U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced this week that American active duty military suicides are up again in 2023. The number of military who have  committed suicide has been a rising trend since 2011.  The Army and the Air Force had the largest rise in  suicides with the number of active duty troops killing themselves going from 331 to 363.

     Austin said these numbers “urgently  demonstrate the need for the Department to redouble its work in the complex fields of suicide prevention and post-vention. There’s still much more work to do, and we won’t let up.” He added the Department of Defense is “moving urgently” to put changes in place by increasing “mental health assistance” to troops.

     Part of Austin’s program focuses on education of troops on gun safety, locks, and storage. That seems an odd target as active duty troops probably have more access to firearms than any other population in the country, and they also have more training in their use and their safety than anyone else.

     The problem is in the urge to commit suicide, not in the means available to do it. The increase in what Austin calls “mental health assistance” to active duty troops will undoubtedly include easier access to counselors, therapists and psychiatrists as well as the tools that are included with that therapy.

     Psychotropic medication, of course, is one of the most frequently used “tools.”

     According to a 2013 Military Times report, antidepressants and anticonvulsants were the most commonly prescribed psychotropic medications for service members with mental health conditions. Records show that from 2001 to 2009 alone, the Defense Logistics Agency, which manages the entire Department of Defense supply chain, spent $1.1 billion on common psychiatric drugs and pain medications.

     Austin’s current proposal to increase “mental health assistance” for the military will undoubtedly boost that drug budget well beyond that $1.1 billion.

     Can it be that the military does not know of the studies that show that taking psychotropic medication increases one’s risk of committing suicide?

     Research shows that Xanax, for instance, the benzodiazepine drug most prescribed for anxiety, doubles the risk of suicide for those taking it. One study has shown that after taking Xanax, a person has a 54% increase in suicide thoughts or attempts at suicide.

     Could it be that the billion dollar military expenditure on psychotropic drugs is itself the cause of the continuing increase in active duty military suicides?

      Now there’s a chance that even more psychotropic drugs will be prescribed and further increase the number of suicides…the very deaths they are supposed to prevent.

     “Strumming my pain with his fingers,
      killing me softly with his song.”