Have you ever said “I need a drink!” to a friend or colleague? Maybe you’d had a long, stressful day, or maybe you wanted to unwind and relax before bed. I think it’s endemic in our society to an extent, the use of having a drink – let me clarify, an alcoholic drink – to de-stress, and by extension for many, to try to get to sleep.
The Department of Defense’s Under Secretary for Personnel and Readiness recently released an inaugural Annual Suicide Report (ASR). Along with data regarding suicides among Active Component, Guard and Reserve Service members, it also included the first ever number of suicide deaths among military spouses and dependents. According to the ASR, there were 186 reported military family member suicide deaths in CY17.
Language is important, essential to everyday living. Our word choices matter as we communicate to others and in the context of suicide prevention, language can mean life or death. With the potential for such dire consequences, how we speak about suicide is critical. In today’s blog, I will share what language is no longer recommended when talking about suicide, as well as what words or phrases are preferred.
Beginning to Heal is a book by Ellen Bass and Laura Davis which focuses on the ways one can recover from childhood sexual abuse. This book is based on the book called The Courage to Heal.
A quick search of the PTSD literature will show you widespread rates of PTSD in the U.S. military. In some studies, the rate is as low as 1.4% (Bliese, Wright, Adler, Thomas, & Hoge, 2007), and in others it is as high as 41.3% (Maguen, Lau, Madden, & Seal, 2012). There are a number of reasons for these highly discrepant rates, many of which are methodological differences.