high usa #vet #suicides are part of high #elder suicides

2016.12.7: web.psy/suicide
/usa vet suicides are mostly among elders and normal rates for elders:
. the most notable thing about the suicides among vets
is that they happen during old age
(average age was 60);
there is the same problem for non-vets,
high rates of suicide among elders;
suggesting it's not from service-caused pain.
. guy's who appreciated being in top physical shape
are finding themselves with low hormones
and thus many physical and sexual problems.

. some interesting answers at quora;
vets do have some special problems,
but not special rates of suicide:
see Stacy Bare:
VA’s 2012 Suicide Data Report,
which analyzed the death certificates of
21 states from 1999 to 2011:
average age of veteran suicides within the data set
was nearly 60 years old.
. a study surveyed 1.3 million veterans
who were discharged between 2001 and 2007,
found that “Between 2001 and 2009,
there were deaths among 1650 deployed veterans
and 7703 non-deployed veteran.
Of those, 351 were suicides among deployed veterans
and 1517 were suicides among non-deployed veterans.
That means over nine years, there was not quite
one veteran suicide a day
-- twice the rate of non-vets ...

but compare them to elderly non-vets:
White men 85 and older are more likely to commit suicide
than Americans in any other age group
— taking their lives at four times the rate
of the general population.
suicide.org:
Although the elderly (age 65 and older) comprise about
13% of the U.S. population,
they account for over 18% of all suicides.