What if there is a primary cause, and brain trauma is not it? Seems pretty likely that the issue is psychological in nature, otherwise contact combat sports and eg rugby/football would show similar incidence of suicide. I can see how after a couple of years of high intensity combat civilian life would feel like a complete waste of time and a road to nowhere.
Interestingly, if I remember correctly, other contact sports like football do show similar increases in suicide (and unexpected homicide). It’s why football is getting phased out in a lot of areas for kids. But oddly, based on [https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/04/10/health/student-athlete-su...] cross country athletes actually have the highest rates, which is surprising.
Unless, like you’re saying, it is as much about the group being selected for as it is whatever is going on during the activity itself.
> otherwise contact combat sports and eg rugby/football would show similar incidence of suicide.
As the article says, the brain damage described here is from blast shockwaves passing through brain tissue with different densities. It's entirely different from the brain damage caused by sports injuries like in American football.
That doesn’t mean the same type of effects don’t happen. I knew a guy who suffered a closed head TBI due to
a commercial trucking accident - not the same as a concussion or a shockwave induced tbi mind you - and his personality changed in similar ways to those I’ve heard described.
He started to isolate, got paranoid and (more) violent, and ended up divorcing his first wife and marrying a second woman who seemed to be a kind of hoarder, and isolating at home with her - long before it was ‘cool’.
No idea what ended up happening to him, but murder/suicide would not have been surprising.
