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Self-suffocation on rise among children


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WASHINGTON, Jul 20, 2005 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- Officials in the United States and Canada are reporting increasing numbers of children who are choking themselves for fun, but the act sometimes turns deadly.

Children use a variety of ways to cut off oxygen to the brain. When they release the binding, they experience a brief feel of euphoria.

Several children have died from strangling while trying to achieve the drug-like high, USA Today reported Wednesday.

"When they strangle themselves and then release the pressure, it creates a tingling sensation in their upper body, especially in their arms and head. And they think it's cool," Fremont County (Idaho) Sheriff Ralph Davis told the newspaper.

A 10-year-old boy died in Fremont County after accidentally hanging himself trying to do just that.

A child psychiatrist from the Ridgeview Institute in Atlanta told USA Today he has patients who choke themselves every day for the "mild state of euphoria."

Copyright 2005 by United Press International.

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