Why is the Suicide Rate for Veterans so High?

Question

CBS News gathered the information and the results are staggering. They estimated that, in 2005 alone, 6,256 veterans killed themselves after returning from Iraq or Afghanistan. This figure does not include those soldiers who kill themselves while serving. It breaks down to 120 veterans weekly, and 17 vets every day.

The Department of Veteran's Affairs and other agencies claim that these suicides have nothing to do with military service, but are because of "personal problems." But others feel that the head traumas sustained and the gut-wrenching experiences of this war are causing deep depression and suicide after returning home.

My question is, why do you think this is happening, and what can be done to prevent these veterans from taking their own lives?

Answer 1

I'm a Vietnam vet-2 tours-and in response to jamesarmywife, the reception received by the soldiers returning from Afghanistan and Iraq is NOTHING compared to Vietnam. Our returning veterans now are received warmly and that statement is inaccurate. There is no comparison to Vietnam for other reasons. My generation had fathers who served in WWII and Korea and we had heard about war experiences our entire lives. We had a draft and we expected to serve. We were confronted with the Cold War every day and practice the "duck and cover" drill in grade school in the event of nuclear attack. Our parents built bomb shelters. Yeah-it was all a stupid and wasted effort, but we didn't know that. There was more professionalism and greater care at the VA then. I've been going to the VA since 1974 and I've seen it seriously deteriorate. We had a fairly active PTSD program for Vietnam and just today, in my county, we setting up a PTSD program for Iraqi/Afghani vets on the Indian reservation by telemedicine. Why is it happening? We got complacent and quit caring for our veterans. I'm almost 60 and there is a whole 30-40 gap of few veterans out there needing combat rehabilitation care. The VA began loosing funding and, appropriately, changing its mission to the care of older veterans like me. I'm not going to bother checking suicide statistics. I work with suicidal Native American veterans every day. A big difference is the veterans of today are not coming back with drug addictions like we saw in the Vietnam veterans. Do today's vets misuse drugs and alcohol? Sure, but the drugs are not available in Iraq like they were in Vietnam. Today's vets are warmly welcomed back into society, but war is a traumatic experience. Soldiers in WWI and WWII had "shell shock", which is the same as PTSD. For the VA to say the suicides are unrelated to military service is, frankly, stupid. Of course there are personal problems--most of which stem from military service. This is a new approach by the VA. Except for denying the harm of Agent Orange, at least they admitted Vietnam vets suffered from combat, like every vet since war began. From my personal experience, today's VA is the most inept government organization I have ever encountered and their dishonesty and lack of effort to solve an obvious problem is unbelieveable. EDIT: I wasn't going to comment on suicide statistics, but Gunny had a really good point. This age group has the highest suicide rate. On the other hand, I work with traditional Native Americans who return to their communities and live among very close family and tribal members. Suicide used to be unknown among the Native Americans because they had such strong community ties. We are using traditional healing and that's helpful, but this generation of veterans is the first Native group who have experienced this problems. Although now deceased, I did know many survivors of the Bataan Death March and some of the Navajo and Apache Code Talkers. Those were terrible times, but no known suicides.

Answer 2

Statistics are bias...
Numbers can and are manipulated to the benifit of the individual needing them to prove a point.
If I were to be diagnosed with some alien deadly virus for which there was no hope of a cure for a an indefinate lenght f time, I would say my goodbyes and leave the world behind, rather than infect others i love.
That is sucucide, does that mean that I am a Vietnam veteran who commited sucicide...YES?NO

So the extenuating circumstances of why these Vets are doing this needs to be brought to light. Did a "Dear John letter cause it? did not having a job to come back to cause it? did a fall, and an injury to their head cause insanity?
as this Vet playing russian roulette while he was at some card game all drunked up?

Did he snap and threaten to kill himself, go out and take a drive, and his car suffered a critical breakage, and cause him to hit a tree?

So as I stated, the sensationalism, being used to create a negative attitude about our involvement in IRAQ seems to be working.

Also the suicide rates for veterans is not any higher than non-veterans of the same age group.

