Time: The War On Suicide?
Time magazine has an article this week about suicide in the military, which does have some interesting points. Too bad they can’t see those points in their very own reportage. First of all, as pointed out by Richard who sent us the link, they arrive at a stunning conclusion not often admitted to by the drive-media when talking about military suicides, combat participation doesn’t have much to do with identifying prospective suicide attempts;
…combat trauma alone can’t account for the trend. Nearly a third of the suicides from 2005 to 2010 were among troops who had never deployed; 43% had deployed only once. Only 8.5% had deployed three or four times. Enlisted service members are more likely to kill themselves than officers, and 18-to-24-year-olds more likely than older troops. Two-thirds do it by gunshot; 1 in 5 hangs himself. And it’s almost always him: nearly 95% of cases are male. A majority are married.
So, it looks to me from Time’s own statistics, soldiers are less likely to commit suicide the more they deploy. And then they pretend that they never wrote that paragraph;
One theory of suicide holds that people who feel useful, who feel as if they belong and serve a larger cause, are less likely to kill themselves. That would explain why active-duty troops historically had lower suicide rates than civilians. But now experts who study the patterns wonder whether prolonged service during wartime may weaken that protective function.
It seems to me that if only 8.5% of troops who deploy three or more times commit suicide, prolonged service during wartime strengthens that protective function that they mentioned there. Of the two soldiers that they highlight in the story, one had deployed as a helicopter pilot but never engaged the enemy, the other was an OB/GYN in a hospital in Hawaii, neither hard-bitten combat soldiers who fit the neat mold that the media likes to talk about.
We had four incidents of suicide in my unit during Desert Storm. Three were from the Scout platoon and killed themselves before we deployed, the fourth had deployed, but he, an E-7, had been the Battalion S-4 NCO and shot himself when he came back and found out that his wife had been unfaithful while he was in the war. Repeatedly. And she discovered that she liked it and didn’t stop cheating after he came back. None of those can be linked to combat, either, except they thought that the three Scouts killed themselves to avoid combat which makes no sense. I’m not aware of any other suicides from that unit, but I might be wrong.
And while I’m more disturbed by suicides by military members more than the rest of Americans, they still only account for 20% of the total suicides in the US.
But what makes preventing suicide so confounding is that even therapy often fails. “Over 50% of the soldiers who committed suicide in the four years that I was vice [chief] had seen a behavioral-health specialist,” recalls [Peter W. Chiarelli, former Vice Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army]. “It was a common thing to hear about someone who had committed suicide who went in to see a behavioral-health specialist and was dead within 24, 48 or 72 hours–and to hear he had a diagnosis that said, ‘This individual is no danger to himself or anyone else.’ That’s when I realized that something’s the matter.”
Of course, Time tries their best to blame the military’s inattention to the problem, but that’s hardly the problem. If they’re sending people to behavioral specialists and those patients then commit suicide irrespective of the diagnosis, then there’s something wrong with the science, not the military’s culture.
I think the solution is in our own veteran community, not in the school-trained “specialists. And I think it was what these Medal of Honor recipients were trying to convey;
Veterans saving veterans. If the military wants to help potential suicide victims, they need to look at who they’re hiring instead of looking solely at credentials. And the VSOs need to start their own outreach programs. This is the next war that veterans need to engage with, and we all need to get further ahead of it than we are right now.
Parachute Cutie can tell the story about how she firmly believes that I saved a soldier’s life one night over pitchers of beer in Silver Spring, Maryland. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but all I did was tell him that he’s not the first to have those feelings, that we all think about it from time-to-time, and somehow we make the brave decision to stick it out instead. And apparently, he agreed, because he’s still around. But it convinced me that the newest veterans value our opinions and look to us for guidance, and it’s time for us to step up and accept the challenge.
If you haven’t clicked the “Shoulder to Shoulder” link in the left side bar and watched the video, you should really take the 15 minutes to watch it.
Category: Military issues
I believe you are making an inference that is not supported by the article that you cite. The article infers; “But now experts who study the patterns wonder whether prolonged service during wartime may weaken that protective function.”
In your rebuttal you infer that the article is stating that those who deploy more frequently commit suicide more frequently which the article itself contradicts. This is where I believe you made the mistake. A prolonged service during wartime does not equal more deployments. How many REMF’s are committing suicide and how many deployments do they have?
