Suicide Awareness Nothing More Than a Gimmick

Veterans Search For Hope, Find Deadly Gimmick
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 18, 2017

The definition of Gimmick is

"1. an ingenious or novel device, scheme, or stratagem, especially one designed to attract attention or increase appeal.
2. a concealed, usually devious aspect or feature of something, as a plan or deal:

That is exactly what has been going on when folks talk about, and raise money for, talking about veterans committing suicide. They search for answers and hope about how to heal PTSD and find rumors.

Are veterans committing suicide? Yes. What good does it do to talk about a number when it is only partly true? No good at all.

The number "22" is nothing more than an alternative fact, but they don't mention the rest of the news they don't want you to hear.

There are simple facts they don't want you to pay attention to so that you open your wallet and feel as if you just did something to help change the outcome. You haven't done anyone any good by supporting something that does not exist.

How can repeating a number, that is only partially true, help anyone? It can't but that doesn't stop anyone from using it unless they have integrity enough to do so much more than talk about what they think is true.

That maybe the worst example of all. If they do not know what the real facts are, it pretty much shows they do not care enough to find the truth. If they have not invested the time in learning that, then it is obvious they haven't take any time to learn what to do to actually change the outcome.

So here are some basic, actual facts to counter their alternative "facts" they want you to be aware of.

The CDC suicide research has, 

All suicides

• Number of deaths: 42,773

• Deaths per 100,000 population: 13.4

• Cause of death rank: 10

In 2007 CBS News had this,

Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans

It found that veterans were more than twice as likely to commit suicide in 2005 than non-vets. 

And that has not changed. That means for the 42,773 suicides per year, veterans were taking their own lives 2 to 1 civilian rate. Do the math. Far from 22 a day isn't it?

Top that off with back in 2007 most of the folks talking about raising awareness were still sleeping on the subject. Not that is anything new considering that the other piece of fact they totally overlook is that the majority of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50 and that very well could be due to the other fact they are also the largest group of veterans in the country.

It is even worse for younger veterans when compared to their peer rate. Often the reports have them committing suicide triple their civilian peer rate. For female veterans it is higher and young female veterans, even higher than that.

The fact is, this whole business of raising awareness is exactly that, a business. If you are planning on contacting this site about what you're doing, take this as a warning because you will be blasted publicly. Too many veterans and families are searching for hope but you think you deserve their money for offering this deadly gimmick? WTF is wrong with you?