![]() ![]() …nearly half of soldiers who reported suicide attempts indicated their first attempt was prior to enlistment and soldiers reported higher rates of certain mental disorders than civilians, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), intermittent explosive disorder (recurrent episodes of extreme anger or violence), and substance use disorder. A recent National Institute of Mental Health study found: Histories of mental issues that may have been suppressed, alcoholism or drug dependency create personal challenges that are compounded when service members face separation from family, lifestyle changes or combat. In many cases, mental illness predates military recruits’ time in service. A brigadier general at the time, Mark began to see clearly the problems in the way that both the American public and the Army understand issues of mental health.Ĭombat is not the single causal factor in whether a service member will develop mental illness. Although Jeff’s death was not related to depression or PTSD, his death and his brother’s together illustrate the different way society views a battlefield fatality -a hero’s death-and suicide in the military. The family faced its second tragedy when a bomb emplaced by insurgents along a roadside in western Iraq killed Jeff, a newly commissioned second lieutenant. Weeks later, his sister would find him dead by suicide. But with his ROTC summer camp approaching and fearful that the Army would find out about his illness, he stopped taking the medication. As his grades declined, he reached out for help and a campus clinic diagnosed him with clinical depression. Kevin Graham, an ROTC cadet at the University of Kentucky, had suffered quietly with mental illness. This story brings to light the many challenges faced by military men and women who suffer from mental illness. In seeking to understand PTSD, Dreazen reaches back to the classics, quoting Homer’s question of Achilles in the Odyssey: “Must you carry the bloody horror of combat in your heart forever?” Leaders throughout history did not understand the lasting trauma of combat and its effect on the fighting man.īut it isn’t just about PTSD. ![]() (Ret) Mark Graham described his family- his wife Carol, their two sons and daughter Melanie - as the “Disneyworld family.” The photographs of the family traveling from assignment to assignment paint a picture of a loving and happy military family, but hidden under the surface was Kevin’s mental illness. ![]() He was buried next to his brother Kevin, a college student and ROTC cadet who died by suicide a few months earlier. “Land of the Free Because of the Brave” was written on a white cloth and left at the graveside of their son Jeff, killed in Iraq by an insurgent’s IED. This is the story of service members, veterans and families who battled the darkness of depression and suicide in the military, including the stories of Mark and Carol Graham. Driving across the Coronado Bridge in San Diego, every light pole held a sign with an “800” suicide help-line telephone number reminding me that suicide happens every day, both in the military and in the broader civilian world.Īnd yet, my experiences did not prepare me to read Yochi Dreazen’s The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless War. Several months later, walking behind the horse drawn caisson carrying my shipmate, my friend, past the thousands of white stones in Arlington National Cemetery, the question remained: Why? Suicide was not new to me. On that early August day, the darkness took over and he died by his own hand. He had returned to civilian life and was serving in the Navy Reserve, but he was also suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and traumatic brain injury (TBI). I had run into him again the day of my retirement ceremony and later at Camp Slayer, Iraq. Yochi Dreazen, The Invisible Front: Love and Loss in an Era of Endless of War (Crown Publishers, 2014)īack from Iraq for less than a year, I went to check a friend’s blog only to find the obituary of a shipmate, a sailor I had served with at CENTCOM at the beginning of Operation Iraqi Freedom. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |