Deployment Relationships
Deployment can be a stressful time for both partners involved. While deployed personnel are away from home serving their country, they often face many challenges that can take a mental and physical toll on them. These difficulties can make it difficult to stay connected with loved ones back home, which is why maintaining healthy relationships while deployed requires significant effort. This effort, known as "emotional labor," involves a range of tasks such as communication, trust building, and conflict resolution.
This emotional work comes at a cost - it can lead to psychological fatigue if left unchecked. Here's how deployments can affect relationships and contribute to psychological exhaustion.
The Emotional Labor of Maintaining Relationships During Deployment
Maintaining relationships during deployment requires regular contact and open communication between partners. This includes making an active effort to share updates about daily life, asking questions about each other's lives, and showing support through kindness or care packages. This process requires significant effort because it takes time and energy to keep in touch regularly. On top of that, there may be barriers like language differences or technology problems that make communication even more challenging. When these obstacles arise, couples must invest extra emotional labor into finding ways around them so they don't lose connection altogether.
This increased level of effort and dedication is why some military spouses struggle emotionally over time. They feel drained by the amount of work required to maintain relationships despite distance and difficulty. In addition, some spouses may experience anxiety or depression due to worry about their partner's safety abroad. All these factors combine to create a high-stress environment that can take a toll on mental wellbeing.
Psychological Fatigue from Emotional Labor
When people put too much energy into something without rest or recovery, they risk burnout - a state where they become physically and mentally exhausted from prolonged stress. While serving in the military isn't easy for anyone involved, deployments add another layer of difficulty because they require additional time and attention on top of already intense responsibilities. As such, emotional labor becomes even harder when service members are away from home caring for themselves while also trying to stay connected with loved ones back home.
This constant need for emotional output can cause psychological fatigue if left unchecked.
Deployments often come with other sources of strain that further contribute to emotional exhaustion: financial difficulties, social isolation, or job changes all compound each other. If military personnel have less money coming in during deployment, it could mean struggling financially at home; if they cannot attend social gatherings like weddings or parties due to location restrictions, loneliness sets in. And if one person loses their job while deployed and struggles to find new employment upon return, relationship tension mounts as both partners try to cope with increased stressors simultaneously.
Tips for Managing Deployment Relationships
To combat these challenges, couples must work together towards creating healthy routines that help them stay emotionally connected despite distance. They should prioritize open communication by setting regular times for video calls, phone conversations, or emails so that neither partner feels forgotten or ignored during difficult moments.
They should be understanding about different needs during deployment (e.g., some families may need extra support from friends or family) without placing blame on each other for not being there physically or mentally every minute of the day.
They should seek professional assistance when needed – whether through counseling sessions or online resources – to address any concerns before they become overwhelming.
The key is learning how to balance effort with rest so that everyone involved gets enough downtime from the demands of maintaining relationships over long distances. When done correctly, this balance creates resilience against psychological fatigue caused by deployments' unique challenges. With proper preparation and planning, deployments don't have to cause undue strain on personal lives - but they do require a great deal of emotional labor from those involved.
How does the emotional labor of maintaining relationships during deployment contribute to psychological fatigue?
Emotional labor is an important part of relationship maintenance, especially during deployments when communication may be limited. Studies have shown that deployments can cause increased stress levels for partners due to separation anxiety, which can lead to feelings of loneliness, sadness, and discomfort (Smith et al. , 2019).