“I hurt myself today to see if I still feel. I focus on the pain, the only thing that’s real. The needle tears a hole, the old familiar sting. Try to kill it all away but I remember everything. What have I become my sweetest friend? Everyone I know goes away in the end. And you could have it all, my empire of dirt. I will let you down, I will make you hurt.” — Nine Inch Nails

Recently, I was introduced to something called Space Monkeys. Though it may sound like an innocent video game or something of the like, Space Monkeys (a.k.a. Flat-Liner, the Pass-Out game, Choke Out, et. al.) is anything but innocent and certainly no laughing matter. According to the Web site for the organization G.A.S.P. (Games Adolescents Shouldn’t Play) there have been 543 reported deaths as a direct result of Space Monkeys under the age of 18 in the U.S. alone.

The choking game is a practice that is running rampant in our younger generation, starting at about 5th or 6th-grade through its peak of about age 16.

Personally, I both work with and live with teenagers. Out of the four I mentioned Choke Out to, all four immediately knew what I was talking about and out of the four, one of them personally knew someone who died from it not all that long ago. They were all able to give me a picture of the scene that no Web site could explain. Though none of the four were forthcoming in admitting they themselves had done it, all of them seemed to be able to describe it in a way that made it seem they’ve at the very least seen it done with their own eyes.

There are many parents who feel the details of the game should be kept from their kids to avoid teaching them how to play it out and sheltering them from their own temptation to try it.

To those parents: You may want to throw this newspaper into a woodstove and bury your head back in the sand.

For the rest of you: Please read on.

A quick click to the Web site youtube.com and anyone can see countless videos on kids actually performing the potentially life-threatening act. So rather than sticking my head in the sand with my neighbors and pretending it doesn’t exist, I opened my eyes to the newest of dangers to our kids. Here is some information parents can use to (hopefully) try and talk some sense in to their young ones.

The so-called game has two variances. The first is one person uses their hands to apply pressure to the other’s carotid veins in their neck, cutting off the blood supply to their brain. When the person being ”˜choked out’ appears on the verge of fainting, the pressure is released. The result is a brief sense of confused euphoria, lasting only a few seconds.

The second, and potentially much more dangerous, is when the game is played alone. Using a belt, rope or strap, the person will lean into the device loosely looped around a bedpost, chair top, closet pole, door knob etc. until the fuzzy feeling starts to effect their consciousness. Then the person will lean backward out of the device and collapse. One slight misstep, miscalculation of their reflexes or mistakenly think they can push the envelope slightly further and what was once a desperate attempt at a brief high could prove deadly.

When they’re alone, they’re usually behind locked doors with no one knowing what they’re putting their bodies through and no one is there to call for help if something goes fatally wrong.

Even if they survive achieving their high without any obvious outward side-effects, depleting their brains from crucial oxygen-rich blood kills brain cells by the thousands within seconds, and can easily cause permanent brain damage.

The scariest part of this practice is the signs are nearly imperceptible that it’s being practiced. Unlike drugs and alcohol which may leave an odor, uses paraphernalia that could potentially be found lying around or can leave marks on the user’s body, if parents don’t know what to look for then kids can easily get away with playing this dangerous form of roulette without anyone ever having a clue.

Though warning signs may be quite easily missed, here are some of the classic ones that may signal a problem:

”“ Extremely bloodshot eyes or noticeable signs of stress to the eyes

”“ Frequent, often excruciating headaches

”“ Any suspicious marks around the neck, which may be attempted to be hidden by turtlenecks, scarves or turned up collars

”“ Changes in personality, such as being overly aggressive or agitated

”“ Loss of concentration

”“ Flushed face

As with drugs and alcohol, the best deterrent for someone to avoid this ridiculously unintelligent and potentially deadly practice in their kids is communication. The statistics are out there, this “game” very well could kill them. And unlike drugs and alcohol, so many parents are left in the dark that it actually is as prevalent as it is. Those who do know of it in theory find it hard to believe their flesh and blood would make such a poor decision with their lives on the line. But so many of them do indeed make that mistake, spinning the wheel of chance. Maybe, just maybe, if we talk to them about this like we do with all the other dangers in life, then one more senseless loss of life can be avoided.

For more information on this subject, go to

www.deadlygameschildrenplay.com.

— Elizabeth Reilly can be reached at elizabethreilly1@yahoo.com.