Answer 3

Obviously, there can be more than one reason that veterans commit suicide. There can also be more than one problem that causes one individual to commit suicide. I think you are right, in some instances the after shock of an explosion may cause brain damage. There is also the consideration that one individual may have a deep and abiding standard against killing and may be forced to go against these standards. There is an abrupt change in the environment of an individual in war time. Some can adjust and other cannot. Those who cannot adjust, must come to terms with what will be expected of them in war time. Also, because most people do not experience a situation on a daily basis that puts their life in danger, they are not prepared for war. War danger may force the person to defend themselves in a way that is against their own values. It takes many years for some to work out some of the reasons for their sadness and depression. Some don't ever accept that they were doing what they had to do in one situation, which they would not do in another situation. Some people see things in absolutes. Something is wrong or right, no matter what...and those people cannot come to terms with their behavior that they see and feel...as unacceptable.
In other words, they find themselves unacceptable or they find life unacceptable...either way...they look for a way to escape the emotion. Some go to drink, some to drugs, some to behavior that is not accepted by society, and some slide into the suicidal thinking.
There is not enough help for those who fall into depression during or after being in a war. Some people don't even realize they can't handle the emotions without help.
Encouraging someone who seems depressed to get help is the best way to create a difference in that persons life. Sometimes they just need someone to confide in that can be trusted. Their trust in the world is gone...and the way they were taught it should be has been shattered. It takes time to adjust to that. NV

Answer 4

There is a lot for a service member to deal with after they come back-been there done that! The key is to recognize you have a problem and seek help. Forget trying to do it on your own-everyone is human and needs help to decompress from what they've went through. I don't know if it is true of what you say about the Department of Veteran's Affairs, but I don't think at least I hope they don't just chalk up these things to the personal problems of the service men and women. Its beyond that. I use the Department of Veteran's Affairs frequently (and unfortunately) in the NYC area. They've been great with me-I truly have no complaints but I've also heard of the horror stories too. It takes alot to come out of something like a combat zone. There are times in your life that you mark and when you've done that, you are changed forever. Again, been there, done that.

Answer 5

17 vets a day?

I have not seen your source, but it sounds high. Thats higher then casualty rate in Iraq. Something like that seems pretty hard not notice, as a Soldier.

If you have a link, I would like to see it.... seriously, I'm not trying to attack your source, I would just like to see it. I was a sociology major in college.

Also, the rate is higher during times of war. Lots of things contribute to it. Broken marrages are a big one. Often the break up happens while the Soldier is deployed and then their world is gone when they return. I have seen that before. Lots of things change while you are gone. People expect it to be the same after a year, but it never is. Little things add up, from how bills are paid to ended relationships, to deaths of loved ones while you were gone. Some people cannot adapt to the changes.

As for what can be done, education, for the Veterans and their families. The military is doing this, they may be late about it, but they are doing it. I don't know how many suicide awareness classes and family intigration classes I had to attend both prior to returning and after I returned.

We learned this after the IFOR rotation to Bosnia in 1996. Suicide was higher, but the biggest indicator was spouse abuse increase (in a lot of cases, the woman attacking the man, not just male on female attacks). It was kind of a suprise to the military in 96 after the soldiers were gone from home 11-14 months in Bosnia. After that, we got classes even for short deployments. Since then, I have noticed the classes are getting more specific and presented better.



EDIT..........................................

Here is the quote from the article, (I found it).....

"In 2005, for example, in just those 45 states, there were at least 6,256 suicides among those who served in the armed forces. That’s 120 each and every week, in just one year"

That quote is from "among those who served in the armed forces." It didn't say Iraq, Afganistan.... it said "who served." So that can include Vitenam, people that didn't deploy at all, people who were in the military just long enough to get qualified as a veteran. It could even be people that went to basic training and were kicked out (a lot are kicked out because the military finds they are suicidial). I read where WWII veterans are commiting suicide even.

Overall, the article is a little misleading. Its not wrong, but it presents the numbers in leading way.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/11/13/cbsnews_investigates/main3496471.shtml

Also, suicide has always been higher among people who served, that is part of the reason Durkheim studied the military in his studies about suicide.

Answer 6

Either you misread the article or CBS is being misleading. Those 6,256 veterans were not all Afghanistan/Iraq vets. These were _all_ veterans.

The amazing thing is all of the people who agreed with you - without considering that if what you said was true that would be an over 6% suicide rate!

Answer 7

I don't know the answer to this, but if I had to make some guesses, I would say that 1) the trauma of seeing people killed or killing other people on a daily basis causes some severe emotional trauma in itself and 2) the military tends to have a "macho" ethic that regards asking for help with emotional issues as weakness and thus Marines or soldiers are less likely to seek help when they need it. From what I understand, veterans are also praised when they are fighting, but pretty much forgotten about when they return home.

Answer 8

More and more veterans are coming back with PTSD. My husband is one of them. There are alot of things that go hand and hand with PTSD and this is one of them.

They are haunted with things that they have seen or had to do, EVERY day. They have suvivor guilt because they watched their best friend die, but they didnt. They think they are doing an injustice to their brother in arms that did die, if they get over it and move on with their lives... and all of that combined is over whelming.

What would help these veterans is to HAVE to get help. It came to the point with my husband it was an all out fight because I suggested he get help.

They do what is called a "debrief" before the leave a war zone, but it is ususally about 2 weeks long if even that, but it is NOT enough. There are veterans that it takes YEARS in a treatment program to be helped.

