When Eric Barzydlo returned from his deployment in Iraq with the U.S. Army, he was faced with an onslaught of paperwork.

"We had to fill out a lot of health surveys, and they made you talk to people," he said.

Still, Barzydlo (freshman -- political science) said there was a stigma attached to talking with a doctor about mental health.

For other soldiers, however, the Army is facing a difficult dilemma: how to deal with the increasing rate of suicides and suicide attempts among its soldiers.

Preliminary reports issued by the Army indicate that as many as 121 soldiers committed suicide in 2007, up 20 percent from the previous year and double since 2001. Additionally, nearly 2,100 soldiers tried to kill or injure themselves last year, up six-fold from 350 in 2002.

Scott Bennett, a political science professor who has taught about the psychology of war, said these numbers have been steadily increasing throughout the years.

"In some ways, it's not a surprise that the rate has been climbing, but what's interesting is that this is happening despite a big effort in the military to make more counseling available," he said.

The military has been embedding psychologists among the soldiers and has made sure more services are available stateside for returning veterans, Bennett said. However, some soldiers resist being seen by a doctor for psychological analysis, he added.

John Hench (sophomore -- aerospace engineering) has personal experience with the Army and in Iraq. From 2000 to 2002, he fought with the Army in Macedonia and from 2004 to 2006, he worked in Iraq.

"The Army always puts a lot of effort into suicide prevention, and I'm sure if the rate is increasing, they will push the commander to watch the troops that much closer," he said.

Hench said the environment, coupled with longer deployments in Iraq, leads soldiers to become stressed.

"If you put guys in a stressful environment, some handle it better than others and some get broken," he said.

Parallels can be drawn to the Vietnam War, Bennett said, when the military became more aware of the mental effects of combat.

"While you're directly in combat, you're subject to a lot of threats. You really need to be hyper-aware of what's going on around you," he said. "In a situation like Iraq -- and this was very similar to Vietnam -- those threats and those dangers are made worse by the fact that you don't always know who the enemy is."

The way the Iraq war is fought -- in an urban environment -- also makes it more stressful on the soldiers, he said.

"The combat is very up-close and personal," he said. "You're walking down a street, and all of a sudden, you're confronted right up close with somebody who's a potential threat."