Quote from: Krishnendu Chaudhuri on May 30, 2007, 04:28:45 AM
Walter, I think you are looking for a looking for a site where content is much less scientific

I know perfectly well that such sites exist, and where to look for them.

By posting a message here, I was doing precisely what I said I was doing: seeking information from professionals in the field.

If you haven't got any information, or if you don't want to divulge it, that's fine, but it seems inappropriate to respond to an honest question with a snub.

Your reply provokes a question from someone who is not an anaesthetist, and, indeed, who has no medical qualifications at all. (Apologies in advance if the question merely elicits a collective groan: 'Not another of the so-and-sos!')

Are you professionals generally aware that there exists a small group of people (well, I think it's a small group) who were anaesthetised in childhood, either in hospital or at the dentists, and who have experienced curious long-term psychological consequences? These usually seem to have been triggered by 'having gas', i.e. undergoing an old-fashioned mask induction.  Discussions in the relevant Web groups, of which there are several, show that this experience, either unpleasant or pleasant, can lead to a fascination with anaesthesia, and with fantasizing about it. Then, with puberty, the fantasies tend to acquire a strongly erotic component.

So, if those of us to whom this has happened were to encounter any of you professionally (and if we dared to ask for it!), instead of an IV induction, we'd prefer the mask – and if it were a black rubber mask, so much the better. Additionally, if we happened to find you sexually attractive, our joy would be complete – at least for as long as we remained conscious.

To be serious, are anaesthetists aware of this phenomenon? If so, have they any ideas about how common it is, or what the precise mechanism is which causes it? Speaking as one who has this fetish (as I suppose we must call it) I'm curious to know.