Stress on military famlies

Afterwards, as we begin to eat, we talk of things that are going with our families, usually like how Grandpa is recovering from his most recent surgery, how well work is going, etc. This year there is a new topic of conversation at the table: how Tim is doing. Tim, my older brother, joined the Army in January, and is currently serving in Iraq as part of the 82nd Airborne

Another major stressor for a soldier and their family is just being away from their family. “These patients will appropriately be experiencing a considerable level of anxiety. Even when deploying to regions of the world well away from the war itself, the separation from family in regular life remains difficult” (Pflanz 1). Pflanz wrote of the stress felt from the separation anxiety between families and soldiers, felt by the limited access given between them.

Communications with their families is a big part of the soldier’s life, and definitely an additive to the stress factor. Communications are fairly restricted: phone calls are limited to one call per week, if you are lucky, for five to ten minutes apiece. These abbreviated conversations can be stressful because there can be so much to tell each other and with so little time, it is hard to say more than just the basics of what is going on. “We only get one call a week, if we’re lucky.(Friese2) The other forms of communications are letters and email. These letters are often full of information that our soldiers are in battles and life compromising combat situations. Letters can also take a long time to get back and forth, and if there are problems happening, that form of communication is often too slow. This adds significant stress to the situation. “We’ve been in combat operations for a while. It’s nothing like you imagine, or ever could imagine”(Friese 1) When letters containing messages such as this reach you two weeks after the fact, then you worry about the safety of your family member much more than you normally would. You also worry that when they get out they could have a condition like post-traumatic stress syndrome, where they have horrible flashbacks of things like combat.(Barlow1) There are now developed methods to help people

Some topics in this essay:
United Nations, Thanksgiving Day, Nam- Tim, Airborne Division, America Support, Army January, doctors psychiatrists, dealing stress, developed methods, family friends, support war, family soldier, affect family’s, post-traumatic stress, soldiers families, soldier family,