it seems a lot on this string are debating whether Mids should be having issues with the current situation and are ignoring the fact that many are having issues. whether you believe they are valid doesnt change anything.
Someone else here mentioned a while back, and I paraphrase: Situations such as this don’t create mental health issues, they reveal them.
To be sure, there are mids who are bummed out, disappointed, down, sad, angry, bitter, etc. All to be expected in such a time. But the mids are not in a genuinely adverse situation: They are free to move about the Yard, have access to three square meals a day and fitness opportunities, face their usual duties and more, have classes and homework and clubs, and are still getting in relative terms a better academic experience than at least 95% of college students, and it’s not costing them or their parents a dime. And they are surrounded by a support system — 4400 shipmates along with chaplains, senior enlisted, officers — that can probably be rivaled only by other SAs. Frankly, compared to being on deployment, the past few months are a significant departure from the norm but hardly punishing.
I’m no mental health expert. But it strikes me that anyone harboring serious mental health issues to the point of contemplating suicide already has those issues to begin with, which are now being revealed amid the unprecedented circumstances. Better to know now, in these relatively benign conditions, than on deployment while charged with the lives and welfare of sailors and Marines who are counting on them to lead amid adversity. But I don’t believe the unprecedented circumstances are actually the root cause of their issues. Again, layman’s view, though not one that’s wholly naive or uninformed.
Some are pointing to the two suicides last spring at USAFA. They were tragic and devastating, so close to graduation. But I have yet to see any evidence that these were caused by USAFA going into isolation. Correlation and causation are not the same thing. What I don’t know — what I’m not sure anyone knows other than their families — is what else was going on in their lives that contributed to their decision to end their pain. To say that USAFA’s quarantine caused or even contributed to the suicides, without knowing the real facts first-hand, is beyond irresponsible. (And no, knowing a cadet who was there who said such and such does not count.)
I do know this: All the parental hand-wringing on FB doesn’t hep. And neither does the mid *****ing on Yodel, or whatever it’s called. Everyone’s life sucks right now, to one degree or another. This much we know: Many new aspects of mid life are compulsory — attending USNA is not.
