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