The poet T.S. Eliot called April "the cruelest month," but you know, this time of year, heading into the holidays, isn't that great either -- especially for those who are suffering from post-traumatic stress, when numbers of those who take their own lives actually climb. The numbers are already bad enough; and 'tis the season, so to speak, when they actually get worse.
Currently, 18 veterans a day(!!!) kill themselves; and one active duty servicemember every 36 hours(!!!).
Those are TERRIBLE numbers, because each one represents a life that can never come back, and plunges a family and a community into an often never-ending ordeal.
According to the website FierceGoodbye, material for survivors put together by the Mennonites, something we already know, but it's painful to hear the statistics again, and contemplate how far indeed the trauma reaches. They say: "Over four million people in the U.S. mourn the tragic suicides of family members. Suicide devastates family members for many years; family survivors are at greater risk of suicide themselves, and the pain ripples out to the entire community."
That's why optimizing mental health is so important. An unusual quote that a colleague just shared with me, from a writer who knows:
"Looking at suicide—the sheer numbers, the pain leading up to it, and the suffering left behind—is harrowing. For every moment of exuberance in the science, or in the success of governments, there is a matching and terrible reality of the deaths themselves: the young deaths, the violent deaths, the unnecessary deaths." -- Kay Redfield Jamison, mental illness sufferer, psychotherapist and author of "Night Falls Fast: Understanding Suicide."
For those of you who work with veterans, thank YOU for your service. Ideally, it honors the veterans' lives, loves, and their commitments to stay in the game, and helps get them the tools to do so.
Editor's note: If you're a veteran in trouble, please contact the hotline numbers linked here, or if you're truly in crisis, call 9-1-1. If you're someone who wants to learn more about suicide and veterans, there's a series of articles on the topic, linked here. And if you want to learn about a veteran overcoming his own struggle with suicide, click here.
Additionally, "Fierce Goodbye: Living in the Shadow of Suicide,' is a book, a website, and a DVD. It's also a video-on-demand at Amazon to rent (inexpensive) or to purchase.
