The Stress Of Active Duty Service Members Essay

American troops serve their countries and for them to return home only to be scrutinized harshly by other citizens and even the government is very disappointing. “’There’s a real lack of capacity to deliver any meaningful mental-health care, especially specialized care like PTSD treatment for veterans,’”(Thompson troubled) There are many possible solutions to solve the crisis of American soldiers coming back from war and having post-traumatic stress, some of which include, doing background/physical exams on soldiers prior to war, having the government take care of the soldiers after they return home, and the U.S. could send robots soldiers to war instead of humans.

Hundreds of thousands of United States veterans are not able to leave the horrors of war on the battlefield (“Forever at War: Veterans Everyday Battles with PTSD” 1). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the reason why these courageous military service members cannot live a normal life when they are discharged. One out of every five military service members on combat tours—about 300,000 so far—return home with symptoms of PTSD or major depression. According to the Rand Study, almost half of these cases go untreated because of the disgrace that the military and civil society attach to mental disorders (McGirk 1). The general population of the world has to admit that they have had a nightmare before. Imagine not being able to sleep one

To summarize (Kaplow, Layne, Saltztman, Cozza & Pynoos, 2013, p. 322-340) this article looks at how grief through exposure to loss due to combat fights, loss of fellow unit members, or the loss of a service member can affect a service member or military family during deployment and reintegration phases. The article goes on to discuss some of the stresses that can increase due to deployments such as martial conflicts, abuse or neglect, and mental health problems stemming from both spouses or children. More military children function equally as well as their civilian counterparts, except during times of deployment where they experience more emotional and behavioral problems. The article looks at three key areas Separation distress characterized as missing the deceased. Existential/Identity Distress finding meaning or fulfillment, or taking on roles left by the deceased. Circumstance-Related Distress characterized as emotional pain brought on by how the deceased passed. The article furthermore looks into how the age of the military children plays into their separation distress. Followed by their existential/identity Distress may be disrupted by new

The main point of this article is about service members deployed specifically to Iraq and Afghanistan with back to back deployments and the stress factors that it produces on the families and the service members themselves.

Military life can be a big amount of stress for children. There is multiple deployments where they go through long separations from their parents. Children even could experience a parent getting injured or possibly a death. That all is the reality for children who has a parent in the active duty military(website 1). There is such a huge impact on children’s mental health and high rates of trauma from them experiencing their parents going on deployments. More than two million American children have had a parent deploy to Iraq or Afghanistan. At least 19,000 children have had a parent wounded in action and over 2,200 children have lost a parent in Iraq or Afghanistan(website 1). After all of this occurring in their lives, it then causes a huge change in the child. These changes are lashing out in anger, changes in school performance,

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (commonly known as PTSD) is an important issue associated with military soldiers. The primary focus of this paper will be on the causes of PTSD and the effects it has on returning soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will attempt to elaborate on the soldiers' experiences through my own experiences in combat both in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will explain what PTSD is, look at the history of PTSD, how people get it, and differences of PTSD between men and women, and treatment options.

Military Pathway (2013) concluded “Military life, especially the stress of deployments or mobilizations, can present challenges to service members and their families that are both unique and difficult”. Hence, it is not surprising that soldiers returning from a stressful war environment often suffer from a psychological condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This paper provides a historical perspective of PTSD affecting soldiers, and how this illness has often been ignored. In addition, the this paper examines the cause and diagnosis of the illness, the changes of functional strengths and limitations, the overall effects this disease may have on soldiers and their families, with a conclusion of

One thing that all military installations offer to families is a mock deployment line. A mock deployment line is a wonderful thing for a child to experience. During a mock deployment line, the child will go through all of the steps their parent does when preparing to deploy. It cannot be stressed enough to parents the importance of informing their children’s caregivers and teachers that a parent will be deploying. Doing so is a vital step in helping the child cope with the upcoming separation. The child’s teacher, once informed of an upcoming deployment will help the child cope by incorporating activities such as reading books where a family member is taking a long trip, or talking with all the children about how they feel and why they feel the way they do into their lesson plans. Parents need to make sure they do not put off telling children of the deployment, letting their children know about the deployment as soon as possible will provide them the opportunity to become involved in preparing for the separation. Children will want to have many conversations with their parents about the deployment; parents need to make sure that they keep the discussions honest, straightforward, and factual (Clash, 2008).

