If you are married to a service member, then deployment may be an accepted part of your family life. However, no matter how frequently it happens, deployment may never feel easier and may even become more difficult every time your soldier spouse leaves. Multiple and prolonged deployments can expose you to trauma-related stress and may heighten your risk for depression.

Depression can be your worst enemy in any stage or phase of a deployment. It can strike you anytime like an unseen enemy. It can be critical to remember that, although you may feel alone, you can ask for help. Asking for help is not a sign of weakness, it is a sign of strength and self-awareness and may even be a means of survival.

Manning the Home Front

As the spouse who stays behind, you may face an enormous amount of challenges at home, playing a dual role to fill the void caused by deployment. Decisions may fall entirely on your shoulders about the day-to-day functioning of the family, ranging from finances to schooling to health care issues for you and your family.

While technology can foster better means of communication regardless of distance, it can be daunting to decide how much to tell your deployed spouse. Should you share with them the trouble brewing at home? Will you just absorb all the bad news to allow your soldier spouse to focus on the military mission? At the same time, you may find yourself obsessively watching the news on TV, searching the Internet, and reading the newspapers hoping to learn more about the deployed spouse’s whereabouts or potential dangers.

On top of all this, there can be the need to manage your fears about your soldier spouse’s safety as well as the myriad of other emotions you may be experiencing such as; anxiety, sadness, isolation, and/or overwhelm. You could worry about so many things, including how your relationship will survive while being separated. Deployment can test even the strongest marriage.

Asking for Help to Win Your Own War

Like your soldier spouse who is deployed, you may feel entrenched at home, battling for your marriage, your family, and possibly your own self. You may feel caught in the crossfire of fear, loneliness, temptation, disappointment, single parenting, and/or separation from a loved one. All of these factors can wear you down and possibly even make it difficult to face the daily struggles of your own unique lifestyle. You may need encouragement and strength to effectively confront the challenges that deployment presents.

If you’re already feeling the onslaught of deployment, you may benefit from the professional help available at Carolina Counseling Services – Fayetteville, NC. Contact our office to schedule with a licensed, independently contracted counselor who can help you win the battle against deployment related distress. Call CCS now to request an appointment.

Related Articles:

• The Adjustments that Military Spouses may Face with a Deployment
• Finding Strength in Everyday Military Life
• Saving your Household from Deployments Crisis
• Deployment: When Families Adjust
• Discovering Fulfillment Despite Deployment
• Reintegration: What a Military Spouse Should Know