Veteran loneliness: The link between addiction and suicidality

Loneliness, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors are major public health issues, especially among military veterans. This article looked at how these three problems are interconnected, by examining data from a large national sample of over 1,400 US military veterans who took part in the 2020 study, the Military Health and Well-Being Project. The Project oversampled for Black and female veterans to help ensure minority identities in the military were represented. Using over a dozen scales, the study’s online survey asked respondents about their mental health and wellness after military service. Controlling for age, gender, and race, Schafer et al. looked at indicators of loneliness, lifetime problematic substance use, and suicidality, and they found that loneliness helped explain the link between the other two. Veterans struggling with problematic lifetime substance abuse and who were lonely, had an increased risk for suicidal thoughts and behavior. Schafer et al. recommended that the Veterans Administration fund community-based programs allowing veterans to build supportive social connections in a substance-free setting, since promoting social integration may help address this intersection of public health issues plaguing the veteran population.