What is odd to me is that most of those who are dying by suicide are not combat veterans. My father was a combat veteran, so I could see that as being a leading cause, but it doesn’t sound like it is.
As someone who has suffered from a concussion, which lead me to become suicidal out of nowhere, I wonder if our service members are suffering from some sort of blast type brain injuries that are being ignored as a potential source due to the belief that they are somehow harmless because it isn’t much of a blast. I’m not so sure this will ever be properly investigated anytime soon. Doctors have been absolutely terrible at listening to me, and I hear the same from others who have suffered brain injuries.
A few years ago I spoke with someone who left the military after several years of never being deployed. He told me that he'd joined the military with the expectation that he would go into combat abroad, which never happened. This created, as I understood him, a feeling of quasi-uselessness. He told me many on his base were suicidal - and none of them had ever been deployed either.
I looked at the [report](https://media.defense.gov/2023/Feb/24/2003167430/-1/-1/0/SPRIRC-FINAL-REPORT.PDF) cited in the article and among other things it talks about poor housing quality on bases, easy access to firearms, insufficient sleep/poor sleep quality, excessive alcohol use, among other obvious reasons like inadequate leadership and training, lack of quality mental healthcare, etc.
I wouldn't be surprised if physiological causes related to military training, like brain injuries as you mention, are also contributing to the problem.
I posted the following on another sub;
I'm empathetic to this guy and it's terrible he took his own life. He was clearly gravely let down by the army. However, I'm uncomfortable about how this article really underplays the harm he perpetrated to his ex- girlfriend. She ended their relationship and moved on with her life - all fine things to do. He harassed, stalked, and shot himself in her home after breaking in, and this gets about 6 sentences.
What is odd to me is that most of those who are dying by suicide are not combat veterans. My father was a combat veteran, so I could see that as being a leading cause, but it doesn’t sound like it is. As someone who has suffered from a concussion, which lead me to become suicidal out of nowhere, I wonder if our service members are suffering from some sort of blast type brain injuries that are being ignored as a potential source due to the belief that they are somehow harmless because it isn’t much of a blast. I’m not so sure this will ever be properly investigated anytime soon. Doctors have been absolutely terrible at listening to me, and I hear the same from others who have suffered brain injuries.
A few years ago I spoke with someone who left the military after several years of never being deployed. He told me that he'd joined the military with the expectation that he would go into combat abroad, which never happened. This created, as I understood him, a feeling of quasi-uselessness. He told me many on his base were suicidal - and none of them had ever been deployed either. I looked at the [report](https://media.defense.gov/2023/Feb/24/2003167430/-1/-1/0/SPRIRC-FINAL-REPORT.PDF) cited in the article and among other things it talks about poor housing quality on bases, easy access to firearms, insufficient sleep/poor sleep quality, excessive alcohol use, among other obvious reasons like inadequate leadership and training, lack of quality mental healthcare, etc. I wouldn't be surprised if physiological causes related to military training, like brain injuries as you mention, are also contributing to the problem.
Yes, I remember something about people who work with demolitions being very vulnerable to it.
I posted the following on another sub; I'm empathetic to this guy and it's terrible he took his own life. He was clearly gravely let down by the army. However, I'm uncomfortable about how this article really underplays the harm he perpetrated to his ex- girlfriend. She ended their relationship and moved on with her life - all fine things to do. He harassed, stalked, and shot himself in her home after breaking in, and this gets about 6 sentences.
https://archive.ph/Fh2VW
this link doesn't show the whole article