Drug Abuse and Vets Record Suicide Rates

In 2008 a court case out of California revealed a Dept. of Veterans Affairs email which stated that 1000 vets in VA treatment programs after duty attempt suicide every month.    Also revealed was the figure of 18 successful veteran suicides PER DAY.

For the past three years the suicide rate of veterans returning back home after active duty has risen sharply.  

Some observations of a counselor speaking about the problem noted that he had never seen such traumatization in the returning vets he was treating.   The level of destruction that these soldiers are experiencing while in active duty is beyond anything one could imagine.  The types of weaponry are so massively destructive and (noting use of DEPLETED URANIUM) have such widespread destructive outcomes that soldiers are coming back completely traumatized by the experience.  Adding to the trouble is the “stop-loss” system of extending tours of duty making the tour years longer than expected. 

On returning home,  soldiers are still reeling from the death and destruction,  and the constant stress of having to be on guard and expecting to be attacked and killed at any waking moment.  They often turn to drugs and alcohol,  and in fact drugs are the main treatment offered by the VA hospitals.   Drug them up. 

It is well documented that drugs and the ensuing degradation of physical and mental health cause suicidal ideation.   Add that to a recent exposure to death and on-going destruction under the stressful conditions present during active war,  and you have a recipe for disaster. 

This would be for any lay person a predictable outcome. 

The solution lies in the statement of the problem.  Too many vets are killing themselves after being subjected to a war that is seemingly endless and ovder-the-top tyrannically destructive,  and too many vets are suiciding after drugs are added to their already unstable condition.