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Are We Paying Attention?
By lindamuralidharan on 2012-09-20 20:59:54
Over the past few weeks, my local paper has printed important stories about the military. I wonder who is paying attention.
There have been exceedingly disturbing reports about the increase in suicides among active and inactive military personnel.
It seems that the military reported an average of more than one suicide per day for the month of July, 2012, among those on
active duty. The number of suicides among all surviving veterans regardless of war or type of service is astounding. I heard
this week that | veteran commits suicide every 80 minutes. Another article states that the military is worried about an
increase of substance abuse among the active military. The increase appears to involve prescription drugs and the drug
alcohol more than the so-called "street drugs". The news article stated that the increase is small but alarming as it has been
going on for some time, and because the military has not updated its approach to treating or preventing substance abuse
given current conditions and understanding of substance abuse. I recall the reports about the fellow who killed members of a
Sikh temple recently where it was said he was first reprimanded and then discharged from the military because of abuse of
alcohol....something he apparently continued after being discharged. I certainly have no knowledge of what, if any efforts,
the military made to help him with recovery as opposed to punishment alone. Even though we know that not every domestic
terrorist, with or without a military background, is an addict, if such a person received the right kind of treatment it is
possible that her or his misplaced anger might be dealt with before the person becomes a killer of self or others. Also among
recent news reports have been the statistics about the higher percentage of unemployment among veterans than among the
civilian population..which is obviously bad enough during our recession. In regard to this issue, I must admit that I
personally find it mystical that so many young people are recruited into service on the basis of being given job enhancing
education and training with such poor results. What an irony that so many find it harder to get a job, then, after all this
training than their buddies who chose a different path to finding gainful employment. So...are we paying attention? Are we
paying attention to what lies behind so much waste of human life and potential and so much suffering of family
members...who often have extra burdens to bear emotionally and economically when a family member kills herself. The
substance abuse issue is important to pay attention to, but is also very much a problem of the broader society. However,it
seems somehow magnified when we observe the increasing mental health and suicide issues among the military since
depression often underlies all three of these problems. I haven't heard what per percentage of military suicides is related to
substance abuse. How much of this sad picture has to do with the badly chosen and badly fought wars that many are
involved in? True, even in the wars that seem to be well fought and well justified some people never recover emotionally
from the inhumanity they observed in war time. So we do have to consider war in general as a factor as well as looking at
the particular nature of the current dragged out wars, how they are justified, how they are fought, who is sent to fight them.
Did I hear recently that it is 1 % of the US population that is charged with this burden? What was the percentage involved
and sharing the burden during WWII or the Vietnam War? Is that relevant? Are we paying attention to prevention. Ifa
youngster is already in some trouble at school or with the court and chooses the military to escape those problems, is that
person more at risk for later trouble with the law or depression or substance abuse than the person who simply decided she
or he wanted a military career? We have some predictors now from research regarding who is most likely to recover
relatively quickly from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as opposed to those who may suffer for years. Ought we to either
exclude the latter personalities from the military or be sure to give them some remedial preventive skills before they are sent
to battle zones? (Suicidal ideation is often associated with PTSD as are violent acting out episodes.) Who is paying attention
to who and why so many folks are killing themselves when veterans nowadays are not spat upon (if many really ever were)
but called heroes regularly and publicly? Are we paying attention to whether there is timely treatment available for those
caught up in whatever complex of forces leads one to think of ending one's life? Are we paying attention to the suffering of
so many of our countryfolk and what we, the public, need to own some responsibility for?
