A Lecture On The Military Suicide

This paper explores post-traumatic stress and how it is seen as a disorder. Post-traumatic stress can manifest into post-traumatic stress disorder. The evaluation and review books and articles seem to reveal a relation to these symptoms and military member, either active or non-active veterans. These symptoms do not manifest strictly into the full-extent of the disorder in all cases of military, however, things such as depression and other physical symptoms are discussed through the readings. The end result is that we discovered that through the readings PTSD will in fact lead to suicide if left untreated.

A widely believed cause of this increase in suicides lies mostly on combat aspects. Being in the military is a lifestyle that is truly physically draining. The day to day life of being in the military is stressful. Multiple tours, increased stress, longer hours ‘repetitive deployments and much longer deployments, being away from friends and family more than in the past than in recent years can be believed to take a heavy toll on service members. The Rand Corporation issued in a report on military suicides that states that the US involvement in conflicts since 2001 has taken a toll on the service that has manifested itself in increased suicides. Dr. Brian Craig, Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University Of Texas Health Science Center, says that it is not just the traumatic events but the day to day stressors of combat that cause problems. He is also the lead risk management advisor for the DOD Strong Star Research Consortium and found in his research that it is “not being able to sleep in a comfortable bed, not having access to warm,

Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out. Clearly, the military is going above and beyond to try and prevent further lives from being taken.

Since 2001, the Unites States Military has been engaged in steady armed conflict all around the world and soldiers are taking their own lives due to the stresses of combat. (Ramchand, Acosta, Burns, Jaycox, & Pernin, 2011). The mission of the Military’s Suicide Prevention Program is to provide an endless supply of family support, information, medical assistance, and training to soldiers and their families with the goal of preventing and/or reducing the number of suicides. Leaders at the state and national level put forth great effort to reduce suicides in the military which is a great concern. Policy makers and legislators are continuously updating regulations to provide service members and their families with the best resources to help with all forms of PTSD and suicidal tendencies. A major goal is to get help to the service member before the thoughts of suicide are

The answers to this question amazed me. I have found out that close to 17 veterans commit suicide daily and, over a year, that number adds up to over 6,000 suicides. I have also discovered that half of veterans with suicidal thoughts and tendencies do not seek help for their problems out of fear of being judged. Perhaps the most shocking statistic I found was that during the Vietnam War, the number of veterans' suicide greatly exceeded the number of deaths caused during combat. The two main information sources I used to answer this question are my expert interview and a GALE article titled Growing Public Health Crisis of Domestic Violence and Suicides by Returning Veterans. I asked my expert specifically about the statistics of veterans' suicide and she gave me a lot of insight on the issue. The GALE article contains a lot of statistics such as the daily number of veterans' suicide. My thoughts about the statistics of veterans' suicide are mainly about how shockingly high they are. I was surprised when I found out that 17 service men and women commit suicide every day. I was even more surprised when the article said that over 6,000 suicides occur every year and I calculated that number myself just to make sure. My findings on the statistics of veterans' suicide are both shocking and twistedly

An article from the New York Times written by Dave Phillips sheds light on the growing issue of suicide rates amongst military veterans. Dave Phillips does this by telling the story of fellow military men, through the eyes of one marine- gunner name Manny Bojorquez. Bojorquez, joined the marines at a young age of 19, one of the militaries most prestige combat forces. In 2008, the second Battalion, seventh marine regiment -also known as the 2/7- deployed to a mid-swath of Helnend providence. Bojorquez remembers this combat as one of the worst and most traumatizing combats of many marines’ lives. After experiencing these traumatic events, the agonies of war,

The Iraq war and the Afghanistan war involved several injuries; as well as, four thousand casualties, and the number of suicides from 2012 to present outnumbers the soldiers dead from combat. The high cost of soldiers were dying in an unpopular war by the Bush administration and the cost to Americans at home and abroad in caring for these wounded warriors, as a result, by 2003 to 2010 the deaths in military action suicides, and suicides at home at a rate of thirteen point five per one hundred thousand troops (Lancet). This only includes America’s causalities, not the deaths of Afghanistan, Iraq, allies and Iraq civilians killed during the war, yet on top of that; rebuilding their shattered lives. The tragedy of war did not just affect Americans; the American soldiers were in

The military is one of the most culturally diverse employers in the world, therefore it is hard to identify a specific target population at a higher risk of suicide. However, from the research conducted by Kemp and Bossarte (2012) the data shows white male veterans between the ages of 50 and 79 were more likely to commit suicide than any other race, gender or age group. Additionally, the periods in which the veteran served also plays a huge role in veteran suicide, where the data shows Vietnam veterans are significantly at a higher risk for suicide (Kemp & Bossarte, 2012). It must be said, there is research which shows there is no statistically significant increases in suicide mortality among Vietnam veterans when compared to other war era veterans (Bossarte, Claassen, & Knox, 2010). The research conducted by David Lester (2005) shows there are several reasons for this. First, America engaged in the Vietnam War without the approval, of the United Nation (Lester, 2005), causing a nation to become divided. The war was meet with mix views and opinions however, veterans from Vietnam were not accepted or appreciated by the general public around the world, and here in the United States. These veterans were protested

