Nitty-Gritty Reality of PTSD Awareness and Suicide Prevention

Brutal Honesty, We Suck At Being Aware
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
August 30, 2015

If we are ever going to change a thing on suicides tied to military service, then it is about time for some brutal honesty regarding the nitty-gritty reality of how much we suck at it.

It is long past the time when PTSD Awareness should have been replaced with Healing Awareness. How many more years do we keep repeated the same failed attempts? Frankly it hasn't done anything in all these years. Veterans are still suffering instead of healing.

The National Center for PTSD promotes awareness of PTSD and effective treatments throughout the year. Starting in 2010, Congress named June 27th PTSD Awareness Day (S. Res. 455). For the second consecutive year in 2014, the Senate designated the full month of June for National PTSD Awareness (S. Res. 481). Efforts are underway to continue this designation in 2015.

Five years later and families are still suffering without knowing anything about what PTSD is or what they can do to actually help someone they love anymore than they know how they can make their lives better. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

What good did it do? What good did all the "efforts" to raise awareness do when the numbers show nothing has changed? The men and women suffering Combat PTSD managed to do everything humanly possible to survived combat while still being willing to sacrifice their own lives to save someone else. Yet these same service members struggle to find a reason to stay alive back home where they are supposed to be out of danger. Top all that off with the fact that there are billions of dollars spent every year on PTSD.

We had excuses before the 80's when researchers knew what PTSD but average folks were not clued in. I had no idea back in 82 when my Dad was using "shell shock" to explain it to me when I met a Vietnam veteran. I had to go to the library to learn about it from clinical books and a dictionary because of all the words I didn't understand. That research started me on this odyssey lasting over half my life. I ended up marrying that Vietnam veteran over 30 years ago. We're still together and past most of the anguishing years into the healing years when what is normal for us is far from normal to the civilian world.

What I learned saved lives and helped families just like mine. I still have to accept responsibility for what I failed to do that ended up costing my husband's nephew his life. I knew it all. Knew all the right things to say to help him. I had all the facts and understood what was needed. What I didn't know was how to get him to listen and hear me. His suicide haunts me every time I read about another veteran becoming so hopeless and lost the only way they see to end their suffering is to end their own lives.

Outreach work has supported generations of veterans to seek help. As a matter of fact this report came out in October of 2008

In the past 18 months, 148,000 Vietnam veterans have gone to VA centers reporting symptoms of PTSD "30 years after the war," said Brig. Gen. Michael S. Tucker, deputy commanding general of the North Atlantic Regional Medical Command and Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He recently visited El Paso.

But that came along with being sent to the back of the line almost as if they were not really worthy.

Vice Adm. Daniel L. Cooper, undersecretary for benefits in the Department of Veterans Affairs -- in a memo obtained by the El Paso Times -- instructs the department's employees to put Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans at the head of the line when processing claims for medical treatment, vocational rehabilitation, employment and education benefits...

The rest of the country decided that they were going to do the same thing and started charities just for veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. It didn't matter that Gulf War veterans, Vietnam veterans, Korean War veterans and WWII veterans waited even longer to have their wounds treated and be reassured they mattered as well.

Most of the "awareness" advocates are not aware of the simple fact most of the suicides, 78% of them are those older veterans they pushed to the back of the line.

Veteran suicide numbers have gone up in recent years with much of the attention focused on veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan killing themselves. However, almost seven out of 10 veterans who have committed suicide were over the age of 50, according to a Department of Veterans Affairs study.

Veterans over the age of 50 who had entered the VA healthcare system made up about 78 percent of the total number of veterans who committed suicide - 9 percentage points higher than the general pool.

But it is easier to just go with the flow and talk about what is popular like repeating the number "22" as if it was based on facts and then dismissing the fact that number is being presented pertaining to just Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. Easier to avoid mentioning that after all these years of everyone doing everything, or claiming to, more are dead today than alive and healing.

"After two tours in Iraq with the Marine Corps Reserve, Steven Vickerman tried to resume a normal life at home with his wife, but he could not shake a feeling of despair.

His parents, Richard and Carole Vickerman of Palisades, went to visit him at a veterans hospital after he suffered a mental breakdown; they were in disbelief. The funny and adventurous baby brother had become sullen, withdrawn and full of anxiety. Vickerman, who was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, killed himself Feb. 19."

His suicide didn't happen this year. It didn't happen last year. His family buried him in 2008.

"Families like the Vickermans often feel overwhelmed by the guilt and helplessness that surrounds post-traumatic stress disorder. The Vickermans wanted to help their son but did not know where to look for support services or how to deal with the effects of the illness.

The VA, they believed, had failed their son. The services available, they said, were insufficient, and the government should do more to address the issue for returning war vets.

"There should be something that can be done, not only for the proud soldiers but also for their families," Carole Vickerman said. "When you hear the word 'stress,' it sounds so innocuous. It's not stress; it's a killer.""

Families still don't know what to do anymore than they understand what PTSD is, what it does, why it does it or what they can do to make it better by not making mistakes to make it worse.

What good did PTSD Awareness really do? Not much at all other than to raise a lot of money doing Lord knows what for who other than fundraisers. It is still extremely hard to understand what they are trying to actually raise awareness of and who they are trying to inform when they cannot even answer basic questions.

It all sounds great until you actually listen to what they don't say. You never really hear anything helpful or, for the most part, factual.

The first fact they need to know is they are not stuck! They can change again and heal to live better lives but that won't happen as long as folks are still stuck on letting others know how much they really don't know about PTSD and suicides.

You are not alone. There is support.

The Defense Department takes the issue of suicide very seriously and is actively working to reduce the number of suicides.

Defense Suicide Prevention Office serves as the government oversight authority for the strategic development, implementation, centralization, standardization, communication and evaluation of Defense Department suicide and risk reduction programs, policies and surveillance activities to reduce the impact of suicide on service members and their families.

Everyone can help prevent suicide. Know how to recognize common risk factors including chronic pain; feelings of guilt, anger, or shame; exposure to trauma; a sense of hopelessness; relationship problems; and posttraumatic stress disorder. If you are experiencing any of these behaviors or notice them in friends and family who have served in the military, encourage them to seek help right away.

Service members in crisis should seek help immediately by contacting the Military Crisis Line. Dial 800-273-8255 (press 1 for military) for 24/7 crisis support. The crisis line, found at http://militarycrisisline.net, also provides a chat and text service.

The problem with that is, again, simple. Facts show what they have been doing does not work If it had, then the number of current military suicides would have been reduced to the point where they would be historically low. They are not. They remain high. What makes that worse is the other simple fact on suicides among the OEF and OIF veterans committing suicide. Compared to their peers, they are triple the civilian rate.

Former troops in that high-risk age group — who were also enrolled for care at veterans' hospitals — posted a suicide rate of 79.1 per 100,000 during 2011, the latest data available. In contrast, the annual suicide rate for all American males has recently averaged about 25 per 100,000, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports.

During 2009, the suicide rate for veterans 24 and younger was 46.1 per 100,000 — meaning the deadly pace increased by 79 percent during that two-year span.

For female veterans it is even worse.

The rates are highest among young veterans, the VA found in new research compiling 11 years of data. For women ages 18 to 29, veterans kill themselves at nearly 12 times the rate of nonveterans.

The awareness most folks are claiming to raise is different from our reality. If you really want to raise meaningful awareness, then start with the truth, that isn't pretty, isn't popular or lucrative but is vital if we are ever going to stop sucking at what we do for them. Before Congress passes another prevention bill we have to prevent them from doing more harm than good.