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A young soldier who wrote the number 6 down on a dry-erase board. This was someone obviously a little slower than most. He was a good soldier, but not quite as sharp as the rest — that wasn’t by choice.

It was a little hard to tell that it was a 6 the soldier wrote. As his superior, I would have simply asked him what he meant to write and had him write it again more legibly. Instead, his sergeant called this young soldier almost every name in the book. “Stupid, retard, dumb-ass, you can’t even write, idiot,” just to name a few. More undue anxiety added to an innocent soldier’s life, and this transpired in Iraq, an already stressful environment.

Here’s another story. There is a rule in the Army that you have to wear your headgear any time you step outside. I remember a time when a soldier didn’t put his headgear on as soon as he stepped out. It probably took him two seconds instead of one. I’m not against correction, but I am against a supposed leader saying the “F word” 15 times in another man’s face, in front of many other soldiers, just to get him to put his hat on faster.

I could go on forever giving examples just like these, but if you’ve heard one, you’ve heard them all. Each day that I was in the service I witnessed or was the recipient of these uncalled for actions.

This type of behavior from superiors isn’t just a motivator for stress, which can easily lead to suicide under the right circumstances, it’s also just outright bad leadership. Do you think a soldier with suicidal thoughts who is treated such as this will even feel comfortable coming to his superior to ask for help? I know I wouldn’t.

Even without the threat of suicide, this kind of treatment is detrimental to one’s health and well-being, and not only for that individual, but everybody around him. If the Army’s leaders care as much as they always say they do about soldiers’ well-being, then working on fixing this shouldn’t be a problem.

The Army’s solution, which is hardly enough, is to keep a better eye out for warning signs of suicide. I don’t know whether you have ever heard suicide stories, but almost every one sounds the same coming out of the mouths of the people directly around the victim.

They always say “I never thought he would do something like this” or “He seemed fine to me.” I say the same things about the soldiers that I knew personally who committed suicide. They seemed fine to me. The point is simple: Most of the time there are no warning signs, but yet that is the best solution that the Army can come up with. Keep a better eye out for the warning signs, which probably won’t even present themselves.

My solution is a little more effective. How about better leadership? Instead of a bunch of overbearing egotists who overload soldiers with extra stress on a daily basis, let’s think about promoting true leaders who know the importance of each and every soldier.

Men and women who truly value the lives of the soldiers under them and know how to properly approach any situation. Leaders who don’t judge a soldier by one mistake they may make. Leaders who understand the military life is stressful and difficult all by itself and that none of our troops deserve added stress.

Promote soldiers who prove they are competent leaders by their actions, soldiers who show they know how to lead effectively and fairly and treat men and women as men and women, not objects or lesser humans. The current promotion system is based upon a soldier’s accumulated points. They get these points by taking a few courses at home, memorizing a few Army regulations and statistics, then reciting them in front of a group of other leaders, and also just by staying in the Army long enough.

Do those things and you’re thrown into a leadership position, responsible for other human lives. This is why there are so many terrible leaders in the Army, because most of them don’t have the makings of a good leader.

We get better leaders with a better promotion system based on genuine displays of leadership qualities, not based on points that are easy to obtain. I’m not saying this will stop all suicides from happening, but I am saying it will reduce the number. It’s far better than just keeping an eye out for the warning signs.

Strength in Army terms means doing nothing about all the unnecessary abuse. Just “soldier through it.”

Strength to me means not accepting all the unnecessary abuse. If you have a problem with being disrespected, judged unfairly, treated like you’re not worthy and having your rights almost completely stripped away, then you’re not “Army Strong” in the military’s book. That makes me “Army Wrong,” which is a step forward in my book. http://www.pennlive.com/editorials/index.ssf/2011/08/want_to_prevent_m
ilitary_suici.html]

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Military suicides are at an all-time high, according to reports from the pentagon, with one troop taking his or her own life nearly every day for the past two months.

That our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines are facing tremendous cumulative stress sort of goes without saying, considering the current conflict is now the longest-running war in American history. Many in our military report feeliing that they are no longer a part of their families - wives and children have had to make it without their fathers and husbands for so long that they seem strangers in their own homes.

Many attribute the problem to risky behavior, but could there be additional reasons for the spike in suicides? My friend Remington Nevin thinks so. Remington is a medical doctor for the Army, and he says the rise in the use of psychotropic drugs may be at the root of the rise in troops killing themselves.

This report corroborates his story - many troops are now being treated for PTSD with multiple drugs for depression, sleeplessness, nightmares, and anxiety. One drug in particular, a sleeping pill called Seroquel, is now the number 2 drug throughout the VA system. Seroquel has been suspected in the deaths of several soldiers and Marines, many of whom were also taking up to a dozen other prescriptions at the same time.

Perhaps we should stop medicating the life out of our troops and work to mitigate the source of their problems. A military psychologist for the special operations community told me years ago that there are three main factors that mitigate stress in combat troops. Focusing on these three facets has been proven to help soldiers cope.

1. Knowledge - the more tactically and technically efficient a warrior is, the less anxiety he will experience in battle.

2. Cameraderie - when a troop feels connected to his or her comrades - both on and off duty, that esprit de corps will carry him through the toughest situations. Brothers dissipate stress.

3. Discipline - the more disciplined a warrior, the less stress he will feel. Discipline is like armor against stress. http://blogs.cbn.com/bootsontheground/archive/2010/08/30/why-so-many-s
uicides.aspx fact that psychotropics are used so frequently came as news to me. I can tell you one thing: Seroquel is an ANTI-PSYCHOTIC! WHY they are using it for "sleep" is totally beyond me. It is used for schizophrenia and bipolarity, and in both cases, for extreme symptoms. WHY are they using it (and especially so heavily) for "sleep"?? Yes, Seroquel makes you sleepy--many of us could'nt even handle it because it would simply knock us out, but that's a SIDE EFFECT, that's not what it's intended for. It blew me away to read it's used so much in the military, that's insane in my opinion!

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A small number of children, teenagers, and young adults (up to 24 years of age) who took antidepressants ('mood elevators') such as quetiapine (Seroquel) during clinical studies became suicidal (thinking about harming or killing oneself or planning or trying to do so). Children, teenagers, and young adults who take antidepressants to treat depression or other mental illnesses may be more likely to become suicidal than children, teenagers, and young adults who do not take antidepressants to treat these conditions.

You should know that your mental health may change in unexpected ways when you take quetiapine or other antidepressants even if you are an adult over age 24. You may become suicidal, especially at the beginning of your treatment and any time that your dose is increased or decreased. You, your family, or your caregiver should call your doctor right away if you experience any of the following symptoms: new or worsening depression; thinking about harming or killing yourself, or planning or trying to do so; extreme worry; agitation; panic attacks; difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep; aggressive behavior; irritability; acting without thinking; severe restlessness; and frenzied abnormal excitement. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001030/ from the NIH (National Institute of Health) and published by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, so they supposedly know all this. So WHY in hell are they using it for "sleep"??? Among the mental health community, Seroquel is considered one of the HEAVIER anti-psychotics, prescribed for people who suffer extreme effects of their disorder! I've got to check into this, because it absolutely blows my mind! In my opinion, this deserves its own thread, which I'm going to start.