When Words are Lethal: Why “talking about it” might not be as good as we think

Suicide, it is one of the most complex, and least understood phenomena when it comes to human psychology. When we choose to discuss mental health (or mental illness for that matter) a stigma is usually present, and a sense of awkwardness usually works its way into the room. Suicide though seems quite different, it has the tendency to be romanticized both in literature and in real life (see Romeo & Juliet and more [1]). So what exactly does this mean for society?

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Mental Illness: The Rising Storm

Hi again everyone! We know its been a while since we've posted anything and we apologise about that. We have been a “little” busy with normal life issues and such.

  Todays topic will be on the brewing storm encircling mental illness, and explaining how the worlds governments may be setting the conditions for the “perfect storm”...

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Addiction in the US: A disturbing truth

So as of recent I stumbled upon a very interesting topic, addiction. When I first think of addiction I personaly think of drugs and crime, along with medical issues and the $600 billion price tag accompanying it. The reality though is quite different...

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Medical Students' Disease

Many of you must be confused by the topic title I have chosen for this article but I assure you it is very much so relevant. If you are reading this blog it is likely you have visited other sites and communities discussing different issues, disorders, and syndromes and likewise you are likely well acquainted with them.

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Suicide in the Army

  In one of my posts on Suicide/ Mental Health Group I stated that I was planning to talk about military related mental health issues. I suppose the best topic to start off with is suicide, a very important issue to say the least and one that demands attention from both the US government and the general public. After doing a brief Google search for some studies related to this topic I stumbled upon a NIMH study and the results were surprising [and disturbing] to say the least.

  Oddly enough the U.S Army historically had a lower suicide rate than the civilian demographic until 2008 when it exceeded the civilian rate (20.2 per 100,000 vs. 19.2 per 100,000). Now to some this statistic could simply be written off as expected. In a war fighting organization where one of the goals is killing people and with that experiencing the horrors of war, a higher suicide rate would not be anything surprising. Disturbingly though is the fact that many of the individuals in the statistic were never even deployed into active combat in the first place!

   A study published by lead author Michael Schoenbaum, Ph.D. of NIMH statistically suggested that being white, male, or of junior enlisted rank placed individuals in a high risk position of suicide. Lower education levels were also attributed to a higher risk of suicide, and even though it was found that being deployed increased the risk of suicide for women more than it did men, men still were at higher risk of committing suicide.

  On an ending note, the US Army & NIMH still have yet to find any root causes of suicide in the Army. Though it has been discovered that many individuals in the U.S. Army who suffer from mental health issues had them before enlisting [85%]. NIMH seems to believe that these mental health issues may have been aggravated by the stress of active combat or even everyday military life, making it a possible link to the increase in suicide rates.

  -- Suicide/ Mental Health Group
Suicide/ Mental Health Group 

Sources: 
- NIHM- Suicide in the Military

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Welcome

  I finally decided that it would be smart to try to utilize Blogger for our community. I plan to be posting here on occasion with little updates every once and a while. I hope you enjoy the blog, I plan to put more time into setting it up in a more formal fashion.

  I also set up a news feed (it should be located on the right side of the blog for those of you who are news savvy).

 -- Suicide/ Mental Health Group :)

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