“Honestly, what’s happened here is our Army is under stress,” says Lt. General Rick Lynch, Commander of Fort Hood. “So anything you can do to reduce stress is going to help prevent suicides. That is my fundamental theme.”
These were recent comments made by the general as he talked about initiatives undertaken at the Army installation in Texas. You can read the article – Army General Wages War Against Stress in the San Antonio Express News. The article will give you a good sensing of the types of initiatives that one post is taking to combat the suicide problem our Army is having.
The skyrocketing number of suicides over the past few years has sparked a search for answers on how to reduce these rates. For this reason, the Army has also established a suicide task force and launched a joint five-year study with the National Institute of Mental Health.
2 Minute Slide Presentation
Life and stress – they go hand in hand. We will experience lots and lots of stress in our life. There is no getting around it. I believe that the degree to which we effectively manage and cope with the stress in our lives will determine the degree to which we are healthy. If we turn to unhealthy behaviors to cope with the stress, our physical and emotional health will suffer. Suicide is perhaps the ultimate “unhealthy” action a person can take to cope with chronic and significant stress, such as repeated tours of duty in a combat zone in the case of a soldier.
Resources and Information on Stress, Health and Faith
The stress and health link and how a strong faith can help on my web site.
Bible Verses for Faith in Times of Stress
Article – Stress Management and The Christian Faith by Dr. Ken Matto
Blog Post – Jesus on Stress Management
“Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” Joshua 1:9
Thanks for this article, Dale. We tend to gloss over stress when we’re talking about it from a faith point of view. “Just pray and trust God.” True, but we shouldn’t stop there. What if we were to help a friend out of stress by introducing them to a stress-reducing hobby? We may not think we’re susceptible to physical suicide. But spiritual suicide? Not, that’s something to chew on.