Having to face the stress of ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the long overseas tours away from the family, many US soldiers choose suicide in order to free themselves from “the hell” they are experiencing. Given the circumstances, it’s no wonder that suicide rate has risen in 2008, reaching its highest level in three decades, according to Army officials on Thursday.
There were 128 confirmed suicides in 2008, with a further 15 deaths still being investigated, among active-duty soldiers and activated National Guard and reserves, which means the suicide rate among US soldiers reached 20.2 per 100,000. This shows that the rate of suicide among soldiers surpassed the overall US rate for people of similar ages and backgrounds for the first time since the Vietnam War: 19.5 per 100,000 in 2005. The Army registered a rate of 12.7 per 100,000 during the same year and continued to rise reaching 15.3 in 2006 (102) and 16.8 in 2007 (115). In 2004 were 64 suicides, only about half the number now.
Army officials are astonished by the recent figures, as they couldn’t find the reason behind this continuing rising in suicide cases.
“Why do the numbers keep going up? We can’t tell you. But we can tell you that across the army, we’re committed to doing everything we can to address the problem. This is a challenge of the highest order for us,” said US Army Secretary Pete Geren.
The analysis shows that about 35 percent of the suicides were among soldiers who had never been deployed, 30 percent among soldiers who were on active service (many of them on their first tour of duty), while the rest of 35 percent of the suicides took place after deployment, mostly more than a year after the soldier had returned home.
Furthermore, about 78 percent of deployed soldiers who committed suicide were on their first tour of duty. This finding suggests that some troops may learn to cope better with stress after having accomplished multiple tours of duty, officials said.
Trying to find an explanation for these findings, Army officials blame emotional and psychological stress caused by repeated combat deployments, along with the way these tours have affected soldiers’ marriages. Also some of the soldiers often lose faith in religion or themselves, which might push them towards suicide. Some others become suicidal following abuse of drugs or alcohol, which turn them into irrational people.
“They become extremely depressed and really hopeless, like, ‘This is never going to end. I’m never going to be myself again. I’m never going to be able to be with my family again,’” said Dr. Judith Broder, founder of the Soldier’s Project, a counseling service for troops and their families in the Los Angeles area.
It seems that measures like hiring more mental health professionals and increasing mental health screening have been taken to cut suicide numbers, but, apparently, they proved inadequate. Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, believes suicide rates will continue to rise unless the Department of Defense starts taking aggressive action.
