Suicide Consorder And Suicide Disorders In Military Veterans

Hundreds of thousands of United States veterans are not able to leave the horrors of war on the battlefield (“Forever at War: Veterans Everyday Battles with PTSD” 1). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the reason why these courageous military service members cannot live a normal life when they are discharged. One out of every five military service members on combat tours—about 300,000 so far—return home with symptoms of PTSD or major depression. According to the Rand Study, almost half of these cases go untreated because of the disgrace that the military and civil society attach to mental disorders (McGirk 1). The general population of the world has to admit that they have had a nightmare before. Imagine not being able to sleep one

The Air Force lost 38 airmen to suicide in 2008, a rate of 11.5 suicides per 100,000 airmen. The average over the past five years — since the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom — was 11 deaths per 100,000 annually. Of the airmen lost in 2008, 95 percent were men and 89 percent were enlisted. Young enlisted men with a rank of E1 to E4 and between the ages of 21 and 25 have the highest risk of suicide. Recently released data indicates that active duty males carry, for the first time in known history, a suicide risk greater than that of comparable males in the general population (Psychotherapy Brown Bag, 2009). This is particularly noteworthy considering that the military entrance process screens out serious mental illness prior to entry onto active duty, and that the rate of suicide in military males has historically been significantly lower than comparable civilian populations. To help

There are an alarming number of veterans who suffer from Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and depression. The suicide rate on returning veterans is on the rise. In California, service members were killing themselves and family members at an alarming rate. After an investigation, it was apparent that they do not have enough properly trained individuals to over see

As a consequence of the stresses of war and inadequate job training, when they get out of the service many have fallen behind their contemporaries. If they are fortunate enough to become employed, many of them are unable to hold a job due to untreated PTSD and acquired addictions without services and counseling designed for them. These factors may place our returning veterans at a higher risk of suicide. In 2007, the US Army reported that there were 115 suicides among OIF/OEF veterans. This was the highest number of suicides reported since the Army started keeping track about 30 years ago. In general, the risk for suicide among these veterans was not higher than that found in the U.S. population (Tull). However, there are several programs and 24 hour suicide hotlines available for those that may contemplate committing suicide as an option.

Veteran suicide among our soldiers is a distressing and tragic reality. Per the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) http://www.va.gov/opa/docs/Suicide-Data-Report-2012-final.pdf a staggering 22 veterans take their own lives each day. That's a suicide every 65 minutes. This is a heartbreaking truth that has not adequately received the attention it deserves from the civilian world. To add insult to injury http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-0202-veteran-suicide-20150402-story.html tells us that there are two key high-risk groups of soldiers who typically are ineligible for psychiatric care: those forced out of the military for misconduct and those who enlisted but were quickly discharged for other problems. In each of those groups, an average of 46 of every 100,000 former service members committed suicide each

The amount of combat soldiers who commit suicide is often shown an extreme expression of PTSD. {Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry}. Phil Harvey and Lisa Conyers- coauthors of "The Human Cost of Welfare." has mentioned that " We'll give you enough for a reasonably comfortable life, but we won't help you find a job." {latimes.com} Unemployment for these brave men when coming home is also a big problem. It's not easy for these men to find a job after their deployment because people often seen the Veterans as

Freedom is the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. People in America often take freedom for granted because it is now the normal way of living in America. The U.S. military and their soldiers help keep our freedom on an international level. The soldiers that help keep our freedom often come back home with a myriad amount of problems that they must overcome. In order to help our soldiers Americans should vote for the right people for office to help the United States Department of Veteran Affairs to prevent soldiers of having financial, family, and personal problems that come from untreated physical and mental health problems to show their support for the U.S. Military.

“ It terrorises me at night. If you have a nightmare where your friends are being blown up, you relive these things over and over and over again.” These are the words from Pte Leroy Risi who was stationed in Afghanistan and is now struggling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jump anxiety, or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. Another war vet Vaughan Cook who also has PTSD states, “ I had very high levels of aggression, anxiety, paranoia. Then I got heavy on the drinking, two liters of whisky a day. I’ve done some bad things. I’ve self-harmed.” PTSD is a serious anxiety disorder that needs to be acknowledged, and PTSD does not only affect war vets, but millions of Americans across the country. PTSD appears to victims of accidents, disasters, and violent and sexual assaults. The biological process behind PTSD is that the limbic system increases susceptibility, by immersing the body with stress hormones repeatedly and repeatedly as images of the traumatic experience emerge into consciousness ( David G. Myers 639). PTSD patients often feel alone and vulnerable, and that no one can help them. Withdrawing from society and suicide are sadly the common outcomes if PTSD are not helped and treated.

