Marine Corps Steps Up Suicide Prevention Efforts

When they deploy, they think they know all the risks. They know they can be killed. They know they can end up seriously wounded. They are aware there is a stress on their spouse while they are gone. To use this as an excuse for the growing number of suicides, simply does not make sense.

Why? Because too many young service members have taken their own lives without being connected to a spouse. What they all have in common is they were deployed and survived, but when they were supposed to be out of danger, they were really in greater danger. They were unarmed when they were attacked by the invader within their own minds.

While we have come a very long way in the last ten years addressing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the numbers show there is something missing. Until they actually discover what causes PTSD and really understand it, we will see the numbers continue to grow.

Marine Corps Steps Up Suicide Prevention Efforts to Halt Deadly Trend
By John Roberts
Published March 30, 2011
FoxNews.com

The note begins, “Grandpa, I just wanted to give you my thanks for being a great influence in my life.”

Former Marine Sgt. Dana O’Brien can barely make it through the first line before tears begin streaming down his face. It was sent from his grandson, Marine Cpl. Daniel O’Brien during one of his two tours of duty in Iraq.

On the surface, Cpl. O’Brien appeared to have a lot to live for. He was a good Marine with a promising career ahead of him. And he had a beautiful baby girl, Alexis, who, it is clear from the photographs of the two, really seemed to love her daddy.

But on the inside, O’Brien was tormented. His wife, also a Marine had recently left him. And after an altercation on base at the Marine Air Station in Buford, S.C., he thought his career was over. In July 2009, he took his own life.

O'Brien's death was part of an alarming trend: Fifty-two Marines committed suicide that year, a record high, and the military is still struggling to deal with an elevated suicide rate among those who serve.

As if suicide wasn’t enough of an issue in the military, the problem may extend beyond the services. Gen. Ray Carpenter commands the Army National Guard, where the incidence of suicide nearly doubled from 2009 to 2010.

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Marine Corps Steps Up Suicide Prevention Efforts

John Roberts did a report for FOX


Psychiatrists have told veterans that if they were not affected by what they went through, they would become a sociopath. While this in no way explains why some come home without suffering from PTSD, it was an easy out for them.

Point one they miss is age. The emotional part of the brain in all of us is not fully developed until the age of 25. Most of the men and women we send enter into the military right out of high school.

PTSD only comes after a traumatic event. It is not genetic. Growing up with someone with PTSD, especially untreated PTSD, is traumatic and can cause secondary PTSD.


Redeployments increase the risk of PTSD by 50%, which the Army discovered in 2006, but the practice continues.

This slide was from one of my videos, Wounded and Waiting.


Every effort has not been made to address this. They knew what redeployments would do but as they spent millions of dollars on programs with no evidence of them working, they expanded the list of like programs, recently shown to have been more "research" than treatment.

PTSD strikes. It is not caused by the veteran. Given what knowledge is available, including brain scans, there are key points missing in treating veterans of combat.

Providing knowledge is wonderful however the mistakes made originate with the wrong information being provided. Programs like Battle Mind begin by telling the servicemen and women that they can prevent PTSD by becoming "resilient" and preparing their minds. This not only did not work, it did more harm than good. It suggested to them that if they ended up with PTSD it was their fault.

Providing true knowledge of what PTSD is does in fact help them to heal faster and make peace with what they just went through.

Humans walk away from traumatic events one of two ways. They either believe they were saved by God/divine intervention/someone watching over them, or they believe they are suffering for a reason/in the wrong place at the wrong time/abandoned by God/targeted by God. Shock is what comes after traumatic events. Usually within 30 days, the shock wears off. While the person is changed by the event itself, they are not traumatized by it. Recovered, they take the event with them stronger for having survived it, more loving with a different idea of what is important, along with other good changes or they can go the other way. On the extreme end is the symptoms getting worse and taking over the life of the survivor.

The soul/spirit is connected to our emotions and must be addressed in healing. When psychologist listen to the event that haunts the veteran the most, they can address that, get the veteran to the place where they are able to "watch the whole movie" in their mind about what happened before the event, during it and after, so they can be able to find peace with what they did or what happened.

Forgiving themselves and being able to forgive others is necessary in healing. They need to be guided in achieving this. This can be done with mental health professionals and members of the clergy, as well as informed friends. If they are being judged at the same time they are blaming themselves, it feeds guilt already there and fuels what PTSD is already doing to them.

The military has a history of avoiding the emotions of the humans they turn into warriors. They plan and program training around changing them, breaking them as individuals to turn them into a unit, but no matter how much they want to delude themselves into thinking this can be achieved, they end up with a human suddenly afraid to be human.

History is full of civilizations honoring the human turned into warrior appreciating the gifts each one is capable of while still acknowledging the weakness of being just a human. When the military comes to terms with this fact, then there will be a lot less suffering from PTSD and a lot more healing it.

Families also play a key role in addressing the aftermath of trauma when they are included in on the treatment. Often the veteran will deny the seriousness of what is happening to them but the family can provide truth. They can also aid in the day to day lives of the veterans when they know what to do as well as what not to do once they understand what they need to know.

PTSD is complicated but there is so much more known now than ever before. We all need to be asking why the military keeps repeating the same mistakes instead of learning from them.