http://www.truthout.org/soldiers-wives-fighting-mental-emotional-battles-their-own56328
Saturday 23 January 2010
by: Brad Knickerbocker
A new study shows higher levels of depression, anxiety, and sleep
disorders among Army wives whose husbands have had lengthy
deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. New programs aim to help, but
there's a stigma in a professional culture that values toughness.
--
It's always been true that when a soldier comes home, he brings the
war back with him – emotionally, at least.
In the Civil War, the extreme of the phenomenon was called "soldier's
heart." Today, it's known less poetically and more clinically as
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
But it's also true that others are effected as well – particularly
close family members. And this is becoming increasingly obvious among
spouses of service members sent to combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A new study by researchers at RTI International, the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Uniformed Services University
of the Health Sciences shows that lengthy US Army deployments
increase the occurrence of depression, anxiety, sleep disorders, and
other mental health diagnoses for soldiers' wives left at home.
More Stress, More Sleepless Nights
"This study confirms what many people have long suspected," said
Alyssa Mansfield, the study's lead author, now a research
epidemiologist at RTI International. "It provides compelling evidence
that Army families are feeling the impact of lengthy and repeated
deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan. The result is more depression,
more stress, and more sleepless nights."
The study showed noticeably higher levels of anxiety, depression, and
sleep disorder among the wives of soldiers who had been absent for 12
months or more than was found in wives who hadn't experienced the
same amount of separation from their husbands at war.
"It's a continuing stress," Keli Lowman of Fayetteville, N.C., whose
husband served twice in Afghanistan and once in Iraq, told National
Public Radio. "We are a constant ready force. So you may exchange the
distress of 'he's leaving' for the stress of 'he's gone,' to the
excitement that 'he's coming home,' to the stress of 'he's going to
leave again' in 12 months."
The Army has responded by reducing the number and length of
deployments, increasing the time spent at home between deployments,
providing more marriage and family therapists, and offering telephone
counseling.
Still, it remains a difficult issue, especially in a professional
culture that values toughness – among families as well as the
warriors they love.
Stigma of Perceived Weakness
"We know there's a stigma," Deborah Mullen, wife of Joint Chiefs of
Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen, said at a suicide conference last
week. "Spouses tell me all the time that they would like to get
mental health assistance, but they really believe – as incorrect as
this is … that if they seek help, that it will have a negative impact
on their spouse's military career."
The study was published in the Jan. 14 issue of the New England
Journal of Medicine.
Among its findings: "The psychosocial burden on families of deployed
military personnel is less well understood and perhaps not comparable
to that of previous deployments, given current service conditions.
Besides fear for the safety of their loved ones, spouses of deployed
personnel often face challenges of maintaining a household, coping as
a single parent, and experiencing marital strain due to a
deployment-induced separation of an uncertain duration. Studies
examining the effects of deployment on spouses have shown increased
rates of marital dissatisfaction, unemployment, divorce, and
declining emotional health."
Kristin Henderson, the wife of a Navy chaplain who is serving in
Afghanistan and author of "While They're At War: The True Story of
American Families on the Homefront," said the findings are not
surprising. Recently, a fellow military wife confided that she was
taking antidepressants to cope with her husband's deployment.
"She said, 'Oh, everyone is on Prozac here,'" Henderson told Business Week.
.
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