Submitted by Ausoge t3_117l6kh in askscience
GreenHandbag2 t1_j9eqave wrote
Reply to comment by screen317 in How and why does asphyxiation induce euphoria? by Ausoge
Surely people that get pleasure out of asphyxiation would not have the same ability so survive as those who do not, some migth even intentionally asphyxiate themselves. Or is this a scenario when enough time hasn't passed for the gene to evolve away?
Terrorfrodo t1_j9f655v wrote
The vast majority of people who might potentially get enjoyment out of the practice will never know it because they will never try. Evolutionary speaking, 99.9% of people over 99.9% of human history have been too busy surviving to experiment with how they can *almost* kill themselves for fun.
All the cases I heard from where people died after doing this, the person was very bored, without purpose in life, and mentally ill.
ecksate t1_j9ffihb wrote
Maybe when it comes to choking yourself, the cons outweigh the pros. You aren't so fixated on happy chemicals that you're sitting there asphyxiating for pleasure, right? So why would any other humans do it?
The gene would only evolve away with certainty if it affected survival, which would require a large part of the population to have choked themselves for fun and died from it until there were a few people who didn't enjoy it and therefore didn't die.
Mississimia t1_j9f61c3 wrote
Yogis have been intentionally asphyxiating themselves for thousands of years. It brings a lot of health benefits, namely carbon dioxide tolerance, when done mindfully.
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