Veteran Suicides Closer to 73 A Day

UPDATE February 7, 2016
I discovered this morning that another site used this post as their own.

Veteran Suicides nearer to to 73 A Day
November 25, 2015 By ptsd Leave a Comment

We drop at Least 73 Veterans A day-to Suicide

We must improve the dialogue on military suicides because for all the “awareness raising” and discuss about “22 a day” it has not done any good at all. How could it? How could it when we completely blow off the fact of what households and veterans are getting through?

We know where it came from.
We Lose at Least 73 Veterans A Day to Suicide
Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
November 20, 2015

We really need to change the conversation on military suicides because for all the "awareness raising" and talk about "22 a day" it hasn't done any good at all. How could it? How could it when we totally dismiss the reality of what veterans and families are going through?

40,000 suicides annually, yet America simply shrugs
THERE'S A SUICIDE IN THE USA EVERY 13 MINUTES.
Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY

That information linked to American Foundation for Suicide Prevention

In 2011 (the most recent year for which data are available), 39,518 suicide deaths were reported in the United States, making suicide the tenth leading cause of death for Americans. That year, someone in the U.S. died by suicide every 13.3 minutes.

Another report from the CDC had the number of suicides slightly higher.

There were 41,149 suicides in 2013 in the United States—a rate of 12.6 per 100 is equal to 113 suicides each day or one every 13 minutes.

Veterans are double the civilian rate then for every one civilian there are two veterans. That would mean there are 26,666 veterans committing suicide every year and not 8,030 people keep repeating when they say "22 a day" are veteran lives lost to suicide.  We know that most of them are tied to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and until we get the wrong information out of the way, we'll never be closer to actually making them aware of what really works.

How can you spend any time of spreading hope that they can heal if you can't even get the horrible outcomes right? Do you really think they'll believe more veterans heal with the right help?

No one is talking about the real numbers or even the simple fact veterans were ready to die to save someone else but ended up not being able to find a reason to live after all the bullshit awareness folks have been spreading around.

See where they've gone wrong on trivializing these deaths down to an easy to remember soundbite?

But lets make this even more real. If you say "22 a day" is an easy number to remember then try 73 veterans a day instead and then you'll actually be closer to the truth and be actually aware of what is real to them and their families.

What does this really look like?

Per year, it is close to the number of soldier at Fort Carson 26,282 Active Duty, and when you add in the number of currently serving with the veterans it is even higher.

Fort Carson

It also means in the last 10 years suicides connected to military service have surpassed the number of citizens in Orlando Florida.

Orlando Florida 262,372

So if you need an easy number to remember, then please stop reading Wounded Times because the hardest number to remember is always the family member no longer sitting at the table for Thanksgiving dinner when they were supposed to be out of danger after leaving the military. There are over 26,000 empty chairs this year that should have a veteran sitting in them.