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Suicide Rates for U.S. Soldiers at Record High

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Posted on May 7, 2009
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Flickr / Aaron Escobar™

As of the end of 2008, a US soldier was more likely to commit suicide than an American civilian. This trend is now under investigation by the U.S. Army, which must grapple with the extent of inadequate psychological support available to soldiers coming home.

“All Things Considered” on NPR:

The Army has commissioned a $50 million study to help explain the rash of suicides. With so much unknown, officers have been pleading with soldiers to watch each other.

“Make sure they are in touch with that ground of reality, and that they’re not thinking of doing something stupid, like killing themselves,” says Chaplain Kevin Wilkinson to a briefing room full of 101st Airborne Division soldiers.

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By felicity, May 8, 2009 at 8:51 am Link to this comment

Soldiers are trained to have personality disorders - lean, mean killing machines.  (Whether it has always been so, I don’t know.) But the military might question its training programs? Does a person ‘catch’ a personality disorder, like catching a cold, and then like a cold it goes away?

I remember, and they can still be seen, Nam vets wandering the streets of our major cities - unemployed and unemployable, derelicts mentally and emotionally lost. For many of those vets the ‘disorder’ never left.

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By fjamesc, May 8, 2009 at 7:16 am Link to this comment

“Culture of Stigma Is a Key Cause of Military, Veteran Suicides”—http://tinyurl.com/StigmaMilitary—highlights countering stigma as an essential response to this tragedy. It challenges military leadership to go beyond merely issuing orders about stigma and, in addition, to actually change its policies and practices. The military could take a huge step forward, for instance, by reviewing recruitment, promotion, and retention practices that discriminate against people with common and treatable mental illnesses and by pro-actively instituting policies to avoid retaining or promoting officers and NCOs who have a record of intolerance or ignorance about the mental health needs of service members.

Franklin Cook, Editor and Publisher
“Suicide Prevention News and Comment”
http://tinyurl.com/SPNAC-about

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By Howie bledsoe, May 8, 2009 at 3:14 am Link to this comment
(Unregistered commenter)

Hey, the Iraqi suicide bombers actually have a HIGHER suicide rate than our soldiers.

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By Russian Paul, May 8, 2009 at 1:21 am Link to this comment

Overprescribing of antidepressants probably has something to do with this too.

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By skulz fontaine, May 7, 2009 at 2:25 pm Link to this comment

How long can any warrior live with the stupidity of an illegal war? With the atrocity? With the war crimes those warriors are “ordered” to commit?

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