"Suicide is up in the military once again, and it's also up among veterans -- those who have been deployed previously. While "National Mental Health Awareness Month" may still be a few months off -- in May -- but it's interesting to note what existential philosopher Albert Camus wrote in his book, "The Myth of Sisyphus":
"There is but one truly serious philosophical problem, and that is suicide. Judging whether life is or is not worth living amounts to answering the fundamental question of philosophy."
And also humanity, we might add...because it figures in there, too.
Dr. Edwin Shneidman, the compassionate genius considered the "father" of suicidology, who sadly passed away a few months ago, wrote about how suicide is a narrowing of the distressed person's field of vision, until they can see only two options: staying or going. Without broadening the options to three or more, the way that healthier people think, a distressed person may vacillate between these two options until the pressure in their life mounts, and they can only "see" the one option, and their timing suddenly becomes a desperate "now."
(Clearly, suicide is an event with much collateral damage, particularly to those around the person in pain, who can have an understandably extraordinarily difficult time coming to terms with how or why that decision was made. Read Shneidman; he understands. In one poignant passage, quoted here, he describes the mind of the suicidal person closing down in restricted vision until, not that the victim doesn't care, that he or she can no longer see who else is in the picture, so great is their personal pain.)
While there's much material on this website about suicide, particularly here -- and also help numbers to call if you're in distress, linked here -- I mention the Camus quote to give a certain backhanded respect to the topic as a whole. Many times people claim, rightly or wrongly, that suicide is the quintessentially weak move, "the coward's way out," reserved for those who can't, or won't, face their problems, others say judgmentally or even sometimes accurately. Yet for those who are suffering greatly, and contemplate it periodically -- as many honestly do -- it's "nice" to see someone with real cultural weight give the question some credence or respectability as a topic. To paraphrase Shakespeare, "to stay or not to stay" may turn out to be the real question, after all...
What the Camus quote implies is that even robustly mentally healthy people, if they're philosophically inclined, have dwelt on or wrestled with at least the abstract reality of the question. (Ironically, Shneidman's obituary in the L.A. Times, linked here, mentions the same quote, and that Shneidman was a fan of Camus.) If we combine their perspectives imaginatively, true mental health might mean wrestling with the topic conceptually, but then enlarging the field of choices so that it doesn't have to become an option that is used. Could open discussions arise from removing the stigma around even broaching or discussing the topic? More on that later...
Editor's note: Cribbed directly from my friend Kathie Costos' blog, Wounded Times, here are the phone numbers and the information for veterans questioning suicide -- some of which support family members as well:
- Vietnam Veterans of America, Crisis Phone Number. Special Notice: If you are a veteran in emotional crisis and need help RIGHT NOW, call this toll-free number 1-800-273-8255, available 24/7, and tell them you are a veteran. All calls are confidential. http://www.vva.org/.
- Also, Veterans’ Crisis Intervention Hotline: 1-888-899-9377. A Crisis Intervention Hotline has been established by the VA Heartland Network to assist veterans who may be dealing with a mental health crisis or difficult issue in their lives. The hotline will also aid family members or friends of veterans who need help in assisting a veteran in crisis.
