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Do Sailors these days view the topic of suicide differently? - TG2 thread split

FormerRecruitingGuru

FormerRecruitingGuru

Making Recruiting Great Again
Spekkio

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
FormerRecruitingGuru said:
There’s an NBC nightly news article that does a solid explanation.


You can search / find similar articles which bring the military + mental health issue into full circle.
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I think that there are two factors at play:

1. Yard periods require sailors to live in inhumane conditions, and it's been like that for at least 20 years. I personally attempted to sleep in 90 degree heat while chillwater was tagged out in an avail, but everyone had to stay onboard for firefighting response. Imagine doing that every 3-4 days. I had a DH file an IG about poor shipyard living conditions around 10 years ago and it torpedoed his career despite being #1 in the squadron. The Big Navy in a budget constrained environment has little appetite to spend money on habitability and hotel services when 'everyone else did it, why can't you?'

2. Kids today talk about suicide as a normal coping mechanism. The 19 year old E3 you have has likely already vocalized suicide for adversity at some point in middle/high school and assured by his friends that it's a viable course of action to end suffering and impose some kind of retribution. It's not a matter of 'resiliency' in terms of being ill equipped to overcome challenges, but that the individual's moral compass considers suicide a rational option to stick it to the man. I think we're lagging behind on this front.
 
nittany03

nittany03

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Spekkio said:
2. Kids today talk about suicide as a normal coping mechanism. The 19 year old E3 you have has likely already vocalized suicide for adversity at some point in middle/high school and assured by his friends that it's a viable course of action to end suffering and impose some kind of retribution. It's not a matter of 'resiliency' in terms of being ill equipped to overcome challenges, but that the individual's moral compass considers suicide a rational option to stick it to the man. I think we're lagging behind on this front.
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Griz882

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insanebikerboy said:
I’m quite content being the forgotten Gen-X. Let the boomers and the millennials fight it out!
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I’ve learned to enjoy the march of time with respect to how people view it. When I was commissioned there were still RF-8’s in the fleet and the last active duty navy F-4 squadron was weeks (if not days) away from their final launch. If you had asked me back then I’d have guessed that “littoral” was something you did with a dirty girl and I had a host of flight instructors who had combat experience in Vietnam.

Now I look over at the pile of AW posts about “getting selected for OCS” that eventually become “what kind of underwear should I take to OCS” and then “what grades do I need for jets” and so on. By the time these kids command squadrons their JOPA will be giggling about antique FA-18 types and their quaint ideas and @Brett327 will be posting “Zombie Rhino” comeback (if not “bring back the NFO!) memes. Me? I’ll still be yelling at clouds.
 
Spekkio

Spekkio

He bowls overhand.
nittany03 said:
This isn't Reddit. Substantiate your arguments or don't make them. Don't hide behind stupid "boomer" memes when you're talking to someone who wasn't born in the 60s.
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OK. I'm a a parent of a middle schooler and overhear plenty of conversations about the topic from just being around large groups of kids... And the way they talk about suicide is startling. I don't ever remember people openly talking about suicide growing up. Kids are more comfortable talking about it than sex. You can also see this reflected in popular media as many coming of age dramas now have scenes with suicide themes.

I don't have a longitudinal psychological study on the changes of adolescent attitudes toward suicide, so I can't put numbers and official academic phrases on it. I can point out that the 15-24 age group has had a steep increase in suicide rate in the last half of the 2010s compared to other age groups, and if current trends continue they could overtake the 45-64 age group by the end of the 2020s.

If we keep treating suicide in the Navy like there's something wrong with people's resiliency (the boomer stereotype of millenial 'trophy kids' who never had to deal with adversity) then I don't think that we'll ever get ahead of the issue. I further don't think that people from Gen Z will respond favorably by being told the problem is them and not the fucked up way they were being treated (reference Secnav speaking to TR and MCPON speaking to GW). But YMMV.
 
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wink

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In HS my son had a lacrosse teammate he was close to hang himself in his back yard. The team was founded by a student how led them to a championship in its second year, and then he killed himself. There was a memorial rock for him at the field. The team gathered around it before every game.

After my son's friend died the school made a typical response ( they had a couple other suicides ). Encouraged everyone to talk about it. Had a big memorial in the auditorium. Kids came on stage and spoke fondly about him who hadn't ever spoken to him. When there was talk about another memorial monument the coach and other parents finally put a stop to it all.

These days with fame, attention and affirmation driving so many of our youth, our reaction to a youth suicide can make it look almost attractive. Whatever leads kids to kill themselves is often complex. But like the mall shooter looking for fame, I think we should not lionize youth who commit suicide. Counseling for survivors, especially fellow youth, should be in private, not via public group displays.

Just my opinion based personal observation and discussion with my sister, a retired HS counselor who went through 6-8 student body suicides.
 
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