Flip side of military suicides is healing

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 16, 2014

I just got back from the car wash. I had my new car washed and waxed. I can't do it anymore because arthritis makes it hard to reach the widows right. I know the person doing the detailed work knows what he is doing and I am glad to pay for it. I wouldn't expect him to know anything mechanical about the car. That is why when it came time to replace my old car, the service department I learned to trust was the number one reason for the purchase. I do expect them to know about the mechanical parts of the car. I know they know what it needs and why the car needs it. As for me, when I bought it I just assumed it had an engine since it started. The salesman asked me if I had looked under the hood yet. I shrugged my shoulders. He opened the hood and tried to explain things to me, but it was as if he was talking gibberish. I care about what I need to know and the rest, well I just leave that to the experts I know. If I tried to do anything to the car when I didn't understand it, I'd make whatever problem comes up worse. That is what Congress has been doing for decades.

I care about my car but that does not make me an expert. They care about the troops and our veterans but they are not experts on anything to do with them. No one should expect them to be but they should at least know who can fix what is broken. They don't. They end up making things worse.

It seems as if everyone is talking about the new bill for the troops by Senator Joe Donnelly. He is on the Senate Armed Services Committee. No one is talking about the duty the members have had to ensure that the troops have the best care along with everything else they need. Even less are interested in asking many questions about what happened to all the other bills the committee has produced in the last 10 years covering military suicides and mental health help. Pretty sad when considering this last bill.

• S. 2300: Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act of 2014
• S. 1828: Preserving Access to Manufactured Housing Act of 2013
• S. 1802: Public Power Risk Management Act of 2013
• S. 1619: Skills Gap Strategy Act of 2013
• S.Res. 262: A resolution supporting the goals and ideals of suicide prevention awareness.
• S. 1320: Military Reserve Jobs Act of 2013
• S. 810: Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act of 2013

This is the transcript of the Jacob Sexton Military Suicide Prevention Act of 2014

This started from a phone call I had the other night with an advocate out of Indiana. He emailed me about his Senator's Bill and I replied with, "more of the same" because that is exactly what it is. He wanted to know what I would do, since he knows I track all the reports. I told him the basics.

Dump all of it. The drugs they have the troops on all the way up to the disastrous Comprehensive Soldier Fitness because even I knew this would increase military suicides.

"I fully understand to you, I'm no one. I have been ignored by senators and congressmen, doctors and other brass for as long as I've been trying to help, so you are not the first. I've also been listened to by others trying to think outside the box, but more importantly to me, by the men and women seeking my help to understand this and their families. I tell them what you should have been telling them all along so that they know it's not their fault, they did not lack courage and they are not responsible for being wounded any more than they would have been to have been found by a bullet with their name on it.

If you promote this program the way Battlemind was promoted, count on the numbers of suicides and attempted suicides to go up instead of down. It's just one more deadly mistake after another and just as dangerous as sending them into Iraq without the armor needed to protect them."

It is my job to know this. Lives depend on what I learn from experts and have learned over the last 30+ years. It mattered to my husband and our marriage just as much. It breaks my heart to read about suicides especially when they had gone for help and families were blaming themselves for the outcome.

It has all gone on too long when the flip side isn't just staying alive after combat. The flip side of military suicides is healing so they can live better lives.

The answers are simple because experts figured it out a long, long time ago. After all, they have been working on combat PTSD for 40 years.

Comprehensive Soldier Fitness claims to teach them resilience but that ends up meaning they didn't train right and their minds are weak. It is dangerous but the military pushes it and congress keeps funding it and there have been no hearings on how this convoluted research project designed for school aged kids ended up being used for soldiers. The Congress needs to start there!

Congress cannot address anything until they actually have some kind of understanding of what PTSD is and what it does before they can plan on helping anyone.

They need to know there are different levels as well as different types. Treating military folks the same as civilians won't work.

PTSD has to be treated mind-body-spirit since all parts of the soldier/veteran are being assaulted.

Medication alone isn't the answer and most of the medications are dangerous. Medications numb them. They do not heal them.

Families are still clueless on what they can do. If they knew, then they wouldn't be blaming themselves for what no one ever told them. It isn't that the information isn't out there but because of the the web, there is information overload and they don't even know where to being to look to learn.

I wish I had some faith left in what Congress is trying to do. I know they care but they have cared for decades. It is time they understood what they were trying to fix so they stop making it all worse. Suicides went up after they started to "address it" and even after the number of enlisted went down.

If you want to know how long this has been going on and what kind of money they spent, read THE WARRIOR SAW SUICIDES AFTER WAR.