Alarming trend of family members committing suicide

"Alarming trend of family members committing suicide" is the headline on a report from NBC. It is heartbreaking but far from alarming. Much like civilian family members unable to move past the grief of losing someone they loved, it happens. They take their own lives. This has more to do with the lack of grief counseling than it has to do with much else. Mental healthcare has not been taken seriously enough in much of what people in general suffer with. "Take a pill" leaves the pain waiting until the medication leaves the body. They need true therapy but too many do not get it. Even more do not seek it.

Survivor Suicides
Alarming trend of family members committing suicide after service members die in battle
NBC Washington
By Tisha Thompson and Rick Yarborough
Thursday, Jun 27, 2013

Bill and Christine Koch had it all.

“I would describe us as the all-American family," Bill said.

Good jobs. Three kids. Family vacations.

Christine Koch agreed. “I would do it all over again. We had a fairytale life.”

Until a year into their youngest son Steven's first deployment in Afghanistan. Christine said she can still remember how he admitted on the phone for the first time to her that he was scared with the increasing number of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

"He said, ‘I don't know how much longer my luck is going to hold out,’” Christine explained. “He actually said that to me and my heart sunk."
read more here

The "alarming" fact is the media should be investigating mental healthcare in the whole country. They should be investigating why military suicides have gone up along with veterans committing suicide. Why have military families been left out of all of this and why have they not been getting the help they need?