Suicide Is Not the Answer.

How many times have you been in a life threatening situation? How many times have you told yourself to ‘Man Up’ or ‘Get over It’? Most veterans who have been in combat have flashbacks to those times when they feared for their lives. Veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan theaters are even more prone to this because of the nature of their enemy. Stealthy, unidentified, the enemy could be the child smiling at you across the dirt street.

These enemies wear no uniform, carry no flag, and give no warning. Every shot fired is a major decision because of the question; enemy or civilian? Road side bombs and ambushes are prevalent. It’s no surprise that our service personnel are stressed when they’re fighting on these terms. According to the Department of Defense, a service member commits suicide every 36 hours. The James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital in Tampa sees about 20 patients a week who have been identified as suicide risks. Between 2004 and 2009, just in the State of Florida, 3700 former armed service members committed suicide. The statistics on service personnel suicide has gained national attention due to the news of four suicides in one week at Fort Hood in Texas. How does this happen? Our finest young people go to the service hale and hearty and return to do away with themselves from stress. They return with trauma acquired in foreign countries.

The symptoms are varied, they include road rage, depression, anxiety, strained relationships, ruined marriages, and worst of all, thoughts of suicide. As a result of these statistics, the Army has been sending Mental Health Advisory teams to Afghanistan and Iraq to gauge our warrior’s stability in the face of constant stress. These teams bring back a portrait of our Armed Forces laboring under increasing instability. Service members in their third or even fourth deployment reported more use of medication for psychological issues than those in their first or second deployment. There were also greater marital problems in the more-deployed. Another cause of anxiety is the easily available communication with the home front. Through cell phones and the internet, the issues facing service member’s families are quickly communicated to the service members themselves. It’s stressful to be in a foreign country knowing you’re a 24 hour a day target. Imagine the added stress of knowing your son is failing at school or your spouse can’t meet the mortgage.

Despite their valiant efforts to improve mental health services, the Department of Veterans Affairs can’t keep pace. The Suicide Prevention Program now in place is understaffed and under trained to meet the needs of the veteran with multi-deployments who is startled by a car horn or a plane flying overhead. Add to this the antipathy of the common citizen towards the United States’ involvement in wars abroad. The average American shows no enthusiasm for our troops. Many military and health professionals feel this will worsen as the wars goes on. Although the incident at Fort Hood brought this problem to national attention, it has been happening in the shadows for years. The government is preparing to issue new rules regarding post traumatic stress disorder which will make it easier to apply for and receive disability benefits, but there are more pressing matters facing the returning veteran. Funds are the least of the worries of a man who jumps from his bed to take cover when a dog barks in the night. The emotional numbness, the irritability and the flashbacks make life onerous for the veteran, but his family suffers with him. In many cases, PTSD leads to estrangement or divorce.

It has become imperative that deploying forces be given training in combat operation stress and suicide prevention for their own sake and to be able to recognize the signs in their comrades. In this way, it is hoped that they will be able to police their own before a situation develops. In the past the military program was one of avoidance, a ‘don’t talk about it and it will go away’ attitude coupled with the ‘macho’ persona of the warrior. Now, that thinking has changed. The new slant is to assess the stress, educate and train the troops and to intervene early to mitigate the circumstances that are creating these issues. It is hoped that these new preventive measures will be able to keep the stress levels low enough that thoughts of suicide do not intrude.

A large part of this plan is to keep lines of communication open between fellow warriors as well as between the enlisted and their superiors. Dispelling the original ‘never speak of your fears’ attitude is going to take a lot of work, but if that can be changed to a more open ‘let’s talk out our issues’ atmosphere, medical professionals feel this will relieve a lot of the stress buildup in troops on the ground in the war zones. It is felt that this new openness is exactly what is necessary to counteract depression and bring on more healthy mental outlooks. To recognize your levels of stress and talk it out with your fellows is a way of bringing it to a more moderate level by making it a shared experience. This is opposed to holding it inside and assuming that you are alone with it. Shared experiences are the norm in a group, shared emotions are more difficult to express, but if expressed, lose a large part of their impact.

One man’s trip to recovering of his emotional stability began with his first trip to James A. Haley. Suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression, he was bothered by any loud noise, even a dog barking, his marriage was suffering and he contemplated suicide. After attending a crisis recovery group at the hospital for several months, he is able to cope with his issues and is hoping to reach out to other veterans in need if help. His story, and his success in beating his trauma is exemplar and he wished to share it with others in the same situation. James A Haley has doubled its mental health staff, going from 100 to 250 providers.

They also increased their PTSD team from 5 to 15 clinicians. They also have a comprehensive suicide-prevention team which augments the hospital’s primary mental health services. Most of the vets currently identified as suicidal are from the Vietnam era, but in another decade, the majority of PTSD and depression sufferers will result from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. There are several different levels of treatment at Haley Hospital, crisis recovery sessions meet three to five days each week, there is a suicide prevention program and individual services are also available.

Belton Smith

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