Re: Sad at the number of Soldier suicides.
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Chiller</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Sometimes there is not an answer. At least an answer that we understand </div></div>
Chill, I think its not that we 'cant' understand the problem but that we have chosen to expend more treasure on going to Mars, and having 2nd and 3rd homes and not investing more into learning about this area.
I dont go into this much because most folks just arent interested but Ill share some of what ive learned in the hope that it might hrelp even one of you or give you some insight that may help someone else.
As I stated above, its not the mind that the problem lies in, its the heart...meaning the spiritual/emotional seat of an individual. Think about when you feel really strong emotion...rage, fear, love, disgust...where do you really experience what you feel. At least for myself, I find that I feel it/sexperience it, in the area of my (physical) heart. Its not til Ive experienced it there that the mind becomes involved and starts to reason ABOUT what the heart has felt.
Sometimes we experience too much and the heart/emotions overload and short circut. Ive neveer been in combat like many of you, but having arrived early on the scene of a couple of really nasty car wrecks...one a classmate hit by a train, I can imagine some of what you must have experienced. Your best buddy three meters away steps on a mine and is blown into 6 pieces...think about the horror yuor heart experiences...each is different...some deal with it, and some just overload. The overload doesnt always become apparent immediatly. Sometimes, its like a small small wound thats bandaged but left untreated, festers and becomes gangrened. In the realm of the emotions this state is just untenable and so the mind deals with it by ending the pain.
But it soesnt always have to be a major trauma...sometimes it can be the smallest of things. When I was ablut 5-6 years old, a person in authority over me prevented me from doing something that shoulld have been the most normal thing in the world. They didnt even do it in a mean way, but they didnt take the time to explain to me about the situation. It wasnt a big thing but it confused me on that issue and everthing concerning that area. It didnt show up immediatly, but because of the confusion, and a sense of being treated unjustly, it threw me into rebellion. As the rebellion grew, the confusion grew, which fueled the rebellion which fueled the confusion....etc. By the time I was thirty or so I was so fucked up that I thought about suicide every day...and I didnt even know why, because just like that little wound that isnt treated, just covered with a bandage, the problem had grown out of all proportion. Im not a real believer in any sort of diety, though I dont deny it, I must admit that except for what i can only chalk up to divine intervention, because of the pain and confusion in my heart,I would have ended up klilling myself, and perhaps many others. The problem wasnt in the mind...I could think and reason alright, went back to University and did quite well...the problem was in the heart. Why does any regularly normal person go off the deep end...like at Virginia Tech, or Colorado, or Arizona, with the Giffords shooting? So I do believe one hads the right to end ones one life if they choose, though not the right to end others lives. Something wounded that individual at some level and they just overloaded, and had to stop the pain, or in these cases take it out on others...if they would only have suicided it would have been bbetter...not good but better. I was sitting having coffee the other day and a bunch of young kids came in. They were so cute and innocent. The thought hit me that one day one of these beautiful young children could overload and become the next mass murderer. What causes that?
So that brings us to how do we deal with this type of problem?
I think the first step is aknowledged aabove...recognizing there is a problem, and then where it originates. Some wise man said "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.". The next step, I think is in providing access to, often times, just someone to talk to. Ive heard ads on the radio from various veterns groups telling vets where they can find others that have shared their exerience. But I also think that the establishment that sends men and women to war, progtrams them to kill and be killed, experiece these horrors, has the responsibility to deprogram and make sure that these issues are dealt with. It may just come down to you vets fucking writting your congressmen and president and yelling at the top of your lungs theat "We need help.". Its a place to begin...sometimes just having someone to talk to can do a world of good. Sometimes medications may help...not the kind that dull you and make you numb, but the ones that aid in thinking through things, and allowing the heart and mind to see and experience the "truth" of the situation. "Know the truth and the truth shall make you free." The heart and mind can deal with the truth...its the confusion that brings the darkness puts out the light.
Hope this is doing some good. Think Ill pause there.