Causes of veteran suicide

Ten minutes had gone by of everyone taking turns knocking, waiting on an answer.

At that point, First Sergeant was waiting outside the barracks room, yelling at the missing soldier; “Moore open the fuck up or were taking the door down!”. Still, not a single person had come to that door. So we were told to kick the door in. Specialist Luesant was the one to donkey kick the door, it took a few kicks but he got it down. That's when we all looked in the room and the entire world stood still; Specialist Moore had killed himself in a drug overdose. Veteran suicide is an ongoing problem according to news.va.gov in 2020, 6,146 veterans killed themselves. It's not a question of if this is happening but why are veterans plagued with this endemic? Among the many reasons this happens to veterans, the primary reasons are the stigma surrounding mental health, alcohol dependency, and easy access to firearms for suicide. 

Mental health in the military is a very controversial topic to cover. The mentality of the military is for you to be a strong fighter, a soldier. Although this is a necessity for the military it's a double-edged sword. As a nation, we want our soldiers, marines, airmen, and guardsmen to be the strongest fighting force on the planet, however, with this comes the military culture. According to Shpancer in the article “Why are U.S Soldiers Killing Themselves”, “military culture is rigid, hierarchical, and demanding. It discourages reflection, abhors weakness, stigmatizes mental illness, and fetishizes toughness and aggression.” When a soldier is struggling they're taught to suck it up and the mission comes first. Because of this, there's a stigma for saying you need help. The soldier may be extremely depressed, full of anxiety, or contemplating suicide; yet you're supposed to just keep quiet and carry on. This has a major impact on the military community even when they are out, and this can lead to a higher suicide rate. Someone may argue that somebody who struggles mentally is predisposed to these mental struggles, however, the stigma around mental health in the military culture plays a significant role in veterans after they get out of the military. 

Amongst the many problems veterans face after separation from the military is a major alcohol problem. According to a study done on Colorado veterans published by BMC, in Injury Epidemiology “Among Veterans, community distress was associated with an increased risk of alcohol-related [age-adjusted rate per 100,000 (95% CI) = 129.6 (89.9–193.1)] and drug-related deaths [95.0 (48.6–172.0)]”. The military culture as a whole embraces alcoholism and a work hard party harder mindset. This can lead to developing many bad habits that follow a veteran when they get out of the military and can have serious long-term effects. Veterans who struggle with PTSD and many other known mental illnesses brought on by serving may drink to cope with what they have gone through, which can explain the increased alcohol consumption among veterans.  This is another problem that you could argue each individual is predisposed to becoming an alcoholic prior to any military service. However, it is undoubtedly a big factor when looking for the reason veterans kill themselves more often than the regular civilian population. 

Lastly, it's hard to ignore that ease of access to firearms can greatly increase suicide rates in any population; this affects veterans at a higher rate. According to a study published in 2021, in Springer Nature Journals by Tim Bullman, “There has been concern about the risk of suicide among veterans returning from deployment to Afghanistan and Iraq as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn (OEF/OIF/OND)”. In this study, they briefly looked over suicides involving firearms, and in all suicides involving veterans, 68.3% of these suicides involved a firearm. The ease of access to firearms undoubtedly doesn't help the suicide rate for veterans, however, you could also argue for stricter gun control against veterans through this statistic alone. It is also more likely for a veteran to own a firearm compared to somebody who hasn't served and this could be a contributing factor to the higher suicide rate in the veteran community. 

Society today has a major problem with the suicide rate as a whole being as high as it is, however, with the veteran suicide rate being even higher, this is becoming an increasingly pressing matter amongst the veteran community. With the biggest issue being the social stigma surrounding mental health in the veteran community it's important for veterans to continue to check up on each other and encourage a healthier mindset toward getting help. Despite the mental stigma being one of the biggest problems, we as a society can't ignore the major alcohol problem amongst the veteran community. Unfortunately, this contributes greatly to the increased suicide rate among veterans. Finally, it's impossible to ignore the use of firearms in veteran suicides. This doesn't help the problem as a whole; it's just something to keep in mind when addressing this issue. Despite there being an argument to be made for higher contributors toward the suicide rate amongst veterans these are the biggest factors.