People marry for love and companionship. When you marry someone who joined the military, you are also marrying for the same reasons, but this relationship may come with certain challenges that others don’t face. You are marrying for love despite the separation for long months on end, which means battling loneliness and surviving single parenting while the military husband or wife is deployed.

Winning the Battle of Emotions

Being alone isn’t easy. Your spouse’s deployment can bring about a host of intense emotions that can threaten to overwhelm you, especially when tragic events or serious crises happen while he/she is away. It would be a time when your loneliness would be so intense and you will need a strong shoulder to lean on or another soul to keep you company. Special occasions will pass without your spouse by your side. Indeed, it can be a lonely life being away from your spouse. The knowledge that your spouse may in a war-torn place compounds the anxiety and the fears.

Solo Parenting for Two

Parenting even with your spouse can be difficult; parenting is extra hard when you have to face all challenges alone. If you have children, the loneliness may be more bearable, but single parenting isn’t something that every military spouse can easily grasp. The younger and the more children you have, the more physically demanding is the task. The older the children are, the more emotionally embattled you will be. You will be working for long hours, from the crack of dawn to late in the evening. If you keep a job, you’ll find yourself sleeping on the job and too tired to focus on what you are doing.

The Help that Works

It is not surprising to know that the statistics for divorce, as well as anxiety disorders, depression, sleep disorder, and other psychological health problems are higher among military families. Being left at home, how do you fight loneliness? In the midst of trials, who do you turn to? When your children cry out calling the name of the deployed parent, how can you stop yourself from crying and stay strong for everyone?

Loneliness isn’t an easy thing to work through; it isn’t what you bargained for in marriage, despite the knowledge you are marrying someone in the service. Being a “strong” parent while your spouse is away can be physically and emotionally draining. To get through the crises and embrace solo parenting, accept that you may need help. In North Carolina, you can find that help from the independently contracted therapists with Carolina Counseling Services – Southern Pines, NC. In the face of all challenges, you don’t have to be weak or to give up everything; call Carolina Counseling Services – Southern Pines, NC.

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• Keeping Up with the Changes Brought On by Deployment