A harbinger of things to come? Likely. The U.S. Army reported yesterday that the suicide rate rose to 20.2 per 100,000 people in 2008, up from 16.8 per 100,000 from 2007. This is the first time the Army’s rate has topped the national suicide rate for the same age group.

The Army says they can’t tell you why the numbers are increasing. But the articles quotes others who offer their opinions:

Dr. Judith Broder, founder of the Soldiers Project, a counseling service for troops and families in Southern California, said the repeated deployments caused some service personnel to lose faith in religion or themselves. Some become suicidal after abusing drugs or alcohol.

“They become extremely depressed and really hopeless, like, ‘This is never going to end, I’m never going to be myself again, I’m never going to be able to be with my family again,’ ” she said.

I think that’s a legitimate point. Nobody signs up expecting the Army to redeploy them constantly, or change the deployment rules while enlisted (which the U.S. Army has done). Does anyone think that sort of thing can’t kill morale and affect one’s emotional and psychological well-being?

The U.S. Army, to its credit, is doing a lot more today than it was doing two years ago to address this problem. However, they still have a long way to go to not only recognize the psychological toll and fatigue of the troops, but to treat it early on (and work on more ways to prevent it in the first place).

This suicide trending, however, is likely to get worse before it gets better. The stigma associated with these problems — and the ingrained “get over it” attitude at many VAs — isn’t going to be changed overnight.

Read the full article: U.S. Army suicides increase sharply

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He is an author, researcher and expert in mental health online, and has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues -- as well as the intersection of technology and human behavior -- since 1992. Dr. Grohol sits on the editorial board of the journal Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking and is a founding board member and treasurer of the Society for Participatory Medicine.

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    Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Jan 2009
    Published on PsychCentral.com. All rights reserved.