What is passing out game

For many of the nation's middle-school kids, it is an open secret: choking yourself or having a friend do it for you, passing out and reviving — waiting for that euphoric 10 second high as oxygen rushes back to the brain. Boys and girls alike seem to be playing this asphyxiation game. The most common ages range for kids playing this is between 9 and 14, middle school age and early high school age kids. It is also called blackout, funky chicken, space monkey, flat liner, tingling and suffocation roulette.

Whatever they call it, kids are gambling on cheating death. They choke themselves with belts, ropes, ties, their own bare hands, or in the case of Kimberly Wilson, a bicycle chain lock, to deprive their brains of oxygen and get a drug-like high. Apparently there are two parts to the experience. The second part, the rush, comes with the removal of pressure on the chest or neck with releases a powerful surge of dammed up blood through the carotid arteries into the brain.

Kids do it to one another or to themselves. Though there are a few slightly different ways that the game is played, each method is designed to bring the same result — a high from asphyxiation. In some instances, children and teens play the pass-out game by choking one another or by using a rope.

This game is dangerous no matter how many people are involved, but the pass-out game becomes even more dangerous when performed alone because there is nobody around to help when something goes wrong. He said many children could have underlying health issues that could be made worse by this game. Copyright by News4Jax. All rights reserved.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Watch: The Morning Show. Parents, doctors concerned by 'pass-out game'. Adrienne Moore.