Ex-Servicemen Twice As Likely As Civilians To Commit Suicides
The study tracked 320,890 U.S. men, about a third of whom served in the U.S. military between 1917 and 1994. The rest had no military background.
Those with military service committed suicide at a rate 2.13 times higher than the other men, but did not have a higher risk of dying from disease, accidental causes or murder, the study found.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Oddly the report leaves out the GWOT, which undoubtedly will have even higher rates.
The main Point I want to emphasize here, is that mainstream medicine is essentially worse than useless for this kind of thing. One needs true healing not palliation.
Please if you know any vets [or anyone] suffering from PTSD, send them to a Homeopath, a practitioner of EFT and or Bowen Therapy.
Trauma can be healed, and in many cases simply, by natural medicines, trauma canNOT be healed by Psych meds which mask symptoms or simply manipulate the endocrine or other bodily systems.
You want to support the troops? Then be informed on this crucial and life saving issue and have the links handy to pass on. If anyone needs a hand finding a practitioner, feel free to contact me @ lindil6@gmail.com .
I could work myself up, quite easily into a rage over the madness that passes for Psychiatric Medicine in this country, especially in Trauma, but instead, I'll give you some book titles and links and hope y'all will have sense enough to get a second opinion, one not bought and paid for by Big Pharm. but instead endorsed, used and practiced by empirical, progressive and usually very cool people all over the world.
~~~~~~~~~~~~And in Islam today [from the NYT]~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Compass That Can Clash With Modern Life
Sheikh Abdel Hamid Tantawy speaks with a man at the Azhar Fatwa Committee inside of Al Azhar Mosque in Cairo, one of two authorized places in Egypt where Muslims can go to seek out Fatwas.
CAIRO, June 11 — First came the breast-feeding fatwa. It declared that the Islamic restriction on unmarried men and women being together could be lifted at work if the woman breast-fed her male colleagues five times, to establish family ties. Then came the urine fatwa. It said that drinking the urine of the Prophet Muhammad was deemed a blessing.
For the past few weeks, the breast-feeding and urine fatwas have proved a source of national embarrassment in Egypt, not least because they were issued by representatives of the highest religious authorities in the land.
“We were very angered when we heard about the Danish cartoons concerning our prophet; however, these two fatwas are harming our Islamic religion and our prophet more than the cartoons,” Galal Amin, a professor of economics at the American University in Cairo, wrote in Al Masry Al Yom, a daily newspaper here.
For many Muslims, fatwas, or religious edicts, are the bridge between the principles of their faith and modern life. They are supposed to be issued by religious scholars who look to the Koran and teachings of the Prophet Muhammad for guidance. While the more sensational pronouncements grab attention, the bulk of the fatwas involve the routine of daily life. In Egypt alone, thousands are issued every month.
The controversy in Cairo has been more than just embarrassing. It comes at a time when religious and political leaders say that there is a crisis in Islam because too many fatwas are being issued, and that many of them rely on ideology more than learning.
The complaint has been the subject of recent conferences as government-appointed arbiters of Islamic standards say the fatwa free-for-all has led to the promotion of extremism and intolerance.
The conflict in Egypt served as a difficult reminder of a central challenge facing Islamic communities as they debate the true nature of the faith and how to accommodate modernity. The fatwa is the front line in the theological battle between often opposing worldviews. It is where interpretation meets daily life.
“It is a very critical issue for us,” said Abdullah Megawer, the former head of the Fatwa Committee at Al Azhar University, the centuries-old seat of Sunni Muslim learning in Egypt. “You are explaining God’s message in ways that really affect people’s lives.”
Technically, the fatwa is nonbinding and recipients are free to look elsewhere for a better ruling. In a faith with no central doctrinal authority, there has been an explosion of places offering fatwas, from Web sites that respond to written queries, to satellite television shows that take phone calls, to radical and terrorist organizations that set up their own fatwa committees.
“There is chaos now,” Mr. Megawer said. “The problem created is confusion in thought, confusion about what is right and what is wrong, religiously.”
Governments have tried to guide and control the process, but as they struggled with their own legitimacy, they have often undermined the perceived legitimacy of those they appoint as religious leaders. In Egypt, there are two official institutions responsible for religious interpretation: the House of Fatwa, or Dar Al-Ifta, which formally falls under the Ministry of Justice, and Al Azhar University. All court sentences of death must be approved by Dar Al-Ifta, for example.
“These people in fact are defined as agencies of the government,” said Muhammad Serag, a professor of Islamic Studies at the American University in Cairo. “They are not trusted anymore.”
While that view is disputed by officials from both institutions, everyone acknowledges that those who issue fatwas serve as mediators between faith and modernity and as arbiters of morality. They are supposed to consider not only religious teachings, but the circumstances of the time.
The position is without parallel in the West, and it combines the role of social worker, therapist, lawyer and religious adviser.
In fact, the relationship between the Koran and a fatwa is a matter of dispute. Some Muslim scholars view the Koran’s words and ideas as fixed, with little room for maneuvering. Others see their job as reconciling modern life with the text by gently bending the text to fit new circumstances.
Reuters | June 11, 2007 08:44 PM