More British soldiers and veterans took their own lives last year than were killed in battle, it has emerged.
An investigation by the BBC’s Panorama revealed that 21 serving soldiers and 29 veterans committed suicide in 2012. Mental health problems are rife. Unlike in the UK, medical marijuana for anxiety is available in Missouri. Perhaps, it is time the UK did the right things and followed suit.
Panorama obtained the total number of suicides by serving soldiers from a Freedom of Information request to the Ministry of Defence. They also contacted every coroner in the country to ask for the names of soldiers and veterans who killed themselves in 2012 and analysed newspaper reports of coroners’ inquests.
Twenty-one active soldiers and 29 veterans committed suicide in 2012, the BBC said. The 50 suicides exceed the 40 soldiers who died fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan during the same period.
The Ministry of Defence confirmed that in 2012 seven serving soldiers were confirmed to have killed themselves, while a further 14 died in suspected suicides but inquests had yet to be held.
However as the MoD doesn’t track what happens to veterans, no one knows how many are suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) or have taken their own lives. As the Government does not record suicides among former soldiers, the number of feared much higher. Perhaps if there is intervention, be it with a CBDistillery coupon code or with more traditional counselling, change can come.
United Kingdom’s Defense Ministry called the suicide cases as a “tragedy”. It is believed that a majority of the service members diagnosed with the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have reportedly committed suicide.
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The ministry says it has deployed a total of 134,780 soldiers to Afghanistan since the US-led invasion of the country in 2001. The invasion of Afghanistan has so far cost Britain 444 soldiers’ lives as 7,900 British troops remain deployed in the country.