In the United States, soldiers are currently returning home from war broken and scarred. While some physical wounds are clearly visible others are often hidden/invisible to the naked eye, but men and women proudly wear these wounds as a badge of courage and honor for protecting our nation. These men and women come home rightfully expecting help, assistance and care and get hit with the reality of poor care from the Veteran Health Administration and Department of Defense.

“When I was in serious danger I was almost completely paralysed by fear, I remember sitting with a coffin (a fellow soldier) on the fire-step of a trench during an intense bombardment, when it seemed certain that we must be killed”(The Psychological Effects Of The Vietnam War). Our soldiers that we send to war to protect us against the countries trying to harm us are put into dangerous situations that affect them physically and mentally and leave them with permanent damage to their minds and bodies. The server damage that our military soldiers faced when returning from war is PTSD which stands for post traumatic stress disorder and is the most common disorder that returning soldiers are diagnosed with , but a more tragic diagnosis from war

Deployment and integration are one the greatest challenges military families and children have to face on a daily basis. When a family member deploys or reintegrates within the entire family, it not only affects the service member but it affects the entire family. Deployment can often lead to families and children, experiencing a negative mental health outcomes and compromised wellbeing. Bello (2015) found that most families and children (80.5% required less than one month to adjust to the return of their deployed parent (Bello, 2015). Accordingly, the families and children are often quick to adjust to having their family member back in the home. Interestingly, discoveries are surprising in light of the fact that when contrasted to another family, the discoveries are definitely unique. Boberiene (2014) found that three out of every four families feel that reintegration after the first three months is the most stressful phase of a deployment (Boberiene, 2014). This is because the family experiences many emotions while the member is away.

The focus of this research paper is on the organizational behavior regarding stress in the military. The problem-solving, integrative framework is utilized to analyze the different steps within this process where the problem is defined, potential causes of the issue are identified, and recommendations are provided to solve the issue. More specifically this research paper provides a summary of the Army, provides a synopsis of the organizational challenge of stress, and provides a list of key individuals and their roles. Use of actual experiences are incorporated in the research in order to provide more clarity. The research paper also provides an application of how behavioral style theories applied to this challenge faced by the Army.

The military impacts the lives of the women in combat and it affects the lives of their families. Families face a number of challenges before, during, and after deployment. When military women are deployed it causes difficulties within the family, and even more so if she is a single mother. Children of servicewomen have different reactions when their mother is deployed. Some children tend to have behavior changes or increases in irritability. The reaction of children with a military mother depends on their age, and any mental health problems the child might have. Children that go through a mother’s deployment may experience the same effects as children of parents who are getting a divorce. Children also have to manage living with a parent who returns with changes from being in combat.

Although the military family unit comes with a great deal of pride it does not come at a small cost. Per Hall, “family readiness is essential to unit readiness (Hall, 2016, p.71)”. What is family readiness? Well this is the “family’s ability to adapt to and deal with the stressors associated with military danger and a military life style, such as frequent moves, deployments, unaccompanied tours, and overseas assignments (Adler-Baeder & Pittman, 2005, p.5) (Hall, 2016, p.71)”. All of these can cause a strain on anyone. As a result there are many support programs for families and spouses to help them better cope with things such as deployments, the secrecy, isolation, alienation is a tough thing for families to struggle through and the military obligation itself.

By the end of 2008, 1.7 million American service members had served in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom (US Department of Veterans Affairs, 2009). Military personal serving in Iraq and Afghanistan run the risk of developing problems such as depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and anxiety due there deployments. Parents and caregivers forget about the children that are left behind when they deploy. Usually the mother is the parent that is left behind to raise the child or children. The mother’s responsibilities grow, they are now both parents, worries about financial issues and also about the safety for that spouse who is deployed.