Your Data is WRONG!
This is in respect to a recent article published in the Marine Corps Times.
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Respectfully...I could not disagree more. You need to dig a bit deeper. I will tell you why:
But first let me preface by saying I do not blame the Marine Corps for my husbands suicide. I don't blame the war, or the government. I am not planning to sue anyone for liability. He is the one who denied his condition and refused mental health services until the end. It wasn't your fault, or the gun his father bought him for Fathers Day, it wasn't me or the kids, his childhood...It was him. He had PTSD and was too proud and sick to see it.
Now back to the point...
The article states there is no link between deploying and suicide but rather societal problems that cause it. This leads me to believe you have NO CLUE about PTSD. I mean, you talk a good game. You pretend to offer insight into the epidemic but you missed the mark by a thousand miles. The PTSD brain does not function the way an average brain can. Stressors in life that one should usually get past and move on, the PTSD holds on to. Things fester. Problems that alone can be easily tackled are stacked on the pile of anxieties until it becomes the weight of the world on the persons shoulders.
So while you say everyday life seems to be more directly linked I can only chuckle and roll my eyes at your attempt to deflect reality. That doesn't mean you or the war or military training is at FAULT...it means people have everyday problems...everyday. They don't commit suicide over it. Something must happen FIRST for them to consider an everyday problem a matter of life or death.
I am not asking you to open yourself up to frivolous lawsuit or money crazed emotional class action cases....but please be honest. Healthy people don't commit suicide. Money problems or a fight with your wife or neighbor wont make you suicidal. A permanent change in your brain chemistry and how your body responds to stressors DOES! Don't blame the surviving family members trying to make sense of their loss. To you our husbands, wives, fathers and mothers are a statistic on an excel sheet. They were our whole world.
Not everyone who is in a traumatic situation will develop PTSD but when they do it changes our brain chemistry. I have never seen combat but the last six minutes of my husband's life provided me first hand knowledge of how the PTSD mind works. I now have it. I dont look any different. I am now a widow with three children who suffers with PTSD everyday. The difference is I acknowledge it and get help. YES! Every day stressors weigh on me heavily. More than ever before but I have been given the tools to manage the stress because I KNOW what causes my brain to misfire.
Its not a "chicken and egg" quandary. Science has explained how the condition affects the brain. PTSD comes first, then life stacks up on top. It would be really great to see that you actually understand it. I dont want anything from you, just peace of mind knowing people are being treated properly and you are qualified enough to speak on the problem.
Its impossible to know WHO will be affected but it would be comforting to know if it should happen you know what to do and how to help. Its not an admission of "guilt". Service members sign contracts to serve. We are proud of them. We love this country. Does this country love us?
Do you even KNOW us?
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More specifically, this excerpt-- "Data hasn’t found a definitive link between suicides and service members who deploy to warzones, and officials say that more often the deaths are tied to familiar, societal problems such as financial or job stress and marriage and relationship issues."
Respectfully...I could not disagree more. You need to dig a bit deeper. I will tell you why:
But first let me preface by saying I do not blame the Marine Corps for my husbands suicide. I don't blame the war, or the government. I am not planning to sue anyone for liability. He is the one who denied his condition and refused mental health services until the end. It wasn't your fault, or the gun his father bought him for Fathers Day, it wasn't me or the kids, his childhood...It was him. He had PTSD and was too proud and sick to see it.
Now back to the point...
The article states there is no link between deploying and suicide but rather societal problems that cause it. This leads me to believe you have NO CLUE about PTSD. I mean, you talk a good game. You pretend to offer insight into the epidemic but you missed the mark by a thousand miles. The PTSD brain does not function the way an average brain can. Stressors in life that one should usually get past and move on, the PTSD holds on to. Things fester. Problems that alone can be easily tackled are stacked on the pile of anxieties until it becomes the weight of the world on the persons shoulders.
So while you say everyday life seems to be more directly linked I can only chuckle and roll my eyes at your attempt to deflect reality. That doesn't mean you or the war or military training is at FAULT...it means people have everyday problems...everyday. They don't commit suicide over it. Something must happen FIRST for them to consider an everyday problem a matter of life or death.
I am not asking you to open yourself up to frivolous lawsuit or money crazed emotional class action cases....but please be honest. Healthy people don't commit suicide. Money problems or a fight with your wife or neighbor wont make you suicidal. A permanent change in your brain chemistry and how your body responds to stressors DOES! Don't blame the surviving family members trying to make sense of their loss. To you our husbands, wives, fathers and mothers are a statistic on an excel sheet. They were our whole world.
Not everyone who is in a traumatic situation will develop PTSD but when they do it changes our brain chemistry. I have never seen combat but the last six minutes of my husband's life provided me first hand knowledge of how the PTSD mind works. I now have it. I dont look any different. I am now a widow with three children who suffers with PTSD everyday. The difference is I acknowledge it and get help. YES! Every day stressors weigh on me heavily. More than ever before but I have been given the tools to manage the stress because I KNOW what causes my brain to misfire.
Its not a "chicken and egg" quandary. Science has explained how the condition affects the brain. PTSD comes first, then life stacks up on top. It would be really great to see that you actually understand it. I dont want anything from you, just peace of mind knowing people are being treated properly and you are qualified enough to speak on the problem.
Its impossible to know WHO will be affected but it would be comforting to know if it should happen you know what to do and how to help. Its not an admission of "guilt". Service members sign contracts to serve. We are proud of them. We love this country. Does this country love us?
Do you even KNOW us?
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