McKinney, Hirsch, & Britton (2017) state that the “disproportionate rate of suicide in the veteran population may be due to various risk factors”, including symptoms of PTSD and depression (p.100). Their study population was comprised of 545 military veterans who completed a Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire indicating a link between higher PTSD related suicide and depression (p. 100). McKinney et al. (2017) found that “Depression, as well as other disorders, often serves as a mediator of the relation between PTSD and suicide risk” (p.101).

Over twenty veterans commit suicide every single day in the United States (Freking). Twenty lives taken off the face of this earth due to mental or physical hardships these veterans face each and every day. One of the largest contributors to this huge amount of unnecessary deaths is the silent killer that is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a mental disorder that develops when someone experiences traumatic events or other moments in which their life is in jeopardy. The effects of PTSD can leave one feeling alone, anxious, hopeless, and turn them into a lesser version of themselves. Roughly fifteen percent of veterans return from deployments in which they experienced combat with PTSD, thus amassing to over 400,000 soldiers from the campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq alone (How Common Is PTSD?). Even though PTSD effects so many veterans there is not a lot of public knowledge or support for the fight to combat it. Due to the devastating effects that post-traumatic stress disorder has on our veteran population both the government and the public should provide the funding, support, and recognition that is needed to combat the disease.

Post-Traumatic Stress Di-sorder is a syndrome exp-erienced by many veter-ans, and is a priority of a plethora of psychological researchers. The Diag-nostic and Statistical Man-ual of Mental disorders lis-ts eight criterion for this widespread mental dis-ease, including a stressor, meddling symptoms, ev-asion, amendments in provocation and react-ivity, and a duration of symptoms for more than a month. PTSD is often characterized by disrupt-ions in sleep patterns, with the traumatic event fre-quently popping up in the veterans’ nightmares.

However, in this particular study the variables assessed were nightmare frequency, sleep complaints, and PTSD complaints. The results were similar to that of the study in 2003; nightmare frequency had decreased in both treatments groups, although lucidity was not a primary aspect for the reduction in nightmare frequency. As for (Schredl, M., & Göritz, A. S., 2015), the purpose was to gain insight on the changes in dream recall frequency, nightmare frequency, and lucid dreaming frequency over a period of time. It was found that there is a decline in all three variables associated with time. As for a study conducted by (Cook, J. M., Thompson, R., Harb, G. C., & Ross, R. J., 2013), it “ examined factors predicting treatment dropout and outcome in 124 male Vietnam War veterans with chronic, severe posttraumatic stress disorder treated in a randomized controlled trial of two cognitive-behavioral group therapies for combat-related

Military veterans with PTSD are more prone to sleeping disorders such as disturbance in sleep caused by nightmares and difficulty maintaining sleep “insomnia” (Neylan et al. p. 931).

“Nightmares and sleep disturbances are common complaints among military Veterans” (Plumb & Zelman, 2009). Helping Veterans overcome these common complaints are difficult to remove. This article describes the findings nightmares and sleep disturbances in military Veterans, which assessed the efficacy of Exposure, Relaxation, and Rescripting therapy for the Military (ERRT-M) in improving sleep quality and quantity and diminishing nightmares, symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression in a trauma-exposed, Veteran sample. “Outcomes of this trial study suggest that directly targeting sleep and nightmares is successful in improving sleep disturbances and related psychopathology in several Veterans”. Helping Veterans now overcome these

Over the course of a lifetime, people experience both triumphs and trials. Accepting a new job, starting a family, or buying a new home are all exciting triumphs, while the loss of a loved one to illness or the endurance of domestic violence are overwhelming trials. In response to trauma and various difficult life situations, people often contemplate suicide. Existing literature on suicide, prevention, and intervention suggests an incredibly alarming number of people struggle with suicide ideation and behaviors. In the last decade, research evidence has been used to propose and implement prevention and intervention strategies in an effort to decrease the national suicide rate. For those who have experienced trauma, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often an outcome. Because the national suicide rate remains high, and with an increase in traumatic events in the United States, there is likely a need for new and improved, empirically-based prevention and intervention plans for supporting people with PTSD who are at risk of suicide. Thus, the following review outlines research exploring the relationship between PTSD and suicide, and more specifically, the prevention and intervention methods used in supporting people who have PTSD and are at higher risk of suicide.