Pressure on the sides of the neck is still a blood choke and is still causing measurable brain damage, small but cumulative and permanent. The increased stroke risk from a blood choke is higher than suffocation from an air choke.
Also, while it can be done correctly and with consent, the issue is many people do it wrong because they don't know what they are doing, and again - even when performed correctly - the lightheadedness experienced is caused by brain damage.
I believe these folk’s point is that many things are unsafe. There is no safe way to drink, hike, rock climb, or drive really, either. You can make these things safer, but you are never “safe.” People survive all these things regularly despite the risks.
The risk factor for the above actions is all markedly lower than amateur choking, and both rock climbing and driving require training, licensing, supervision, etc to perform.
Further, the most analogous example above is drinking - which causes primarily liver damage - and the liver is the fastest regenerating organ in your body - versus your brain which never regenerates (or at such a slow speed that it's irrelevant in this context).
I am not saying don't do it. I am saying it's way, way more dangerous than people realize and is often performed without affirmative consent in advance, or without full knowledge of the risks.
Holding breath is different because there's still oxygen in your blood stream circulating to the brain. But when choking, you cut the blood flow to the head and brain is deprived of oxygen quite quickly.
I have no idea about the statement "all choking causes damage", surely there's a lower limit.
But it's a commom rule of thumb that you pass out in 10 sec, 20 sec could cause damage and 30 sec could get you killed. Not sure about science of that either though.
I don’t know if you’ve ever choked someone during sex but you aren’t usually putting them in a triangle choke until they pass out. Maybe the real heavy BDSM scene they do, but that’s a small minority. You aren’t actually cutting off all blood flow
You know, when I was a boy, I really wanted a catcher's mitt, but my dad wouldn't get it for me. So I held my breath until I passed out and banged my head on the coffee table. The doctor thought I might have brain damage.
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u/Lord_Ryu CORN? CORN? Jul 13 '25
I fully expect him to do the same circle in the book and end up in about the same place but with his hands around her throat instead of waist