4 ms·
>Is this saying that veterans can kill themselves more easily because they have more rational clarity about the situation? I don't think so. Doctors and veteri
by jdietrich 7y ago
>Is this saying that veterans can kill themselves more easily because they have more rational clarity about the situation?
I don't think so. Doctors and veterinarians have an unusually high rate of suicide, partly because they have access to highly lethal means of suicide but also because they've become inured to mortality. For most people, the practical realities of death are somewhat foreign, which creates a psychological barrier between the urge to cease existing and the means of making that happen.
The vast majority of suicidal impulses are temporary; the vast majority of people who attempt suicide do not go on to die by suicide. While it is entirely believable that some people are afflicted with unbearable and intractable misery, that is certainly not true for most people who die by suicide.
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/ https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/
- jdmcnugent 7y agoInteresting side note about suicide among physicians (in the U.S. at least), every state license or hospital privileges (including renewals) I have applied for asks “have you been diagnosed with or received treatment for a mental health disease such as depression, anxiety, etc”. Obviously any rational person would at least hesitate to seek mental health treatment if it meant they could incur increased scrutiny just to continue to do their job, much less knowing that their peers (and sometimes competitors) on the hospital credentialling committee would be aware of their struggles. I have personally known at least 8 friends / coworkers in the medical field who have committed suicide since I entered the field and I cannot help but imagine that this contributed to at least some of them.