Veteran Suicides Highest Yet Recorded

Iraq And Afghanistan Vets At Greater Suicide Risk Due To Disabling Injuries, PTSD

(AP)  One major hurdle in stopping suicide is getting people to ask for help. From 20 percent to 50 percent of active duty troops and reservists who returned from war reported psychological problems, relationship problems, depression and symptoms of stress reactions, but most report that they have not sought help, according to a report from a military mental health task force.

"It's only when it becomes painful will someone seek counseling," said Chris Ayres, manager of the combat stress recovery program at the Wounded Warrior Project, a private veterans' assistance group based in Jacksonville, Fla. "That's usually how it happens. Nobody just walks in, because it's the hardest thing for a male, a Marine, a type-A personality figure to just go in there and say, 'Hey, I need some help.'"

While not suicidal, Ayres, 37, a former Marine captain from the Houston area who had the back of his right leg blown off in Iraq, has experienced episodes related to his post-traumatic stress disorder and said he worried about being stigmatized if he got help.

He's since learned to manage through counseling, and he's encouraging other veterans to get help.

Ayres is among 28,000 Americans injured in the war, more than 3,000 seriously.

In a study published earlier this year, researchers at Portland State University in Oregon found veterans were twice as likely to commit suicide as male nonveterans. High gun ownership rates, along with debilitating injuries and mental health disorders, were all risk factors that seemed to put the veterans at greater risk, said Mark Kaplan, one of the researchers.

While veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan were not included in the study, Kaplan said that given the nature of the injuries of the recent wars and the strain of long and repeated deployments, the newer generation of veterans could be at risk for suicide.

Kaplan said primary care physicians should ask patients whether they are veterans, and if the answer is yes, inquire about their mental health.

"This is war unlike other wars and we don't know the long-term implications and the hidden injuries of war," Kaplan said.

Dr. Dan Blazer, a professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center who served this year on the military's mental health task force, said improvements in care will likely help some veterans, but he's concerned about this generation. He said he treats World War II veterans still struggling mentally with their military experience.

"There's still going to be individuals that just totally slip through all of these safety nets that we construct to try to help things in the aftermath," Blazer said.

Suicide, Blazer said, "is a cost of war. It's a big one."

---

Suicide Hot Line:

The toll-free Veterans Affairs Department suicide hot line number is (800) 273-TALK (8255).

On The Web:

Veterans Affairs Department: www.va.gov

Suicide Prevention Network USA: www.spanusa.org

Wounded Warrior Project: www.woundedwarriorproject.org

[logicanada]

Oldprophet. . . in Europe a couple centuries ago a country whose populace felt that all the leaders were corrupted would accept the leadership of a clear thinker from another country. That usually got them back on track. If you want a leader who kicked the corrupt out of his country and spread the wealth of his country among the people get Castro in the Whitehouse. Trust me he will do a better job than shrub

[oldprophet]

You get the sense that our country is desperate for someone to show us the way. Not the old way. Not the same way, but a NEW WAY. Think about this for a minute. What if we pulled all of our troops out of South Korea? They''ve been there for 50+ years. What if we quit worrying about Iran, but instead, realized that its having a nuclear weapon will not mean the end of the world? What if we pulled all of our troops out of the Middle-East, and brought them all home? What if we realistically addressed the National Debt, and paid attention to REALLY DOING SOMETHING about stopping illegal immigration? These are the ideas of Republican Presidential candidate, Dr. Ron Paul. He''s a ten term Congressman and a physician who has delivered over 4,000 babies. He''s an intellectual who''s published four books, three of which are devoted entirely to sound economics. He was raised on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania as a pious Lutheran, but now he attends a Baptist church. Paul is given to mulling things over morally. Whenever he recollects the helicopter pilots he treated as an Air Force Flight Surgeon (Captain) during the Vietnam War, a war which he now says was "totally unnecessary and illegal," he laments, "They were gung-ho. I%u2019ve often thought about how many of those people never came back." Candidates with the high level of personal integrity and proven track record of adherance to The Constitution, Congressman Paul has always demonstrated only come around once in a lifetime, if we''re lucky.

[feelfree1]

Re: "Veteran Suicides Highest Yet Recorded"

Leave it to "speakinup" to find the silver lining of this article.

[meboard]

Good post MCVet. As an OEF VET, I concur with your support for a free press--that''s why I wear the uniform. Speakinup''s faulty logic would have us look at how many drowned on the Titanic as compared to the Lusitanian. Here''s a clue Speakiup...the end result is the same.

