Unhappy Veteran’s Day: Hellish Tulsa claims 38% more lives by suicide than 2010, veterans comprise 23%

Veterans in Tulsa County are following national trends and killing themselves in record numbers according to 2011 results released Monday.

No surprises to anyone paying attention that the suicide rate should increase, and while our mental health ‘authorities’ are busy navel-gazing over bullys they sit idly by while Tulsans kill themselves at rates 38% higher – nearly twice as often – than they did in 2011, as the Tulsa World blog helpfully reports.

The number of suicides in Tulsa had fluctuated little in the last five years, but it jumped 38 percent last year from 2010’s total of 64.

“I don’t have a reason for that,” said Tulsa Police Sgt. Dave Walker, who heads the unit that investigates homicides and suicides.

Elderly men, teenagers and gays and lesbians are most at risk, experts say. Middle-aged women have the highest suicide rate among females.

Other vulnerable groups are military veterans, who made up 23 percent of Oklahoma suicides between 2004 and 2008, and alcoholics and drug users.

See how the veterans were just thrown in there as ‘by the way’? As someone who has studied suicidology and been honored for his work in suicide prevention, that 23% number is incredibly high, and represents the single greatest risk factor in terms of prevention [aside from gender of course, with men 4x more likely to die by suicide]. To be clear, that one-quarter of deaths by suicide are veterans should just scream from the headline, should have our social services ‘leaders’ running around with their hair on fire.

But they do not. Why is anyone’s guess, but while Oklahomans will send their children to kill bad guys and break things in record numbers and will vote for even more war, they appear to be the war’s single greatest casualty.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE know that virtually all of our veterans have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and as a friend or loved one your encouragement means everything. Please use this link to learn more and get involved.

Further, with American Airlines approaching a controlled flight into ground, the economic uncertainty of aging Tulsans will be a major stressor. All things being equal, we should expect another banner year out of this awful, awful place.

In the immortal words of the Boss, Tulsa is ‘a death trap, a suicide rap, you better get out while you’re young…’