Twenty-two United States Veterans commit suicide every day, giving approximately one thousand seven hundred and eighty Veterans deaths due to suicide for the year of 2016 to date (“Operation Never Forgotten”). Veteran suicide is an ongoing problem because veterans enter the civilian world directly after receiving discharge from the armed forces and struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and acute stress, and anxiety (“Veterans ' Services”). Veteran suicides have become a large concern for members of the United States Armed Forces, Operation Never Forgotten (ONF) is an organization that is helping veterans find purpose and a reason to live, by working with the U.S. Congress, they could pass a law

The estimated cost for the war in the middle east totaled around four trillion dollars however not much of that is used in helping soldiers receive the mental health care that they need ( Moore). An Iraq war veteran, Tom Tarantino, brings up the sad truth on where the government's priorities lie when the issues of money arise, “If twenty two people were dying on the battlefield a day, like 22 veterans are dying by suicide a day, no one would be asking how much it costs; they would be shipping weapons and military enforcements there by tomorrow” ( Alarcon). Another upsetting but true fact is that some of the veterans that are willing to seek help, but can’t afford it get told by the army that they had the mental illness before the war thus getting out of paying for treatment. This has saved the United States army over 12.5 billion dollars ( Moore). The government needs to look at the big picture and see that the issue has become serious and money is needed to reverse the

According to http://worthywarriors.org/images/PTSD-Related_Military_Suicides_by_Branch_2.png, the most suicides happened in the Army out of any military branch. They had way more than the navy did. The Army had 23.7%. And the Navy had 14%. But more suicides happened in the marines than with regular civilians. Civilians had 13.7%. And the Marines had 19.9%. Now you see how big this problem really is and we need to help them as much as we can. This is not okay and we need to do something about it now before more people start killing

Alarming soldier suicide rates (20 soldiers a day commit suicide due to PTSD), warrants a check on what are the causes, effects, and treatments provided to soldiers, especially if they have any mental health issues such as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). In addition, personnel in other domains such as law enforcement, medical, and firefighter who experience traumatic situations, may be susceptible to PTSD and if it is not treated on time may result in suicide.

In discussion of suicide, one controversial issue has been the increase of service member suicides. The Department of Defense: Suicide Event Report, states that 269 active and reserved military personnel have committed suicide in 2014. Majority of these incidents found that most victims were Caucasian male, under the age of 30, with a High School diploma and a rank between E1-E9. The most common methods used were by firearm (68.3%) and by asphyxiation/hanging (24.9%). The Department of Defense states that majority of the firearms used were not military-issued. In addition, 1,126 service members attempted suicide. Unlike others, the majority of these members attempted suicide by alcohol and drug overdose. Furthermore, the suicide rate of active service members in 2014 were 19.9 per 100,000 and 21.9 per 100,000 with reserved service members. In comparison with 2012, the year 2014 saw a 3% decrease for active service members. However, in 2014 reserve service members had a rate 21.9, whereas in 2012 reserve service members had a rate 19.3, a 2.6% increase. 252 of these members were male and only 17 were female. 93 of these suicides were between the ages of 20 and 24 and steadily decreased with age. 174 only attained a high school diploma. 141 of these service members were married and 104 were never married. Out of 269 suicides, 116 were done in their own residence. The Department of Defense reports that only 74 service members spoke to someone regarding their suicidal thoughts

Suicide is usually perceived as an individualistic act, enacted by an individual who has experienced immense trauma to their psyche. A recent report on the suicide rate within a specific Marine battalion challenges this notion. The veterans in this battalion are an outlier in regards to veteran suicide; however psychology is at work in attempting to explain the reasoning behind these suicides. The devastation the Marines face from the deaths of comrades, as well as the trauma they face in their day to day lives after their tour of Afghanistan, are forces that work against them. The assumption that the suicides is a result of psychological trauma is valid, however the impact

War, a slaughter of men that has gone on for hundreds & thousands of years. One of the most gruesome wars was WW1 which lasted for 4 years, 28 Jul. 1914 – 11 Nov. 1918. In this devastating war, the total number of casualties includes about 11 million military personnel and about 7 million civilians. Many of those soldiers were young men. The poem “Suicide in the trenches” written by Siegfried Sassoon tells what the harsh trenches had being like and how many soldiers became depressed. Sassoon was an officer who earned a military cross after carrying a wounded solider through enemy’s crossfire. He fought in many battles till 1917 where he would then have to leave the war due to Shellshock. Sassoon criticized the political leaders who sent young men off to die in huge battles that seemed pointless and while Sassoon was in Hospital he opposed the war by writing many poems including “Does it Matter”, “The Hero’ and arguably the most tragic poem, “Suicide in the Trenches”.