[logicanada]

This administration and it''s war in the name of terror has exposed many honorable troops to repeated incidents of carnage and brutality against innocent people. I recall the international outrage following the exposure of the Mi Lai massacre in Viet Nam. Where is the press exposure of such incidents? Conveniently hidden. Who is there to agree with these troops that what they are being ordered to do is just plain wrong.
Men of honor have a hard time dealing with dishonorable actions or reliving the carnage in their dreams. Sometimes only death can bring peace to a troubled mind. Perhaps this is their only way to rest.

[rf36]

First I''ve heard of this and I''m in the military and have been to Iraq. Suicide prevention education is all over the place in the military. I notice the report mentioned that the suicide rate being tracked was for those who left the military. Maybe a little more suicide prevention education in the civilian world is called for. I had a close friend attempt suicide when I was in high school...if I''d had the kind of education then that I do now on the warning signs, I might have been able to get him help and prevent the attempt. Many of the signs of suicidal thouoghts were there, I just didn''t know how to recognize them for what they were.

[mcvet]

This article also failed to show the suicide rate for Vietnam and previous war vets.

SO, one has to ask - why the article ? Was it because CBS wanted to push its liberal agenda of getting deaths out there, so Hillary can reap the benefit ?

Why is it we never heard of the resolution for the 250 surrounded ? Yet we hear of "U.S.-Led Afghanistan Raid Kills 2 Children".

Wake up folks - the media is spoon feeding you ONLY what they want you to hear. OR, ONLY what they are forced to tell you. DEMAND better.

Posted by Speakinup at 01:19 PM : Nov 01, 2007
+ report abuse

Why do you Nazi''s do this? Why attack the Free Press? Who would you people in the SS like to determine what we the people hear and see... YOU do know that MOST of us are capable of reading and understanding things for ourselves, we do NOT need someone every day to tell us what someone is saying and what they mean. So tell us Swastika Breath, who should determine what we see and hear? Should we establish a Propaganda Ministry? Personally I like the idea of a Free American going out there and reporting on what they see and here. But that''s the difference between us you refer to as "liberal''s" and you bootlickers. I trust my fellow citizen and neighbor, you don''t... Well unless they are part of the Party. Sieg Heil Bush!!

[speakinup]

Princeowhales - why are you calling it our troops - you are from Ireland, not the US.

What a charlatan.

[speakinup]

This article also failed to show the suicide rate for Vietnam and previous war vets.

SO, one has to ask - why the article ? Was it because CBS wanted to push its liberal agenda of getting deaths out there, so Hillary can reap the benefit ?

Why is it we never heard of the resolution for the 250 surrounded ? Yet we hear of "U.S.-Led Afghanistan Raid Kills 2 Children".

Wake up folks - the media is spoon feeding you ONLY what they want you to hear. OR, ONLY what they are forced to tell you. DEMAND better.

[finewoven]

. . . like a monk turning himself into a living cherries jubilee. Posted by Prinzowhales at 11:04 AM : Nov 01, 2007

I''d like to see that!

[twylacrat]

Bush is a war monger. We all know that. I wonder just how many deaths are enough for him. Is there any end to his need for chaos and death? If he wasn''t president I guess he''d apply for a job at the dog pound putting puppies to sleep.

[prinzowhales]

The article fails to note how many of these men were on SSRIs or other psychoactive drugs. One of the major complaints of veterans is the VA--when they go for real complaints that can''t be pigeon-holed in a ready made diagnosis, they end up in the psych category...

Suicide is just the final act that catches the eye of the public...like a monk turning himself into a living cherries jubilee. Problems for our veterans abound after the adrenalin-exhausting tours in Iraq and the insult of health-destroying vaccines and exposure to depleted uranium.

[tejasdemo]

Their deaths lie at the feet of George Bush, *** Cheney, and every Republican in this country.

Go to hell.

[godofredo29]

As former Surgeon General Satcher sought, we really need to make suicide a major men''s health issue. The problem is that we need to treat men as individuals rather than as functions of something or someone else. We all have ideals, aspirations unique to ourselves. When life strips away everything to the point where those appear no longer attainable then life is no longer worth living, even for a father, a husband, a brother, a son, a breadwinner, a soldier or whatever social function you want to attach to the guy. At that point you''ve gone beyond a point where you can care any longer about the impact your death might have on anything or anyone else. So, you can''t shame a person into not taking their on life. These are hard things for our mercenary-minded society to accept.