Episode 125 - Let's talk Suicide

Let's talk suicide.  ON this episode of the Hot Zone.

 

Hi folks.  I'm heading to the airport, about to fly back to Panama today for a few days before I pack up my body armor and head over to Afghanistan.  Yesterday I spent a little time on the podcast wondering what makes modern countrieshave much higher suicide rates than countries where basically everything sucks.  You know what I mean.  For example, if you had to guess which country would make it's people want to end it all - would you choose Venezuela or Japan?  how about Pakistan or Belgium?  Iraq or Switzerland?  Well, surprisingly, Japan, Belgium and Switzerland all have suicide rates more than five times higher than Venezuela, Pakistan or Iraq.  That's right.  There's been so much talk lately about how bad conditions are in central america, which is held out as the reason so many people are leaving those areas and coming to the United States.  But the US is another country in which the suicide rate is high and climbing.  Now more than five times the rate in El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala.  Isn't that kind of amazing?  

 

Yesterday I talked about my theory as to why this is.  The fact that young people especially in western countries are interacting far more with devices than they are with flesh and blood humans, and at earlier and earlier ages contributes to a disconnected sense of meaninglessness that makes people feel life just isn't worth all that much.  People have a deep desire to be needed, and a device just can't provide that.  It doesn't need you.

 

But there's more to it than that.  People need a battle to fight.  In developing countries, that battle is for literal survival, and you and your whole family are in it together.  Everyone needs to be in the struggle if the family is going to make it.  Even the kids are so, well, necessary.  whether it's working the farm, herding the goats or going to fetch water, the young people have purpose in their lives.  How could something like candy crush compete with that?  I really believe that in a lot of ways, Americans are literally entertaining themselves to death.  All that passive activity makes it increasingly difficult to think deep thoughts, feel deep emotions, and find a purpose bigger than yourself.

 

Here's one other factor I think contributes largely to suicide rates that I've never heard anyone talk about.  I just went and did some cursory research on google and found that the countries with the highest suicide rates also happen to be countries where abortion is legal and common for almost any reason.  by contrast, Countries that restrict the killing of the unborn, no matter what their poverty level, tend to have some of the lowest suicide rates.  For example, Haiti is the poorest country in the western hemisphere.  The majority of people there live on less than a dollar a day.  They've been plagued by hunger,  Now this is probably more correlation than causation, but it stands to reason:  a country whose culture does not value human life enough to preserve it for their most vulnerable citizens is obviously not going to inculcate it's people with a healthy respect for the value of your own life.  Now like I said the link between suicide rates and legal abortion may be circumstantial, but there is a direct correlation between atheism and suicide.  The fewer citizens there are in a country who describe themselves as religious, the higher the suicide rate is likely to be.  

 

Here's the most alarming statistic of all:  If US military veterans were a country, they'd have the highest suicide rate in the world - more than a third higher than the current number one country, Lithuania. We've seen over six thousand veteran suicides every year since 2005, and that is truly a national crisis.  I think there are many complex factors that lead to the problem we see today, and there are a lot of people out there who have spent far more time looking at the issues surrounding Post Traumatic Stress and all that than I have.  And to the military's credit, they are taking the problem very seriously.  I want to show you some testimonies the Army has filmed that it's using in it's anti-suicide push.

 

So this is great, and I think they should do more of it.  Sharing our troubles helps others who are going through the same thing. But I really think addressing the root causes of the problem wil require more than this.  In the case of our veterans, you have to understand the very unique stressors that hit a guy kind of by surprise when he returns from downrange.  His battle in the kinetic sense might be over, but another one is just beginning.  See the most difficult thing for a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine to handle when they come back off deployment is the fact that everyday life is just so complicated.  Here's what I mean.  Combat simplifies your life very much.  When you are in battle, you aren't worrying about bills, insurance, your mortgage...and your relationships are kind of on hold.  And you are very, very necessary.  A unit in a fight needs all the help it can get.  Every troop is supremely valuable.  It's built into the military ethos.  Leave no man behind.  All of your problems are in the now, , not the future. There's some group of guys over there who are trying to kill you and your buddies, and all it takes to solve your problem is right in your hands.  eleven pounds of pressure with your trigger finger can fix just about all your problems. You own everything - if you need to use a house, you take it. Very simple. 

 

Then you come home.  Your car insurance got canceled, your wife is used to running things without you, and everyone at the mall is using this very precious liberty you've been "fighting" for and watching your friends die for...to surf social media on their phones.  You feel useless.  You feel disconnected.  Unnecessary.  And that toxic mix is what leads many of these guys to put a gun in their mouth.

 

for too long, the military has, I think, tried to bandaid the problem and actually has prohibited chaplains from using strategies to mitigate it that have been proven to increase meaning in a person's life.  I did a story on this a few years ago.  Check it out.

 

So the bottom line is we need to put down our phones more and interface with each other in real life.  We need to do things that affirm the value and dignity of life - all life.  And we need to focus less on entertainment and more on making the world a better place.  That's one reason I started this podcast.  I want to help you understand crisis around the world better, yes.  But I also want to give you a conduit through which you can do something about the news.  Be the good guy in this story - reach into the lives of the people I meet and improve them.  Engage more with the news rather than just be a spectator.  So I hope you'll join me and like and share the podcast.  We've got some amazing content coming soon!

 

I'm Chuck Holton.  I'll see you back here tomorrow on the Hot Zone.