Guest post by Joe Hoft – republished with permission
Republished with permission from AbleChild
With so much news about the recent Presidential election taking up most of the news cycle, the Department of Defense (DoD) Annual Report on Suicide for 2023 was released and, unfortunately, summarily ignored. Our Service members deserve more, especially in light of the findings in the report.
Suicides among active-duty military personnel are at all-time highs and according to a USO report, “some branches of the Armed Forces are experiencing the highest rate of suicides since before World War II.”
These data become even more startling when one understands that the same USO research reveals that “military suicide rates are four times higher than deaths that occurred during military operations.” By 2021, the data revealed that since 9/11 30,177 active-duty personnel and veterans died by suicide compared to the 7,057 service members killed in combat in those same twenty years.
The DoD suicide report explains that 523 (25.6 per 100,000) service members took their lives in 2023 which is a steady increase since 2011. And, of interest, DoD explains that 42% of the suicides occurred among those with selected mental health diagnoses.
It is difficult to understand how the nation’s military personnel are killing themselves in ever-increasing numbers when, at the same time, mental health resources have steadily increased. Consider the FY2024 Budget Request for the Military Health System which highlights $1.400 million for clinical mental health programs and initiatives. In fact, according to the report, mental health budget requests top the list of health requests. A billion and a half dollars on mental health programs and still the suicide rate increases?
But what is most interesting about DoD’s suicide report is what is missing from it. Despite knowing that the largest expenditure in DoD health programs is in mental health, the DoD does not provide any information about the specific drug “treatments” that are utilized. According to a Military Times investigation, the Defense Logistics Agency spent $1.1 billion on common psychiatric and pain medications from 2001-2009 and that “use of psychiatric medications has increased dramatically – about 76% overall, with some drug types more than doubling…”
Those data are from fourteen years ago. How much money is appropriated for psychiatric drug “treatments” today? Must be a state secret. Obviously one can assume that drug use has increased along with the number of service members being diagnosed with a mental illness but, despite relentless research, putting a monetary figure on the drug use remains elusive.
As for the number of service members who were provided prescription drugs, one report suggests that 65% of service members had at least one filled pharmaceutical prescription and that 41% of the prescriptions were for central nervous system drugs (psychiatric) including narcotic and non-narcotics. One scholarly paper suggests that 1 in 6 service members are now taking at least one psychiatric medication.
And in AbleChild’s efforts to obtain current drug data for service members, one document popped up that provided interesting, if not questionable, information. According to the DoD Instruction 6130.03 Volume 1 (Medical Standards for Military Service) which “establishes physical and medical standards for appointment, enlistment, or induction into the Military Services, one might argue that many of the thousands that are being “treated” for mental health issues might not have been allowed to enter the service to begin with.
So, what are some of the mental health issues that would preclude one from entering military service? Under Section 6.28 Learning, Psychiatric, And Behavioral Disorders the following are an example of some of the mental health exemptions.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, learning disorders (dyslexia) autism spectrum disorders, psychotic, schizophrenic, delusional, psychoses and mood disorders, bipolar, depressive disorders, adjustment disorder, personality disorder, suicidality, suicide attempt and suicide speech, obsessive compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, history of prescription with psychotropic medication and gender dysphoria.
These admission “standards” are up to date as of May of 2024. One might wonder how the military can list the above disorders as prohibitive for entry into the military yet, on the other hand, spend billions on mental health care for service members (including prescription psychiatric drugs) for those same mental health disorders.
As for gender dysphoria, the 2024 “standards” lists it as precluding someone from entry into the military, but in 2021 the Department of Defense welcomed transgender people into the service and provides medical treatment to assist those wishing to transition. One can only assume that gender dysphoria occurred after entry into the service.
The fact that DoD has produced a lengthy “annual” report about the ever-increasing number of military suicides and not provided the psychiatric drug data is inexcusable. It is no secret that the military is a major supplier and prescriber of psychiatric drug “treatment.”
Those drug “treatments” come with a host of adverse events that may help provide some understanding of why our military is committing suicide in record numbers. For instance, most of the antidepressants on the market have the following side effects: anxiety, aggressive reaction, confusion, nervousness, hallucinations, abnormal dreams, irritability, mania, psychosis, and suicidality.
Perhaps focusing on the ever-increasing number of military personnel who are being diagnosed with mental disorders and what is being prescribed as “treatment” might actually be helpful. For more than twenty years, DoD has thrown tens of billions of dollars into mental health initiatives and programs only to yearly report that the rate of suicide among its service members increases. At what point does DoD admit that its mental health isn’t working, no one is getting better. How many have to die by their own hand before those in command start asking the right questions.
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