Family photoClay Hunt, 28, a Houston native, joined the Marines in 2005.
War casualty on the home front
A poster boy for suicide prevention, Houstonian becomes another statistic
By LINDSAY WISE
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
April 8, 2011, 6:43PM
"He thought the world was supposed to be a better place than it is, and he lived every day of his life thinking, perhaps naively, that his efforts could make the world be what he thought it should be."
Marine veteran Clay Hunt had a tattoo on his arm that quoted Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkien: "Not all those who wander are lost."
"I think he was a lot more philosophical about life than a lot of us are, but trying to search for some inner peace and the meaning of life, what was the most important thing," said his father, Stacy Hunt.
His son's quest ended last week when he took his own life at his Sugar Land apartment.
The 28-year-old had narrowly escaped death in Iraq four years ago, when a sniper's bullet missed his head by inches. But he wrestled with post-traumatic stress disorder and survivor's guilt over the deaths of four friends in his platoon who weren't so lucky.
"Two were lost in Iraq, and the other two were killed in Afghanistan," said his mother, Susan Selke. "When that last one in Afghanistan went down, it just undid him."
In many ways, Hunt's death is all too familiar: the haunted veteran consumed by a war he can't stop fighting.
Suicides among Texans younger than 35 who served in the military jumped from 47 in 2006 to 66 in 2009 - an increase of 40 percent, according to state records.
The problem seems increasingly intractable. Efforts by the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs to stop the alarming rise in military suicides nationwide through training and screening have had limited success.
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War casualty on the home front
When they come home with PTSD and the family was very involved in their healing, it should stun every expert. What is still missing in what we're trying to do? Why are they still reaching the point where hope has vanished to the point they do not want to survive one more day?
When they come home, deny they need help, we've pointed to that as a factor in their suicide. We say, help is available, PTSD came at them and was not caused by them. We keep talking until they get to that place within where they understand there is nothing to be ashamed of at all. Most of the time it works to the point where they want to get into treatment to heal. Then we think, ok, our job is done but we never seem to be able to wonder why so many are still calling the suicide prevention hotlines. We stop wondering why it still reaches that level of desperation they feel the need to call.
When they come home and their family turns them away, kicks them out, we say it is because their family is not supportive, didn't understand what was going on so they couldn't cope. So we end up pushing for more awareness, more understanding and more support for the families. Well aware that this is the number one cause of veterans becoming homeless we believe if we can help the families, we can prevent the homeless veteran population from growing. Yet here is a family with everything in place and still they are left to grieve for a death that did not have to happen.
Is it because of some medications being given with warnings of causing suicidal thoughts? Is it because a lot of them mix alcohol with their medications or have drug interactions? Are they not hearing what they need to know in therapy? Is it the clergy not getting involved to help them heal spiritually? Is it the lack of knowledge the general public has about where we sent them? What do we keep missing or is it all so complicated that we need to understand that sometimes everything is just not enough?
All of their deaths break my heart but when I read a story like this, it is very hard because he is one more reminder that no matter how far we've come since the early 80's, we are still not where we need to be to stop losing more after combat than during it.
My greatest fear is that more veterans are going to come home from the wars and be prescribed antidepressants that can cause suicidal and homicidal (humans as social creatures hate the thought of dying alone) thoughts. I spent a year on Zoloft while in the military, I know what SSRI antidepressants can do to thought processes and why. It took me two college-level biology courses using my GI Bill to understand that SSRI antidepressants are not good substitutions for monitoring a human body's need for the right type of nutrition when it is under severe stress. There are a lot of other options to the medications that are being handed out to our troops suffering from PTSD, and the military medical community is just too lazy to actually acknowledge that Garbage In = Garbage Out when it comes to preventing what Clay Hunt went through. Unfortunately, companies like Pfizer and others have lucrative contracts with the federal government to provide certain types of medications. That needs to stop. Our troops do not need to be casualties of corporations after coming back home. I would strongly recommend that military veterans who come back take three college courses - one in creative writing or literature, one in mathmatics, and one college-level biology course. Those three will help their mind start to overwrite the bad portions of their current history. The human brain will keep replaying bad thoughts like a record being stuck in a place with a very bad scratch unless it can get past that damaged portion using experiences (reading about others through literature and creating our own through actions) and be forced to also deal with the abstract to make it really concentrate like algebra problems do. The more humans know about how their body functions and their brains operate, the more it helps them to know what to do to make life better for themselves and others in their world. Let Clay Hunt's death not be just another veteran who was depresseed. Live your life to extend the hopes and dreams of those who could not live their's. If a vet in died in the war who was looking forward to joining a rock band, then take up music lessons in his or her name. If a fellow veteran wanted to be a writer, then start reading literature and write a book with a main character like him or her. In other words, just because someone gets killed, it doesn't mean that their hopes and dreams have to die with them. Carry what you learned about how they lived their life, and take it one step further to honor them if you feel lost and are lacking a direction. Let them help you find a new direction away from the hate and ugliness of war's death and destruction.
ReplyDeleteMesager, beautiful words and sound advice. The drugs they are given are part of the problem, no doubt, especially when you think they are given drugs to calm them down and another to wake them up, another to help them sleep all while they are still in the middle of combat. This is not a good practice at all.
ReplyDeleteWhen you read the warnings on most of these medications "increased suicidal thoughts" should tell doctors you don't give them to soldiers with weapons especially when they are facing the Taliban. The really crazy thing is there have beeb reports of snipers being given these strong drugs. Most will most will not take them because they cannot function as a sniper.
Is what we're missing just the medications? Drug interactions are common. Is it inadequate therapy? Too many "therapists" are not doing their jobs because they still don't understand PTSD. They only read about it in books, understanding very little, which is why the best therapists have PTSD. I keep getting veterans going to the VA for years and still not hearing what they need to know about PTSD. Support? It isn't the job of just the families to help them. The entire community needs to step up including the clergy. In Hunt's case it sounds as if everyone including Hunt did everything right but still it wasn't enough to save his life.
My name is Antione A. Johnson; I am a retired war veteran. After 20 successful years in the army I earned my masters degree in cognitive education, and teaching people with serious emotional and behavior disorders. As a leader of soldiers I had to leave teaching to help soldiers returning from combat and after 18 months of not finding a job, my ife and I opened that Warrior Relaxation Response Center to help.Our center is recognized and model after research proven from the Harvard Medical School; we are working to eliminate soldier suicide, dependence on drugs and PTSD
ReplyDeleteThank you for your dedication. "The harvest is plenty, but the workers are few" and people like you will save lives.
ReplyDelete