Consequences of Military Service on Relationships

It’s hard to imagine how a military spouse or partner feels when someone gets deployed. You fall in love with someone, perhaps online, and then you meet once or twice and feel a deep connection. You want to imagine your future together, but your job’s limits will make these goals difficult. There can be many months or years between meeting and living as a family. You can have children together, but one partner must function as a single parent.

Explore the emotional stress, anxiety, and other psychological effects of separation between partners when one or both serves in the military. Understand how your loving partner feels if you’re deployed. It is difficult to fight on the front lines or perform specialized work in a dangerous setting. You often receive few opportunities to express your love in person, and your partner will not understand your job. Many details are classified. It is equally hard to support your partner with little contact or information about their government assignments. During dating, the effect of military stress also was tracked among askme4date dating site users, but a similar military background can help you to start a relationship. This advice will help you understand this relationship:

The Importance of Two-Way Communication

Each romantic relationship is built on common bonds, including love, trust, friendship, and communication. Life’s challenges will place more stress on a romantic relationship. Furthermore, both partners must work diligently to communicate through available channels over time and continue to strengthen the relationship. Communication is more difficult with a partner in the military. Partners and spouses must confront their feelings of self-love, identity, and attachment. They won’t have their mate around to reassure them. Without the physical presence, how do you keep the relationship solid and stay true to your commitment? The longer the deployment lasts, the more difficult it becomes to sustain your bond.

More so, if military personnel often goes through extraordinary events, causing stress. They are hard to open up about such events, as the situation may be classified or simply too stressful to remember. Still, without communication, you’ll never get rid of the psychological problems it may cause.

1 – How does military-related stress affect the couple in the relationship?

Being in a military relationship means partners perform their jobs in different places. One partner lives on the base, and the other returns from time to time for leave. However, the leave period never lasts long enough for the relationship to feel normal or follow a schedule. Even worse, the partner’s scheduling creates stress on the whole family, especially on the romantic partner.

Common effects of military-related stress include anxiety, depression, pain, sadness, low self-esteem, decreased interaction with the environment, substance abuse, medical problems, and suicidal thoughts. It’s easy for both partners who are distanced from the other to experience many of these emotions in short periods, and it cycles up and down.

When the non-military partner is engaged in the community, it is easier to handle the separation. The partner’s military rank, earnings, and other factors also affect this dynamic. Both partners require sufficient levels of psychological and emotional support from local organizations, including schools, employers, and places of worship. With support, military spouses or significant others can cope with frequent separation from their loving partner.

2 – What are family problems caused by PTSD?

When the partner returns from the military, they might feel the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Having seen combat and hardships in war-torn areas causes psychological damage. It will take years to process all effects of traumatic exposure. Some people will bounce back more quickly than others. Some military personnel becomes permanently disabled (in whole or part) due to PTSD. This results in stress and other problems within their families, especially if they do not have the right coping skills. There may be substance abuse, addictions, domestic violence, emotional abuse, effects on children’s development in the household, poor sleep, and other problems. It’s hard to live with someone battling PTSD. Only three things may assure your family will thrive if your loved one has the symptoms – love, patience, and therapy. All of those are mutually required, so if one thinks it can treat their spouse only with care and affection, it may not be as effective as you want it to be without professional help from mental health specialists.

3 – How to cope with stress and rebuild a healthy relationship?

If you’re in uniform, please don’t feel alone. You belong to a worldwide community with the same challenges. That’s why the military offers resources, including medical treatment, counseling, support groups, and training materials for PTSD. Build appropriate boundaries and practice communication for ongoing success. You want to prioritize your partner, but you don’t want the worry to prevent you from safely performing your work or feeling mentally and emotionally balanced.

You and your partner must accept the limitations of a long-distance relationship if both serve in different places. Find coping tools to handle job stress and maintain a healthy relationship, including good communication and frequent emotional support from friends and family.