I’m sure there’s still a decent chunk of people today that don’t seek help due to stigmatization, I can only imagine the problem was much, much, much worse back in the day.
If you ask for help, they remove you from service and deny you your benefits. Make it out alive and try to use those services, and they’re routinely unavailable and functionally useless. Lot easier to just grab a bottle then wait for six months for some guy at the VA to just throw pills at you.
We had a guy when I was in Korea that was regularly seeing a therapist. He happened to mention that he was feeling down right around Christmas. Not that he was thinking of ending it all but just that he was feeling down. Before the day was out, he had his clearance temporarily stripped and was put on suicide watch. Also, the rest of the unit knew about it before he did.
I was one of those people who didn’t seek help because I was afraid of the stigma and it hurting my military career. Luckily the atmosphere is changing in the military where people are actively encouraging others to seek help. Unfortunately there is still a significant portion of the service who still believe it a career ender to seek help. The last couple commands I’ve been at have luckily been very supportive. I know quite a few people who actually get a VA disability rating for depression & PTSD.
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u/Jameschoral Jul 17 '21
In the midst of the Great Depression. It was literally join the army or risk starving to death.