Veterans killing themselves at a higher rate than deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan combined When they cut out pensions last year I would have been perfectly fine with giving up 10% to nearly double the budget for the entire VA. These stats are nuts. And guess why its not on the news? Because the general populace is anti-war right now so, even though that shouldnt equate to anti-soldier, it does, at least to a large extent. The people in this region are pretty good about it, but not nationwide. The mainstream media gets better ratings by spamming us with more hype about the Ft. Hood shooting and talking about gun control (which as you all Im sure have seen me rant about by now) than addressing the real issue, which is mental health. (Dont forget disarming the law abiding citizens just makes more of them die faster in a shooting). We are really losing touch with reality in this country. By the way I think a major factor in this issue isnt just PTSD per se. Its failure to acclimate, for lack of a better term. I had a hell of a time with this (as some of you may know. :) ) I left for Iraq and never gave a second thought to coming home. It wasnt that I expected to die there, its that I just never really had any concept of the difference a year away would make on my personality. I came home and all I was really was a guy who spent a year in Iraq. Thats it. I had no self identity to work with to move forward from that point on. I was completely lost. Thankfully I figured that out, but it was hard. Very hard. I think this is probably at least the second biggest contributing factor to the suicide epidemic. From what I have seen and read its not really addressed except for some counselling during the three drills right when we get home. Its sorta lumped in with PTSD but Im not so sure thats the right way to address it.
Posted on: Fri, 04 Apr 2014 17:00:46 +0000
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