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
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3 Comments to
“Army Suicides Increase”
Interesting that the Army says they don’t know the cause of increase in suicide rates. How about two wars that have been going on for way too long? Re-deployment is definitely a huge factor, as well as a sense of hopelessness many soldiers may feel.
I think the most important support we can provide is a safe space for the returning soldiers to process their experience. Many won’t reach out to army psychologists for fear of negative career consequences. What can we, as professionals in the mental health field, do to assist in their recovery?
From a laymen’s perspective: Any suicide, is a shame upon our society. As advanced as we are, we still are, as many wars that we have been through, we are unable to yet provide the necessary counseling and treatment for our citizens and our Military.
The spike is what concerns me too. Is this reflective of our society in general? Unlike our fathers, grandfathers, and before them, our lives have been relatively unchallenged, easy, and peaceful. Dealing with crisis and harsh living was a norm for those previous generations. Our ‘norm’ since the 1960’s, has been a life expectant of certain cycles, birth, school/college, marriage, career, retirement. Our society has become a drive-thru society, 60 minute resolution TV shows, and an easy standard of just surviving.
Breaking down those cycles could be what are causing such spikes. In short runs, as a society we can unify and overcome an obstacle, but long term obstacles, wear down the shortened, internal walls we have developed in dealing with crisis. Just a thought.
Saying people have it easy is nowadays is too simple. The army started with these statistics in the 80s. Imagine what the stats would look like during the Vietnam War. That war ended in 1975. So it wasn’t easy living from the 60s.
A good portion of the military is made up of those from poor areas. Now this may be a bit generalized, but often those areas have high crime rates. That mean plenty of those in the military have not had an easy life.
You do make a valid point about the older generations. The ones of the Great Wars. Imagine the psych difference in a mentality where everyone knows they must stop Hitler. The think of going to war because of reasons never proven, ones where the vice presidents friends are making a killing in the reconstruction business.
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 30 Jan 2009
