Impact of stress and trauma related to military deployment on pers and their family

Military pers and by extension their family are always under deployment due to either military posting or the soldier being away on combat deployment and the family having to perforce stay in separated stations or at in laws place. Hence, both the family and the soldier face stress under such condition. Firstly, lets examine the most common situation as a cause for deployment related stress where the family stays with the soldier and goes along with the soldier every two-three years from one corner of country to another altering their entire life and lifestyle. Children are the greatest casualty or the most affected in such cases. They become like vagabond children with no roots, with no true childhood friends and in some cases without developing a true inner motivation or desire to excel in any chosen field. Most such children dont get any recourse to various extra-curricular activities or may not be able to train and hone some of their talents from early childhood. At some places, the child may be able to get some exposure to all-round personality development curriculum; however such facilities are generally absent in next posting. This absolute change may make the child regret and resent his parents or their careers. All such instances build up as a stress within family affecting the mental health and stability of the family as a unit. The second situation for creating stress in the family of a mil deployed soldier is, where the soldier and his wife takes up separate residences in different part of country sacrificing their life and married life at the altar of their childs happiness, a better education and not the least to provide their children with the host of opportunities that their urban settled brethrens take for granted. These single parent families are a source of childhood stress factor for children who often are seen to become uncontrollable or may even go into substance abuse in absence of a strong guardian to guide at vulnerable age transition like during teenage and adolescent. Also, the wife who have to perform the many household work, hold the home front and take the responsibility of rearing the child single handed undergo immense mental stress, especially in case of working wives, and may develop stress related disorder. They may even start to blame the absent husband creating further rifts in the family. In a third scenario the wife of a serving soldier may decide or may have to stay with her inlaws for financial reason and to certain extent to provide stability and security to the family. In such cases, if the relationship between in-laws and family is not amicable it leads to tremendous amount of friction and stress on the family which when communicated to the soldier can lead to inattentiveness, restlessness and depression in the soldier, hampering his work and maybe even endangering his and others life. Such cases are very prone for suicide where the soldier cannot reconcile the two halves of his families. So, on analysis it can be appreciated that family of a soldier is more likely to suffer stress related incidents vis-a vis a normal family, the impact and the successful coping up with such stress is a function of not only the cohesiveness of the family but the attitude of the soldiers colleague and most importantly the willingness of his superiors to extend help.