Researchers looking at wrong connection between TBI and suicides

Last year I did something that was really hard for me. I wrote about having TBI. My life with TBI tells the story so you won't have to read it all here. It was a traumatic event that caused my brain injury. My scull was cracked and I had a concussion. The event caused the damage to my brain as well as how I lived the rest of my life.

TBI does not cause suicides but events do. How you view your life and your future change by events and if you are not able to talk about it, work through it, it eats away at you.

In my case I was only 4 when it happened. There was a lot going on in my young life including a violent alcoholic Dad who found sobriety when I was 13. Even with all of that going on and my sense of self worth eroded, my extended family members were always talking and ready to listen. With only common sense, they were able to be surrogate psychologists and helped me work through all of it.

They gave some bad advice at times yet even when they did they made me understand that I was worthy of them even caring. I knew I was loved no matter what.

PTSD is caused by trauma. I would have ended up with PTSD after many near death experiences and none of them connected to military service because I never served. All were just part of being human. The only reason I didn't was because of talking and a whole lot of faith knowing He didn't do it to me. He helped me forgive what was done to me so other people's actions were not able to ruin me.

PTSD and TBI research overlook the obvious. They are both caused by traumatic events. They do not cause the other. When we talk about suicides trying to connect them to TBI is pretty stupid. People commit suicide because they run out of hope. Treat the PTSD properly and they gain hope that their lives can be better. Treat TBI properly and again, hope they will live better lives has therapeutic treasures.

People can live through almost anything as long as they have hope the next day can be better than the one they are suffering in right now.

They die when there is nothing to hope for.

Research examines link between traumatic brain injuries, soldier suicides
FOX 13 News
by Mark Green
June 1, 2013

SALT LAKE CITY – A new study indicates people in the military who suffer more than one traumatic brain injury have a higher risk of suicide.

Assistant psychology professor Craig Bryan, University of Utah, was the lead author of the research performed by the National Center for Veterans Studies at the University of Utah.

They studied 161 military personnel stationed in Iraq who had a possible traumatic brain injury and found their risk for suicidal thoughts increased significantly over the short-term as well as throughout the individual’s lifetime.

Bryan said the problem is complicated by the fact some soldiers are unwilling to face up to the full danger of the situation.

“Most will minimize the problems and the symptoms they’re having because they don’t want to be removed from duty,” he said. “They want to stay and continue their mission.”

Bryan said soldiers who do report symptoms after an injury usually see improvement within 24 to 72 hours of the incident.
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