The Military And How It Handles Depression

Military personnel may be among the least likely people in the world to admit the fact that they have depression and need to buy Prozac. This is because of fear, oddly enough. There is a social stigma directed towards people who use medications to treat problems like depression and anxiety that makes many reluctant to seek aid. These people are often scorned and seen as weak, incapable of handling the myriad pressures of the modern environment. This stigma is often believed to be much worse when one is within the military, where the slightest signs of weakness could be enough justification for someone to be ostracized on some level from his peers. In an organization that thrives and teaches members the value of unity and camaraderie, this can be severely debilitating – if not capable of worsening the depression beyond repair.

However, this should not be the case. Most military organizations and installations have some sort of service or facility arranged to provide the personnel with counseling and aid should they develop any sort of mental problems. In some cases, particularly for soldiers who have just gone through a tour of duty in a combat zone, the government pays for all psychiatric care, to the point that they buy Prozac or any other medications that trained mental health professionals – in the military's employ – suggest would be appropriate for the soldier in question. The military understands that combat duties and the regimented lifestyle demand military service can cause someone to become depressed in short order, so they have a number of programs designed to help prevent suicide among the enlisted.

However, just because these programs exist doesn't mean that suicides are prevented as best they can within the structure of the military. The main problem is that the signs of someone with suicidal tendencies or depression may not be immediately interpreted as such by the people around the soldier in question. The detriment to this early spotting is that new recruits tend to not know each other as well as they ought to without being pressed into situations that force them to rely on one another and spend long hours together. The spirit of closeness and brotherhood that should be inherent to any given military unit can sometimes be missing nowadays. Another problem is that the military programs are inadequate to suit the problems and needs of troops, especially the ones that are returning home from combat. At least, according to the critics.

That doesn't mean that the military isn't trying, though. The programs dedicated to spotting and treating those with problems are slowly working to improve their facilities and services, as well as make the personnel in the military know how to spot the problems better. The fact is, the best program in the world can't really do much if there is no one reporting problems that they should respond to. The more soldiers know about depression and the signs that someone needs to buy Prozac, the more reports will come in about soldiers displaying the signs.


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