Real Talk: Mental Health By Jenny Lynne Stroup Steven A. Cohen Military Family Clinic at VVSD www.vvsd.net/cohenclinicsandiego
Deployment Mode
Deployment mode. It is a state of being that transcends all other abilities and enables me to detach from my deploying spouse and handle all the things. This mode takes over approximately a week to ten days before my spouse leaves. One by one all other faculties shut down and I become completely consumed by deployment mode. My ability to love and feel loved is limited, but my ability to simultaneously cook, clean, work, shuttle kids, redecorate the house, plan events, and take on extra volunteer positions increases exponentially. In short, it’s a defense mechanism, and it works every time. I lived the greater parts of 2010 through 2013 in deployment mode. My husband was either deployed, preparing to be deployed, or in school learning how to be deployed for most of those years. I became so accustomed to doing it all that I simply forgot what it was like to not live that way. Within twenty-five days of my husband’s arrival back on American soil my family packed up our belongings and moved seven hours north.
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WWW.SanDiegoVeteransMagazine.com / OCTOBER 2021
Deployment mode. I didn’t have time to come out of it. We transitioned from one of life’s greatest stressors to another. The ability to reconnect and work as a team was not a luxury we had. I was operating in get it done mode, focused on the all the decisions I made alone: our new residence, our pack out date, what to pack in our personal vehicles, while he was operating in adjustment mode: living on Eastern Standard Time, being near me and our toddlers, being able to step outside without a full kit strapped to his chest.
