2 + 2 = Military Suicides

Over the past couple of years, there have been several stories about the horrific psychological issues of returning soldiers that includes a vast increase in suicide. But, when stringing the stories and research together, it is not hard to conclude that, beyond the normal trauma caused by war, there is military mental health policy that is creating the situation.

This article and study in Military Times two months ago
www.army.mil/article/155256/Sleep_issues_bedeviling_Soldiers__health/
shows that the military regularly sleep deprives their soldiers as a general practice. It states that, “Overall, one-third of military members sleep less than five hours per night and two-thirds less than six.” The article also shows how this impairs the military’s ability to mentally function in battle.

Harmful Solution: Instead of proper rest, the research article here shows how all branches of the US military keep researching for the most effective amphetamines www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/superman/2013/05/sleep_depriva...
to shove into their soldiers in lieu of sleep.

Another reason for the amphetamines is how they can reduce fear and get people more inclined to kill as can be seen on the amphetamine use on Syrian soldiers as shown here: www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/11/19/the-tiny-pill-fueli... . Similalry, amphetamines were also used to induce Japanese kamikaze pilots to give their lives up while flying into US ships.

Here is a new article/study that indicates how ADHD amphetamines increase PTSD in the military: www.latimes.com/science/la-sci-stimulants-ptsd-20151119-story.html

Since antidepressants are commonly prescribed for PTSD, and because studies have concluded that antidepressants increase suicidal thoughts in children and young adults, you get the expected result of increased military suicide
www.ibtimes.com/medicating-our-troops-oblivion-prescription-drugs-said-b... .

This article above also shows that soldiers are being severely damaged with several types of psychiatric drugs at a time. The additional drugs could potentially be given for the hallucinations and other side effects of amphetamines and antidepressants. The sleep deprivation in itself also causes physical and emotional harm when long term that can lead to more psychiatric prescriptions. To give you an idea how big this betrayal of our military is, this article www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-e-levine/sharp-rise-in-us-military_b_521365... reveals that one in six returning US soldier is on at least one psychiatric drug.

That is good business for mental health practitioners and psychiatric pharmaceutical manufacturers but a terrible betrayal of our young soldiers. Instead harming our soldiers by attempting to drug them into some super-human hyped-up state, maybe we should just try letting them sleep properly.