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LTC Stephen F.
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Edited >1 y ago
Thanks for posting COL Mikel J. Burroughs. The title is over the top but the video seems to a meaningful documentary.
For lemmings suicide could be an epidemic since they leap off cliffs en-mass as they play follow-the leader :-)
Human suicide is an individual act of desperation or a fatal mistake. Suicide devastates those left behind while the suicidal body decomposes.
It is sad to see the 22 a day veteran suicide [about 8000 a year] still bandied about. If that is true this country is wasting money on supporting suicide counselors and funding mental health professional who attempt to reduce it.
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PO3 Aaron Hassay
PO3 Aaron Hassay
>1 y
Nothing in what I am about to say is to shame any Honorable Service Member "Defending the Constitution against Enemies Foreign and Domestic" We are the ones that need real human help. The system needs to hear our human reality, and care first about our Safety.

By the way, I am sure you have heard of these Human Rights Documents, the Constitution of 1788 includes the BILL OF RIGHTS, ratified and expanding on the Declaration of Independence 1776 which states ! “We hold these rights to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator, with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness___That to secure these rights governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Government, laying its foundation, on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness "

I think the Title Should be even more direct, and could never be over the TOP, as long as it is sharing real service members realities!!!

I will say this. I was once a high school varsity athlete, and meritorious advanced paygrade bootcamp recruit graduate Great Lakes all by 18 years old. By 26 I was honorably discharged and a complete mess mentally.

There is always going to be someone who believes the system is correct, but the young service member is damaged.

Lets review the year of 1850. What happened in 1850? 1850 Congress 1st Attempt to Outlaw Navy Regulations "ROCKS AND SHOALS" allowed Flogging aboard US Navy Ships

New Hampshire Senator Hale in 1850 added an anti-flogging clause to the Naval Appropriation Bill. Commander Uriah P. Levy had been instrumental in securing Senator Hale's interest in the measure. Hale showed that one sailor had been sentenced at court-martial "to receive 500 lashes, and actually received 400." This punishment was given in twelve lash installments. The attempt to ban flogging didn't pass as the Navy Department reported that it would be impossible to maintain discipline at sea without this form of punishment.

This documentary takes away the shame in being a guinea pig not a lemming. Plus, I had no ideas lemmings had doctors lemmings who did not care about the stress anxiety of your duty assignment and instead just prescribed mind altering body convulsing drugs??

Now an adult no longer afraid as a 18 young man, taught to be a lemming in bootcamp, somewhere not to question anything and take anything given, and find out it was in fact making me far worse then I felt before. The Navy Psychiatrist, who never served one day on a Guided Missile Frigate, so had no understanding of my stressors, never had Bed Side Manners and comforted me as a patient stressed out. They only took notes and looked at me funny and made me feel odd because they had that uniform of superiority on. I wonder have you ever been diagnosed with Major Depression or Bi-Polar, by someone much higher ranking then you, much older then you, and treated with Lithium on duty at a NAVY MTF? Did you puke? I did violently monitored concerned 22.

But again that is my story. I am not ashamed. I should be proud. I survived. But I hope that I can pass that message on to any other service member who is being drugged. They need to detox, with supervision, as the movie discusses. before the cocktail becomes a soup. The service member is reacting normally to abnormal sitations and needs friends and society to comfort their time of need. They did not need f--kin drugs to make zombies.

The VA has freaking tried to make me a zombie.

I have been on so many meds now, that I am now aware of another problem called Drug Psychosis. I can now remember 2 people. I can remember me new young 18 best recruit Great Lakes Chicago, and then the drugs instead of talk therapy that a human needs.
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LTC Stephen F.
LTC Stephen F.
>1 y
PO3 Aaron Hassay - thanks for weighing in in such an eloquent way. I am sorry that the VA seems to be trying to turn you into a zombie. I am glad that you survived to tell your story.
I used the lemming analogy as a humorous comparison because we are not mindless lemmings we are people who don't always follow the leader off the cliff.
I was suicidal for a couple decades on and off. I was put on medications which impacted me in various and sometimes dangerous ways. By the grace of God I survived those episodes of the 1980's and 1990's.
I have one son who has been diagnosed as having psychotic tendencies. He was put on uppers when he was in grade school in the early 1990's as he was labeled as ADD. He learned that medicine was required to function much too young.
The has me on lots of meds but they are heart, gastro, skin and some pain medications.
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LTC Self Employed
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Emphasis on the suicide rate doesn't really elaborate about drinking. We had a lot of suicides on the Indian reserves and drinking and smoking pot doing other drugs is a part of it. PTSD I realize can cause people to have nightmares and issues. They should not substitute one addiction if they stop smoking they shouldn't be drinking and it should be actually doing either of them. They need to go to self help groups. They need to join Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous and go to the weekly meetings because there is strength in numbers when you find out there are a lot of people like you and you get strength from the weaknesses you have and talking about how you struggle to be sober. Just an idea because it's not talked about since the the liquor industry is a multi-billion dollar Enterprise and people frown upon discussing it but I'm from a sober family and I have two stepdaughters that drink and do drugs so I'm not afraid to State the obvious.
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PO3 Steven Sherrill
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COL Mikel J. Burroughs The one caveat to a documentary is that it has a point of view. It is not simply stating facts, as a news report (theoretically should?). That being said, it seems like the apathy of society in general has seeped into medicine. Between the over-prescribing of opioid pain killers to the over prescription of psychotropics, the mentality seems to be the same: Treat the symptom, not the ailment. In the case of pain killers it is creating an alarming number of junkies throughout society. In the case of psychotropics, every single one of them lists suicidal ideation as a side effect. Along with worsening depression. So they are talking about taking a clinically depressed individual, and prescribing a medication that can not only worsen the depression but add suicide into the mix. That does not seem like the most intelligent course of action. If you were tasked with fighting a forest fire, and I directed you to a gas station to use the pumps on the fire, you would (rightfully so) tell me that is a terrible idea. Yet because of direct marketing by the pharmaceutical industry and a systemic need for moving patients through like cattle, prescribing medications with potentially catastrophic side effects is not only accepted. It is the standard of care. This problem is compounded when you get into the military arena. All the way around. The tempo of the job is faster in the military, even the "simple" desk jobs. Combine job tempo with military discipline, BMRs, Advancement Exams, training, PT, and the other daily events that occur, and you are adding huge stress to the depression. Add in the rigors of being in combat, and you have gas bombed that forest fire.
The problem with treatment is that it is hard. Diagnosing an injury to the psyche of a person is not easy. The questions are simple questions that the "right" answer is usually obvious. When asked "Do you feel like harming yourself or someone in your command?" is asked the answer should be no. If the honest answer is yes, due to the stigma of Mental Health being a coward's way out, the person may answer no anyway. Mental Health needs to be treated as seriously as wisdom teeth by the military. When preparing for deployment, you would think that having your wisdom teeth could cause the entire mission to fail. They must come out, even if they are not causing a problem. It is aggressive treatment. The same aggressive treatment should be used in the treatment of injuries to the psyche. Get that service member help, get them back into fighting shape, and get them back to their unit as a productive member of the team. Don't turn them into a drugged out zombie who now instead of thinking about harming themselves or others, just does it to end the pain.

Sorry for the long rant, but I really think that the biggest failing of our American Health Care System as a whole, and more so the Military Health Care System/VA Health Care System is in the arena of Mental Health Care.
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