Mental Health Today and in The Things They Carried

Tim O’Brien addresses suicide and depression of veterans in his short story “Notes.”  Over 20 years after the story was published, and the US military is still struggling with mental health issues. According to a study in 2013 conducted by the United States Department of Defense, in 2012, the number of suicides of military personnel exceeded that of those killed in battle. While the Millenium Cohort Study, based off data from 2001 to 2008, found that being deployed for longer than a year was associated with lower risk of suicide, it also found that military personnel who committed suicide were more likely to have been deployed prior to 2001 as well as after and to be combat specialists. Many who committed suicide also had pre-existing conditions such as struggling with alcoholism or depression. In 2014, the house finally passed a bill that would require mental health screenings for recruits. The strain of war on the mental health of the characters in The Things They Carried is clear. Many resort to their own coping mechanisms to survive.  Many veterans become depressed after war. In Norman Bowker’s case, that depression became to heavy to live with. A common feeling that runs trough all the characters in The Things They Carry is guilt. They feel guilt over many things: not wanting to go to the war in the first place, killing innocent people, and mostly just all their actions in the war. Bowker even feels guilty for “complaining” too much about the effects of the war on him. This is where I believe a large problem lies. Our society is so focused on appearing strong that we feel bad for being depressed. Depression is depicted as a weakness of character rather than the actual illness it is. In his letter to Tim O’Brien, Bowker says, “I’m no basket case – not even any bad dreams,” (150). Maybe it’s partly generational. Today, we are better about not buying into the idea of necessary hyper-masculinity as much, but it is still there. It is crucial that our society learns to acknowledge that mental health disorders are not weaknesses, but rather actual illnesses that are not patients’ fault and allow it to be okay to ask for help.