re: On Average, A Veteran Commits Suicide Every 65 Minutes

I get it...surprised it’s so few, to be honest. I don’t deal with mental pain, but physical pain is a bitch. I’m middle aged, but feel like I’m 80 most days. The drugs and frequent medical procedures hold you together, but it’s just a matter of time.

In my experience, Marines seem better equipped for the mental part of waging war then coming home to live a “normal life”. We rarely snap and hurt others and I honestly haven’t had “issues” with PTSD. I’m not saying it isn’t real, because it is, but it just doesn’t bother Marines to the extent that it does others. My theory is that the mental breakdown/reprogramming that takes place for Marines makes dealing with combat (mentally) a lot easier to overcome after we return home.

That being said, the physical breakdown is what does us in. I was in for a long time and tore up just about everything that can be tore up. I won’t see 60 years old because I’ll either die before then or I’ll check out myself. I’ll check out myself before I become bed ridden, either way. We/Me are just not able to handle the complete breakdown of the body afterwards. Everyone seems to become dependent on drugs and regular surgeries to keep us going day to day, and eventually those things fail too. It is what it is. It was certainly fun while it lasted. I don’t use the VA because I’m lucky enough to have options, but they do what they can. I tried using them early on, but they just can’t keep up. They don’t have anywhere close to the resources. I believe, at least today, they try to do what they can. It wasn’t always like that.