Soldiers committing suicide... help me understand...

[BrianT]

Dave, I can definitely appreciate what you're saying about hydrocodone. They put me on that shortly after I broke my leg. And it did work ok for managing pain. But I noticed pretty quickly that it had some side effects that I didn't like at all. It make me "foggy", I could still think, but not as well, felt kinda weird in the head. I can't quite put a finger on a good word to describe it. And it gave me a much more severe "jerk", you may know the one, where you're just right on the edge of being awake and falling asleep and it's almost as though someone scares you, that kind of a jerk. For me, it's normally just a little twitch, nothing much to think about. But after a week or so on hydrocodone, that little twitch was turning into rather violent jumps and my wife was really concerned.

 

Didn't take me very long and I did away with those completely. Right after I noticed that particular side effect, was too soon and I had to continue with them for another week or so but I did start tapering off. Knowing what I know about them, I might take them if I felt like I had to (like if I was starting to have trouble breathing because it hurt so bad), but if there were any other alternative that would get me through the pain that wasn't a narcotic, I'd be looking in that direction.

 

It may be that it doesn't have the same effects on everyone. And maybe some develop a tolerance. I know it didn't do well with me.

 

No doubt child's play to your injuries, but I got a glimpse of what hydrocodone is and what it feels like. If all it did was relieve pain, that would be good. But those side effects... not fun.

[bigjim]

I think it must affect some people differently maybe depending on the dosage and the length of time you are taking it, No doubt it can be usefull but can be dangerous and easily abused. Quite a few times it was routinely perscribed for pain after a surgical proceedure.

When I had one proceedure it was as needed for pain but not to exceed X amount in a time period. I kept saving it for when I couldn't stand it but ended up not taking any. I thought when they cut you open it is supposed to hurt. Now with a little more knowledge I might use it in a limited way. The perscriber needs to know more than just a generic number level of pain. I wonder it some of this is a negative factor of trying to standardize care using computers.

[RV_]

This the most recent reason that we need to account for the reservists that commit suicide:

 

Air Force Reservist's Suicide Brings Home Tragedy

 

Excerpt:

 

"TAMPA -- Why?

That's the question the family and friends of Air Force Reserve Capt. Jamie Brunette are struggling to answer.

 

At 30, Brunette seemingly had it all. A vivacious and attractive athlete and scholar, she had been lauded by the Air Force for her work in Afghanistan, was a partner in a fitness center about to open in Largo and was known by her family and friends as being the strong one always ready to help others.

 

But for some reason, Brunette, who left active duty after 11 years last June and joined the Air Force Reserve, couldn't help herself.

 

On Feb. 9, Tampa police found her slumped over in the back of her locked Chrysler 200 sedan outside a Harbour Island cafe near her apartment. Police say it appears she killed herself with her Smith & Wesson .380 handgun, which she purchased about six months earlier.

 

Now family and friends are trying to come to grips with the pain behind Brunette's effervescent smile that caused her to become one of the 22 veterans a day who take their own lives, according to a 2012 Department of Veterans Affairs study. It's a problem that's vexing both the military and the VA, which are struggling to find ways to prevent suicides.

 

According to a study published this month in the medical journal Annals of Epidemiology, the nearly 1.3 million veterans of the wars in Afghanistan andIraq between 2001 and 2007 had a 41 percent to 61 percent higher risk of suicide than the general population, with 1,868 committing suicide during that time period. And while female veterans were far less likely than men to commit suicide, when compared to those who never served, female veterans were more likely to commit suicide than male veterans.

 

The problem is so pervasive that on Feb. 12, three days after Brunette's death, President Barack Obama signed into law the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans Act, among other things making it easier for veterans to seek treatment from the VA.

 

The story of Brunette's life speaks volumes about the difficulty of dealing with veteran suicides, say her family and friends.

 

"She had so much going for her," says Jackie Leverich, 40, Brunette's oldest sister. "She was so full of hope and wonderment and passion and excitement for life."

 

But like others who spoke about Brunette, Leverich, who flew to Tampa from her home in California to help set up memorial services, believes something traumatic happened to her sister in Afghanistan. Something that she was reluctant to discuss, making it hard for anyone to help.

 

"She kept it hidden," says Leverich, whose main contact with her sister, on the other end of the country, was through Facebook pictures that showed a happy 30-something with high hopes. "I think in order for us to really have done something about it, we would have had to catch the signs and realize how serious it was and we probably would have had to fly down here and do a confrontation. Whatever happened to her, she buried it and I think it killed her in the end."

 

Her pictures and the rest of the story, much more in the long but heartbreaking story can be found here: http://www.military.com/daily-news/2015/02/23/air-force-reservists-suicide-brings-home-tragedy.html?ESRC=airforce-a.nl

[BrianT]

Derek, if this is the one I think it is, it's the one that actually prompted this thread. Kinda tore me up inside.

[RV_]

Brian you never gave a name or source so it well may be. I've known several who did. One at Spangdahlem AB Germany went out and ate a bullet in the woods in a German hunting stand all due to undue process and suspicious charges when a pilot failed to check his flaps before takeoff and augered in. Crossed rods from a known bad TO, the mechs making a mistake as the TO showed, and the pilot getting his hours in in a hurry failed to check flaps and rudder at the end of the runway. We were heartbroken over both and their families. We had more than a few that pulled the final escape that we knew in passing.