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Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

americanmilitarynews.com

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Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#91
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this a thing that requires testing? Do they have units run drills on all common recreational drugs? I could see some merit in evaluating stimulants, but what is the expected gain from most anything else?

If it were used as an environmental toxin, would it cause the soldiers to begin shooting at each other?

No, they might start empathising with each other.

Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#92

Joining the military means giving up most of your civilian rights laid out in the Bill of Rights, in exchange for pay and training. Historically, this has often been a pretty good deal for those without other economic options. However, if you think the country's leaders are going to send you off to get killed in poorly thought-out and reckless adventures for dubious reasons, then giving up those rights starts looking…

What do you mean regarding Ukraine? Do you mean the US should have persuaded Ukraine to give up some of their land? I don’t fully understand what you mean with ‘negotiated settlement’. All I know is these ‘negotiating’ strategies don’t work with tyrannical regimes. Germany tried and failed. Trying to bring in China into the world economy also didn’t seem to make them give up their hunger to swallow Taiwan. The mindse…

And it’s not clear how giving Putin all they want for no cost for merely waving the threat of war, one which didn’t even include US military personnel involvement, is supposed to convince Putin that getting more is not a great idea.

Especially when this game was already played before in 2014.

Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#93

Joining the military means giving up most of your civilian rights laid out in the Bill of Rights, in exchange for pay and training. Historically, this has often been a pretty good deal for those without other economic options. However, if you think the country's leaders are going to send you off to get killed in poorly thought-out and reckless adventures for dubious reasons, then giving up those rights starts looking…

> the same neocon ideologues who are vigorously opposing a negotiated settlement in eastern Ukraine

Please stop pushing absurd Russian propaganda talking points about US "preventing" Russia from signing peace agreement in Ukraine. If you are incapable of finding continuous statements of Russian officials that goals of "special military operation" remains the same (including "demilitarization" and "denazification" of Ukraine), then I can provide you with plenty of them. Also, you can verify on the map that Russian appetites in Ukraine are increased for much more than the east. And no, they said multiple times that they are not prepared to relinquish they claims on southern parts and of course Crimea.

Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#94
post #8

1. "Drug use" probably includes soft drugs like cannabis. 2. Basically any diagnosis of a mental health condition, like ADHD, will block military service. This is true even if symptoms are well managed without medication. The rise of diagnosis of these conditions combined with digital records means a lot of people are prohibited to join due to mental health that would have been overlooked in previous decades. 3. This…

Regarding #1, you can get a waiver for past cannabis use if you weren't a habitual user (by self admission) and never faced any legal action (distribution, possession, etc) in regards to cannabis. If you have ever distributed any drug (even so far as splitting the cost of drugs with a roommate) you cannot enlist. The enlistment screeners are surprisingly effective at getting people to admit things they did over a dec…

> If you admit to ever using LSD or psychedelics, even one time, you will be automatically disqualified from serving in the military or law enforcement (go figure).

Well how many hits do you need to understand that everything we do could be construed as a game?

Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#95
post #8

1. "Drug use" probably includes soft drugs like cannabis. 2. Basically any diagnosis of a mental health condition, like ADHD, will block military service. This is true even if symptoms are well managed without medication. The rise of diagnosis of these conditions combined with digital records means a lot of people are prohibited to join due to mental health that would have been overlooked in previous decades. 3. This…

There is nothing particularly “soft” about cannabis. As mounting modern evidence shows, it suppresses REM sleep (and by extension the consolidation of procedural learning undertaken during the day) and it lowers executive function, concentration and motivation. These effects also persist for some time after use is stopped, even if they are eventually reversed.

Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#96
If someone is overweight, but otherwise healthy (which I suspect is the case for a lot of young people, as they haven't been overweight long enough for it to take a big toll on the body) can they not go ahead and enrol them and then whip them into shape during training? If they are really aren't able to meet their recruiting targets it seems like a missed opportunity.

Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#97
post #25

And then you have those with higher education and critical thinking capabilities who wouldn't ever join the military... That aside, these stats are not surprising. Anyone from outside the US knows just how bad the education system is within. With red states outright banning books and knowledge, that number may just continue to climb.

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Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#98
post #95
post #8

1. "Drug use" probably includes soft drugs like cannabis. 2. Basically any diagnosis of a mental health condition, like ADHD, will block military service. This is true even if symptoms are well managed without medication. The rise of diagnosis of these conditions combined with digital records means a lot of people are prohibited to join due to mental health that would have been overlooked in previous decades. 3. This…

There is nothing particularly “soft” about cannabis. As mounting modern evidence shows, it suppresses REM sleep (and by extension the consolidation of procedural learning undertaken during the day) and it lowers executive function, concentration and motivation. These effects also persist for some time after use is stopped, even if they are eventually reversed.

Minus the concentration and motivation parts, so does does coffee, tea and other caffeine based products but you don’t see anyone clamouring to ban those.

Re: Study: 77% of young Americans too fat, mentally ill, on drugs to join military

#99
post #8

1. "Drug use" probably includes soft drugs like cannabis. 2. Basically any diagnosis of a mental health condition, like ADHD, will block military service. This is true even if symptoms are well managed without medication. The rise of diagnosis of these conditions combined with digital records means a lot of people are prohibited to join due to mental health that would have been overlooked in previous decades. 3. This…

Number 2 is also putting a dent in the supply of airline pilots. The FAA has a very large list of mental disorders it considers disqualifying, and ADHD is one of them. It’s nuanced, in that it depends on things like whether you require medication or not, but if you ever in your life had any kind of diagnosis, even mild anxiety, you need to disclose it on your medical application and they will dig in to it.

I think this kind of screening is probably a good thing. Do you really want to entrust hundreds of lives to a pilot who struggles to concentrate? Or one who has depression and might be looking at that nearby mountain and thinking “I could just crash this plane into it and it would all be over”. I’m not sure these things ever really get cured, all it takes is a few bad life events (e.g maybe their spouse dies and they stop taking medication) and you’re at risk of a relapse
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