Additionally I believe the article, perhaps unwittingly, supports your stance. “One theory of suicide holds that people who feel useful, who feel as if they belong and serve a larger cause, are less likely to kill themselves.” Coupled with the fact that those who deploy more frequently have a lower rate of suicide supports a much stronger inference. That those who deploy more frequently feel that they are more useful or that what they are doing is more meaningful. Which makes more sense when you consider that those who commit suicide seem to have lost that sense of importance.
As veterans we need to continue to support eachother when it is needed most regardless of whether they are still serving, recently seperated or long since.
Am getting sent to master resiliency training next month, should be interesting in light of the stats in this article.
I think you made a wording error up there.
“It seems to me that if only 8.5% of troops who deploy three or more times commit suicide, prolonged service during wartime strengthens that protective function that they mentioned there.
8.5% of them don’t commit suicide, that would be a huge number….8.5% of suicide military suicide victims deployed 3 or more times. Big difference.
Back to it, yes the suicides are unfortunate, and I also don’t have a solution. Wish I did. What I see happening is Resiliency Training is beat into everyone’s heads, and then the DoD goes “Well, we did what we could.” They really need to start looking more at the root causes of why people are committed suicides, and less about how to identify those who have already thinking about it.
I wonder how many of the people that commit suicide have injuries and get treated like shit because of them. Personally I hope God forgives those that have made the choice to end it.
Theres no easy solution to this problem because there is no one cause. Here are some of the contributing factors from my perspective: 1) Plus up in the USA and USMC led to a lowering of standards with a result that many people who were unqualified (due to prior history of mental illness or inherently poor coping skills) entered an organization which, by the nature of what it does, subjects individuals to stress. 2) Prolonged war with at times limited resources leads to multiple deployments and (even in the absence of overt trauma) wear/tear and fatigue. 3) Heavy use of NG, reserve units and IA billets robbed individuals of the ability to remain with their unit and process difficult deployment experiences or readjust to civilian life with buddies they deployed with. (Think about the 24 hours it may take you to fly home vs the weeks you might have been on the ship coming home from WW II) 4) Expectation for zero defect environment places excessive demands on already tasked force. Rapid promotion (People putting E7 on in 8 or 9 years) allows for precious little time to develop mentoring and more advanced leadership skills (aside from those learned in a book), particularly those most applicable to garrison life. Zero defect environment and stringent promotion standards (coupled with overlay of business model)creates an officer corps in which promotion is predicated on a series of “check the box” items and not strong garrison/theater leadership and concern for troop welfare. 5) General force fatigue, training tempo and ridiculous administrative requirements (generally imposed by legislators more concerned with reelection than troop welfare) detract from time that invested leaders have to spend with troops. 6) Discontinuation of open bay barracks and promotion of single rooms (along with burgeoning video game culture) promotes further isolation. 7) Disturbingly high rate of entitlement in a generation (obviously not everyone) which joins during wartime and demands “respect” from senior people without expectation that they should have to earn it. Some of these seem people seem solely focused on their benefits and not service to country or their fellow… Read more »
I had a headquarters job once where the requirements were that only category 1 combat arms troops could be assigned; only those trained for and with demonstrated experience of bringing direct fire down on someone’s head. One of the aspects of the job was to take and verify reports of all incidents; all – including combat injuries and deaths, accidents, murders, suicides; fatalities of every group, age, description. As I recall, the suicides were, from the viewpoint of a small group of 13 hardcore infantry, often inexplicable. Why kill yourself? Why not go down fighting? But there were always those few whose rationale was clear. Many had been seen by the psychs, but even then, it didn’t seem to help much. We speculated that perhaps the psychs were part of the problem instead of being part of the solution. It seems not much has changed.
@5: +1 million points. You win the Internet for the day.
Ditto@5; Haven’t heard ANY of those points from the VA or “Big Army”. Very insightfull and well-thought out!
Squid: Please send you response to TIME!
Squid Wiz: well put.
I’ll add my $0.02 worth. IMO, it’s probably in general not any one of those by itself (or any single thing, in most cases) that drives someone to do himself/herself in. Rather, IMO it’s likely a combination of things hitting simultaneously that overwhelms the individual and drives them over that edge.
