I was watching 1917 and I remember reading about PTSD and mental issues from vets after the war. Was there suicide in the trenches? I would think that 4 years of trench warfare and having access to guns would lead to a high suicide rate or something along those lines. Just asking out of morbid curiousity. Thanks!
There was a similar question before which has a few answers
I won't be able to provide an answer as detailed as the link already provided but I read a lot of books around life in the trenches and suicide in the trenches occured.
I can however tell you what I found on the French side.
First, suicide is commonly mentioned in most testimonies or fiction stories by veterans I have read in French:
As per those testimonies, suicide could take several forms. Some men would put a bullet through their heads. Others would come out of the trench and run toward the enemy. Those ones would not be considered as having committed suicide even though by all witnesses is was clearly one. For this reason, it would be difficult to establish what is a suicide and what is not and thus, the numbers are always inaccurate.
As I saw your question I searched quickly in French to see if the topic had been covered.
What I found is this article which seems rather well sourced (France24 is a rather legit media).
This article quotes several estimations based on samples. For example Xavier Trochu, a French historian checked 93000 soldier records. From that sample he estimated the amount of suicide in the french army at 4000. The French historian Denis Rolland estimated between 4000 and 5000 suicides in the French army.
So one can assume it must be around this number.
Both historians explain the difficulty to trace this number. First, because some suicide will not be considered as such (as I explained above) but also because suicide was an extremely taboo topic. To the point where both historians mention that in hospitals doctors would not always acknowledge a suicide as such because it was seen by them as a failure of their own ability to help the patients. Finally, a suicide was seen as dishonorable. A suicided would not earn the title "Fallen for France" which would allow their relatives to receive money from the government. Some suicides were therefore hidden by the direct officers who would not deprive the families of their fallen men from that money.