Article July 14, 2014 Issue

Overcoming despair in combat zones

Matt Schmidt

Over the past couple of years, the rising rate of suicide in the United States military is one of the issues it has been striving to turn around. Many men and women in uniform have been struggling with the demands of multiple deployments to combat zones, and the families and communities supporting them have also been deeply affected.

While no specific causes have been identified, a Pentagon report has said that half of the individuals who committed suicide experienced a recently failed relationship. Alcohol abuse was a key factor, and almost a third of them had struggled with drugs (see The Christian Science Monitor, August 17, 2012).

In my own dealings with troubled men and women, including those in uniform, I’ve found that while many of them accept that a better life exists, they simply don’t believe that their situation can be turned around, or that they deserve such transformations. They feel a sense of hopelessness.