I think when these men and women start getting back they should mandate they have to see a counseler, at least once a week for 6 months for treatment. There is no one person that doesnt come back feeling just as well as they did before hand, I dont care what ANYONE says. It is human to have these feelings and emotions after war.

As far as Vietnam vets and prior... Maybe the VA should send out information on PTSD that describes the symptoms of it and treatment available through them. I doubt that would make EVERY vet that is still suffering from PTSD come in, but it may help???

Wow, who knew you were going to get attacked like this for asking this question... ( just read above answers)... someone said something about look at suicide rates during peace time... with what I have said, PTSD NEVER goes away. It is there for the rest of your life, but treatment makes it more managable. Regardless if its now or 10 years from now (hopefully this war will be over by then) people can still commit suicide because they are still affected.

For the Vietnam vet who said these people are not seeing anything worse than the Vietnam vets did... it doesnt matter to what degree, needing help is needing help and he should know if he has PTSD how bad it is living with it, shame on him.

Answer 9

Many factors play a role in this and some are military related either culture or experiences, large numbers are personal and some are demographics. Demographics first, I have not seen the information the report is based on byt past have ran veterans rates against the popunlation as a whole, this is not really accurate as younger 20's and late teens have a higher suicide rate then the population as a whole. Since most veterans and the military in general is younger on average then the population as a whole the rate will be higher any time. Need to look at it by age group in both sets (civilian and military) and that would show a more accurate picture. The military always has a higher suicide rate then the population as a whole even when no conflict is going on and for those people having nothing to do with any conflict. The personal side is where I will upset some spouses but it is true and most know but will not admit it-when military members are gone for deployents or overseas on unaccompanied tours (wife/family cannot go/combat or normal) it adds a lot of stress to the marriage and to the spouse left behind; some times the spouses look to other peple for comfort and have affairs most are "harmless" and private but some aren't. The birth rate always shoots up after a unit returns and so does the divorce rate, some times the spouse can't handle the change in routine when the soldier returns and some times the soldier finds out about the affairs and that causes problems. The stress of a divorce or knowledge of the affair can cause a soldier to thin of suicide and they do so. I knew three Marines personally that committed suicide while I was in (20 years service); two of the three were related to the spouse cheating on them and them finding out. Sort of rough to find your wife seven months pregnant when you return from a nine month deployment or come home early on the advance party to "surprise" your wife and find her in your bedroom and bed with another person. Third case was a little more military related sort of; friend from Vietnam had set up house/married a Vietnamese school teacher while there in late 1965, kept extending or returning to Vietnam to be with her and started paperwork to bring her and there son back to the U.S. She was in Hue and was assanated by the communist during the Tet Offensive. He went a little nuts for a while but by the time I met him had settled down. We came back to the States together and were stationed together and as time went on he got down again about the situation and being lonely. I was deployed to another location when Saigon fell and when I returned to the base had a note from him that he had failed to protect his wife and son and that the U.S. had failed to protect the country and keep the treaty; he had killed himself. I guess that was both personal and military related. The culture side is that military people are not the "touchy-feely type" for the most part and not into crying on shoulders or admitting they need help or accepting it. We can talk amongst ourselves and to your buddies who have been with you but going to a counselor is often a different manner from a vets stand point. You are a tough solder and you need to suck it up and go on is the majority opinion and way of life; some don't suck it up well and then, if they leave service, do not have the relief valve of talking to their buddies or having their buddies look out for them until they get over the rough spots. Sometimes things you saw or did have much the same effect and with the culture and tendency of personal in the military plus seperation from others who have been there and done that you would feel alone and could slip into a suicidial pattern. I do not think that head truma's have a significant impact on the suicide rates from a statistical stand point; football players and boxers have much the same type of injuries with multiple concussions but I don't believe the suicide rate there is significantly higher. What can prevent it is counsellling, if you can get them to take it and be serious about it but besides that I would say not much. If you do not want help or will admit you need help, have no one you can talk or depend on and decide to kill yourself the honest fact is you will and no one can stop you but yourself. I did try to get my friend to a counselor more then once as did other people but the few occasions he did go was lip service and because he wanted us to shut up about it-he told them what they wanted to hear and then kept his thoughts to himself for a while. If I had been there when Saigon fell I might have been able to help him get over that spot but as time went on and I got older I realized that it was all a matter of time and he would have done it sooner or later.

Answer 10

Thank you for posting this question. Isn't it perverse and sad that some of the responders are so dismissive of the point you are making?

The fact of the matter is that our troops are stressed far beyond what "normal" tolerance levels are capable of withstanding. And anyone who cares to look up the stats will find out in about 10 minutes that the suicide rate of soldiers today is higher than at any other time in our military History.

And yes, that includes Vietnam.