No long-winded essay today.
Just a note on the state of things regarding our military and the denial of mental health trauma and service for said traumas.
Think of all the suicides that happen and try to grasp that 1 of every 5 is a military person.
Report on the flip.
From Bloomberg
April 10 (Bloomberg) -- Current and former military personnel accounted for about 20 percent of U.S. suicides in 2005, according to a government study.
About 1,821 current or former soldiers committed suicide in 16 states in 2005, the most recent year of available data, according to the report published today by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Almost half were diagnosed with depression and a third left suicide notes.
Many of these people are NOT receiving mental health treatment. Apparently they return home and as long as they have all their fingers and tows they are considered "OK".
Culprits, aside from systematic denial of mental health services, include those extended deployments.
``The frequency and the length of deployments are stretching people to the limit and they can't tolerate it,'' Charles Figley, a psychologist who directs the Traumatology Institute at Florida State University, said in a telephone interview today. ``They're taking risks, taking alcohol and taking their own lives because they want to extinguish their pain.''
While 38 percent of the soldiers who took their own lives had a diagnosed mental health condition, only 27 percent were receiving mental health care, according to the CDC report.
Hmmm... 62% of those determined to have committed suicide didn't have a mental health diagnosis. That 27%, if I read this correctly, means that combat veterans aren't getting proper mental health screenings.
In America, suicide is the second leading cause of death for people 25-34 and the third leading cause for 15-24. (pdf link...sorry.)-
More than 32,000 suicides occurred in the U.S. This is
the equivalent of 89 suicides per day; one suicide
every 16 minutes or 11.05 suicides per 100,000
population (CDC 2005).
ON EDIT: I struck out the piece above because the quote referenced a different and older study. The new section is derived from the newer report.:
An estimated 50,000 persons die annually in the United States as a result of violence-related injuries. Homicide is the second leading cause of death for persons aged 15--24 years, the third leading cause for persons aged 25--34 years, and the fourth for persons aged 1--14 years. Similarly, suicide is the second leading cause of death for persons aged 25--34 years and the third leading cause for persons aged 10--24 years (1).
And I should have included this part...duh:
Suicide of Former or Current Military Personnel
The 16 NVDRS states included in this report collected data about 1,821 suicides by former or current military personnel that occurred during 2005, comprising 20% of all suicides (Table 32). Of these 1,821 suicide decedents, 1,765 (96.9%) were male, and 1,695 (93.1%) were white. The greatest percent of decedents were persons aged >45 years. The most common method used (67.9%) was firearms, followed by poisoning and hanging/strangulation/suffocation (12.7% and 11.5%, respectively). Of all former or current military personnel decedents who were tested for alcohol, 63.4% had a BAC >0.08 mg/dL. Although 47.2% were depressed at the time of death, and 34.8% had a diagnosed mental health problem, only 26.7% were receiving mental health care (Table 33). With respect to substance abuse, 17.2% had an alcohol problem, and 7.7% had a problem with other substances. With respect to other issues; 24.5% had a problem with an intimate partner; 38.4% had a physical health problem, 28.0% had experienced an acute crisis during the previous 2 weeks; 8.5%--11.8% had either job, financial, or criminal legal problems; 33.9% had left a suicide note; 13.3% had made a previous suicide attempt; and 29.0% had disclosed their intent to commit suicide with enough time for someone to have intervened.
And now, thanks to Bush's lies on Iraq and Congressional inaction on clearly-stated demands of "the People", the troops we are supposed to support make up a full 20% of these tragedies.
The PTSD that came out of Viet Nam was, in my work, fostered not just by the horrors of combat, but of the soldier's absence of conviction that the war was "right". The horribleness is compounded when they contemplate that it was wrong to begin with, that they were lied to, or that their efforts were in vain.
It is similar to children sex abuse victims whose recovery can be greatly expedited when the family supports them, protects them, and tells them the perpetrator committed a crime. When the family blames the child and refuses to see their side or blame them outright, people will be in therapy for a long time.
The troops are victims of George Bush's Global Oil Hijacking, totally lied to about Iraq's role in 9/11 and now they are stuck there. All the torture material coming out isn't helping them either.
Want to support the troops?
Bring them home and take care of the ones that need it.
And impeach Dick Cheney and investigate George Bush.
This absolutely can have a healing effect.
Update [2008-4-14 14:31:32 by xxdr zombiexx]: I created a little confusion by including references to 2 different studies done by the CDC; the Bloomberg article references a new style of data study that results in a restricted number of "suicides" as it looks at a lot more data. Do look at it and see how they have structured the data.
Doc