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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

A comment to this article http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/05/27/army.suicides/index.html
and this one
http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2009/05/28/soldiers-ordered-not-to-kill-themselves/

In December my younger brother died from a self inflicted gun shot wound. He had served in the Army National Guard spending some time deployed in Afghanistan. I think there are a lot of stigma changes and paradigm shifts that need to happen with mental illness ESPECIALLY in the military.
My brother was not on medication and was not seeking medical help and part of what contributed to that was the stigma associated. While active in the Military he took medication for a short time but would only allow himself that as he would not be able to continue in the military if he continued taking medication.
I have also been on medication for my mental health issue's. When I tried to join the military they would not take me because I was on an anti-depressant, I thought it silly and stupid that they would take a "crazy" person that neither recognizes nor addresses their "insanity" but they won't take some one who is choosing to address their "issues."
Another point is that my brother very likely had a personality disorder and it makes perfect sense for people with these types of disorders to join the military. Sort of a noble death wish if you will. That in and of it's self is not necessarily a bad thing and it's rather silly of the military to avoid these people but rather it seems it would make sense to utilize this personality type. In giving them the medical help they need with out the discrimination it would really make for a phenomenal military. I know my brother and I know what I am talking about, they (and we) would be an incredible asset to any branch of military but medical attention, education and acceptance in the arena of mental health is crucial and in a military setting would probably be fairly simple.

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