it's not funny. What needs to happen—in my opinion—is more parents, teachers and other kids have to know the warning signs.

My heart goes out to the families of the two youths. I will pray for them.

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Stop making excuses or playing games for suicide
Submitted by Reality Bytes on Wed, 02/08/2006 - 11:45pm.

If you think your life sucks because you live in an affulent community, like to drink or smoke and get in trouble, break up with a girlfriend or boyfriend, have a fight with someone (your parents, your friends, etc.) or some other temporal situation, take a trip up to the Central Presbyterian Church night shelter. Spend three hours there, see the people who REALLY have it tough.

This isn't the most popular opinion, and I even know the family of one of the teenagers who committed suicide, but IT'S JUST NOT THE ANSWER.

Teens - stop looking for "things to do" or "people to love you". Look beyond the mirror, young ladies and gentlemen. Go to school, get a job, do your homework, participate in a sport, read. Stop trying to be things you're not - like alcoholics, sex fiends, drug abusers and attention seekers.

Life isn't about getting everything you want, or doing what you believe is what should be done. Growing up isn't supposed to be all sunshine and punk rock.

I wish that everyone would stop trying to create "solutions" for "bored teens". Guess what? There are solutions - they're called JOBS, SPORTS, CLUBS, SCHOOLWORK, CHORES, etc.

Parents - fire your maid and your landscaping service. Make your kids work for it. Better yet, work WITH your kids. Stop being so dang out of touch. Don't let your kids barricade themselves in their rooms with cellphones, IMs, ipods, playstations and the like. Occasionally pay attention to them, instead of living your lives around them as if they were obstacles. PARENTS - you are the idiots who decided to have sex 15 or 16 years ago. You don't get a break...ever.

Otherwise, you ARE stupid, no matter what your age.

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Reality check
John Munford's picture
Submitted by John Munford on Thu, 02/09/2006 - 2:34pm.

Dear idontknow:

If you think all PTC kids have it GREAT because they "live in an affluent community" then you need to get a clue. And get out of the "bubble" while you're at it.

Given your jaded response and generalisms, it sounds to me like you are the first case of documented "immaculate mis-conception." Either you were beamed onto this earth as a full-fledged adult and you got to skip the angst of childhood and teenage-hood ... or you're simply too old to remember what it was about.

You must've had the perfect childhood! Good for you! You probably grew up in a generation where divorce was a dirty word. Maybe you grew up in a loving small town where everyone knew (and looked after) everyone else.

Today's PTC kids don't have that. Heck, almost all of them were uprooted (at least once) to move here and that alone is traumatic. Many of them have single parents (or stepdads and stepmoms). I'd surmise that few of them have any other family members living nearby for support.

How are you to know that any kids commit suicide because of this, that or the other? Chances are these kids were facing a lot more adversity than you ever thought of.

Your trivialization of the issue, to me anyway, appears to be quite uneducated.

I agree that parents need to pay more attention to their kids and be more strict in general. But if you think the average PTC house has a maid and landscaping service, you need to step out of the bubble yourself and find out what's really going on. Not everybody is a CEO or rich to the gills self-help author.

I'm not making excuses for these kids, both the ones who behave and the ones who don't. I just thought everyone might like to look at this issue in a more reality-based manner.

P.S. I will post this in all the forums you chose to "copy" your post to, just to spread the word.


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AJC Article 2/9
nuk's picture
Submitted by nuk on Sat, 02/11/2006 - 11:43am.

The AJC quoted the Mom of the 15 year old who was found dead and stated that it was unknown if it was suicide or the choking game.

NUK


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um...
Submitted by supergrover1687 on Sun, 02/12/2006 - 6:59pm.

I'd say it was suicide since he tried to kill himself before.

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