Why Are USA Soldiers Suicidle

8/14/2019 Why Are USA Soldiers Suicidle

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Shahid, Ebrahim

English 1302-900

Mrs. M. Harrison

April 3, 2013

Solving the Problem: Suicidal Soldiers in the United States Army

Anybody who has bothered to look at statistics concerning the cause of death

among American soldiers would be lying if they said that suicide is a minor contribution.

In fact more soldiers die by suicide than in actual combat. Another sad fact is that there

have been more suicides in the past 10 years than in the 4 years of the civil war, which

experts are at a loss to explain (Breidenstine 11). Instead of focusing on theevents and

the stories behind the suicidal soldiers, more emphasis needs to be brought to what can

reduce this. The bar charts for army suicide is at an incline and making the chart look

more like the chart of a failing company in the stock market would be a truly great thing.

The problem lies in mental health issues, relationship problems, and flawed military

policies, but where are the solutions, and more importantly are there even any? The short

answer to this is yes. Suicide is preventable both for civilians and soldiers and the most

effective reduction of suicide has been proven through use of the suicide hotline, and

meditation and alterations to military standards.

Everyone has at least heard of the suicide hotline. The initial purpose of it was a

sign of relief for the men in uniform defending the land of the free and the home of the

brave. The hotline has been successful. According American Journal of Public Health

Volume 102, King et al. demonstrated among a small sample of adolescents, suicidality

decreased after a call to a suicide crisis line (Katz et al. S29-S30). If it worked for


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teenagers, it will probably at least contribute some to adults and soldiers. To some this is

an easy alternative to going to the hospital (Katz et al. S29). The ease of use and display

of kindness shown by the 24/7 hotline is definitely a step in the right direction and

keeping it open and adding more responders to it will almost certainly be beneficial to the

situation.

A phone call isnt the only thing thats been proven to save lives; meditation is

another contributor to the decrease in suicide among veterans. According to USA today

Among 50 soldiers who had attempted suicideby teaching them meditation and

relaxation skills to manage emotions and relationships, suicidal behavior was

dramatically reduced. (Gregg 02a). This only proves that meditation is a potential cure

for military suicidal tendencies but also possibly for depression as well as feeling suicidal

in the civilian world. Also those with greater knowledge on the field including

government agencies agree that the problem is not unpreventable (Holloway 116). Just

this information alone serves enough proof to convince one to think that there are

solutions and meditation is definitely one of the more reliable ones. Meditation being

incorporated into the daily lives of soldiers will definitely release some stress and in turn

lower the high statistics.

The final and probably most important thing that will help the suicide problem

will be changes to military standards. Soldiers shouldnt have to go through trying CPR

on a person who tried to end their life, be unsuccessful and then not be given the chance

to clean their crimson shoes (Nock 108). At least giving people a little break or offering

them a day off after something like that would make the stress factor a tremendous

amount less insane. People are tough yes, but being asked to just deal with things like this


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on a daily basis is inhumane and needs to be changed. The policy of starting out in high

positions and then being most likely demoted as well as people practically never being

punished for spilling the beans on crucial info also is a contributor to the problem

(Kroesen 20). It makes sense to have soldiers start as a Private and steadily make

ascension to Sargent Major status. Also spilling the potential weaknesses and possibly

destroying certain US soldierslives is completely unacceptable, and most people would

consider such act treason. Ascending the ranks, punishing the tattle-tales, and being more

empathetic towards the soldiers will no doubt take a huge load of stress off the soldiers

and less stress means less suicide.

Today military suicide is a major social issue caused by issues such as flawed

military policies, poor mental health among soldiers, and also relationship problems

mainly because of long periods of separation. Every problem has solutions, whether they

work or not requires some experimenting. The experiments that have been done so far

have proven suicide hotlines, meditation, and greater protection of the soldiers as well as

getting rid of the demotion policy to be most effective in increasing the survival rate and

decreasing the suicide rate. Some of this even worked for civilians who arent in other

countries fighting wars as well, and perhaps one day suicide will be as rare as

cannibalism. Efforts are being made to help this situation as regards to the army of the

United States and from the looks of things, steering toward the right direction long

enough will make the hope and dream of an end to suicide militarily or otherwise a

reality.

Word Count: 877


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Works Cited

Breidenstine, Bill. "Suicide Statistics Confound Conventional Wisdom."America's Civil

War25.6 (2013): 11.Academic Search Complete. Web. 4 Feb. 2013

Ghahramanlou-Holloway, Marjan. "Lessons Learned From A Soldier's Suicide In

Iraq."Psychiatry: Interpersonal & Biological Processes74.2 (2011): 115-

117.Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Feb. 2013.

Gregg, Zoroya, and TODAY USA. "Army, Navy suicides this year at record high." USA

Todayn.d.:Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Feb. 2013.

Ira R. Katz, et al. Implementation And Early Utilization Of A Suicide Hotline For

Veterans.American Journal Of Public Health 102.S1 (2012): S29-S32.Academic

Search Complete.Web. 10 Feb. 2013.

Kroesen, Frederick J. Hot Topics.Army Magazine62.9 (2012): 20-22.Academic

Search Complete. Web. 12 Feb. 2013.

Nock, Matthew K. A Soldiers Suicide: Understanding Its Effect On Fellow Soldiers.

Psychology: Interpersonal & Biological Processes 74.2 (2011): 107-109.Academic

Search Complete. Web. 10 Feb. 2013

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Why Are USA Soldiers Suicidle