Everybody has a breaking point. Keep adding more things going wrong at the same time, and eventually anyone will exceed their ability to cope. I think that’s what we’re seeing more than anything else.
The article does not matter…
Suicide is a real problem. The article overlooks or under reports (your point of view) several issues that are contributing factors..
Social issues, infedelity, level of education, abuse as a child, and so forth.
This is a real problem.
@8..I have said these things to a number of people in high places with varying degrees of receptiveness on their parts. Depending on which service you are talking to, the response ranges from flagrant denial (particularly in 07) to “lets just throw money at it” to attempts at more thoughtful solutions. My time with the Marines has convinced me that there are many in the upper eschelons that really do care and really do get it. They remember a time when a gunny or chief knew his Marines or sailors…knew what was going on in their lives ad made sure that they got taken care of when they needed it. Setting something in place that actually effects a change, given all of the competing politicial pressures and what has been a significant change in societal values (to include a greater acceptance of suicide as a viable option amongst some younger people), is a daunting task. Heres what I can tell you… its going to take more than just hiring more mental health providers. Don’t get me wrong, most of the mental health providers I know I tired themselves from multiple deployments. Its great for the troops that these providers are closer to the point of need but it also means that these people are subjected to the same possible traumas….and then they come home with little recovery time and spend day in and day out hearing others’ trauma stories all day and trying to do less with more. Some of the best counselors I know are getting out because they are just too burnt the hell out. Civilian counselors are well meaning but many do not understand military culture and end up unintentionally doing things that are not helpful like undermining the command, providing ineffective advocacy or loading people up on drugs that make them non-functional at work. And then there is the very real issue of stigma. Generally, I think attitudes towards seeking mental health treatment are better than they were in the past but the problem now is that the force is, in general, so tired that even… Read more »
I look at it this way–back in the 90’s before I got out, I saw the risk groups for suicide. White, male, mid-enlisted grades, early 30’s, recent marital status change, multiple sea tours or high stress NEC.
I fit every single risk group. And as shitty as my life got at that time some days, never did I think about offing myself, if only because there was more to live for than not live for. We need to identify those at risk, to be sure, but also need to alleviate the stressors which cause that risk to rise.
I know from experience the level of pure crap a combat arms soldier is subjected to after an injury of any type. The feeling of being useless while you stay in the rear while your unit trains, deploys or even conducts pt can (and often will) be exasperated by anyone from senior leadership down to the team level.
I think most of the people in a line unit can say they have either seen or felt the level of abuse put on people that actually do try and get help. I can remember more than a couple PSG and above going on rants about weakness and wussyness involved with seeking help for any mental issues including combat pts.
Ask a line soldier if he thought going to any DoD program for help and not have negative repercussions.
In 13 I speak of line units and combat arms because I am speaking of my experiences and I don’t have any as a pog or remf.
@13. Thats definitely an issue and it does seem to be worse in combat arms. Perhaps the only advantage to being combat arms, at least in the USMC, is that the USMC embeds mental health resources down at the regiment. Its not a fix all but if you get an aggressive doc who has a good relationship with the commander (or the commander’s superior), theres a little protection for the guys coming forward.
Personally, I always though the most powerful advocates for change were the E7s-E9s that come forward, get help and have a powerful experience. The problem is too many of them wait until they’re on the cusp of retirement and then the amount of time they have left amongst the troops to effect a change in attitude is limited. I’d love to see some of those guys be given jobs to assist the active duty E9s mentor the E6 through E8s. Change the attitudes of that group and I think you’ll slowly see a cultural shift.
In addition to Squid Wiz’s excellent commentary, there’s another thing I’d like to offer: generational gaps. As a 28-year old sailor, one factor that I’d like to see omore explored or discussed is generational factors. Gen X was far more amenable to suicide than the Boomers were. It can’t be unrelated that most of the people who committed suicide were so young. Considering that our current generation grew up inundated with music that was far more open about the concept of self-harm/suicide (especially targeted at the demographic that is doing most of the suicide), it’s probably not unreasonable to suspect that Gen Y/Millenials are far more amenable to suicide as an option than the Gen Xers were.
In other words, I suspect this is a generational issue as well as just a military one, though I’ve never been able to find any studies that look at that. Also, it’s all emo music’s fault.