Holidays Add to Deployment Stress

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Holidays Add to Deployment Stress
December 14, 2009
Army News Service

JOINT BASE BALAD, Iraq - Holiday joy and holiday stress go hand in hand, especially for deployed servicemembers and their families.

For those serving at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, the Air Force Mental Health Clinic and the 55th Medical Combat Stress Control clinic can assist servicemembers and civilians who are overwhelmed or overstressed this holiday season. Similar services are offered to servicemembers and Department of Defense civilians theater-wide and stateside.

"People often get stressed around the holidays because they try to do too much - they overextend themselves financially and they have unrealistic expectations of themselves and others," said Air Force Maj. David Linkh, chief of the 332nd Expeditionary Aerospace Medicine Squadron Air Force Mental Health Clinic at JBB and a Queens, N.Y., native.

"Deployed personnel have an added challenge insofar as they are separated from their loved ones and may miss their comforting holiday rituals, an opportunity to visit with extended family and religious observances with their congregation."

Maj. Saul Cardona, the family life chaplain with the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary), said separation is the biggest stressor during long deployments, in addition to combat operations and exhausting work hours.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/news/article/army-news/holidays-add-to-deployment-stress.html