I go to the local VA outpatient clinic every week (at the moment) for reasons that don't concern anyone here.

The first and last questions I am asked are "Have you thought about suicide?" and then I am given a card with the VA suicide prevention talk line number on it. (If you'd like one, I've got plenty to share.)

It's no mystery: when someone is in combat the stress becomes pretty bad, not to say awful. In the past the military has taken a damned dim view of mental health problems, attaching a stigma of weakness to them.

The 'Nam vets were the first to really speak out and say, "HEY! Your so-called treatment STINKS! Our buddies are drinking themselves to death, addicted to dope, and killing themselves and you bastards aren't doing anything to help! Some fine bunch of liars you are!"

And then it was discovered that non-vets were suffering the same sort of thing! Cops were sucking on their pistol barrels. EMTs were hitting the bottle pretty hard. Nurses were misusing drugs.

And thus was discovered Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Why, they found that overtaxing a person's ability to cope with killing, with death, with things like those could actually drive someone to drink, drugs, asocial behavior, anti-social behavior, carrying weapons with them ("I slept for forty years with the a loaded gun and the light on," said Audie Murphy), withdrawal, and even suicide! Golly! Imagine that!

And THEN someone did a followup on the combat vets and you know what? They found it likely that some of the "accidents" they suffered might not have been "accidents" at all! That the inability of vets, especially Vietnam vets, to stop smoking might be PTSD linked!

My response, Donuel, is "So what else is new?" The military is trying to erase the stigma that seeking mental help is not weakness, but a damned good idea. Civilians could well emulate this -- especially the news media.