Pass me a mag, Private

It’s actually not as much as people make it out to be. There is plenty of support for suicide prevention should some one ask for it.

Part of the problem is how numbers are reported in the military compared to their civilian counterparts and the study being conducted.

The VA / government reports “veteran” suicides which includes ALL those who served in the past and current. However some studies only count people who no longer serve staying true to the “veteran” definition.

If you actually break down the numbers, just like the civilian world, the number one reason for suicides in the military isn’t combat related. It’s relationship problems and money problems. Less than 20% of military suicides are combat related. Also suicide rates have gone up slightly even though deployments have been on the rapid decline for almost a decade.

Lastly, reserves and national guard make up the bulk of all military suicides. Some blame it on the lack of health care but almost all of them do it over relationship problems as well. Also if you follow the trend for the same 2005-2018 statistics civilian suicide rates went up 47.1% and veterans went up 6.3%. This matters because reserves and national guard are actually dealing with the civilian world factors more then they do the military. Even though they are part of that civilian group 11 months out of they year, they are counted as military numbers.

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