"My Story: Blogs by Four Military Teens" is a book that gives voice to military teens by highlighting their feelings and experiences before, during, and after parental deployment. The four youths in "My Story" are fictional, but the stories are real in that the posts are a compilation of real life experiences of military kids.
"Adam" blogs, "My dad is one of the coolest, smartest, bravest men I’ve ever met, but sometimes I just can’t stand being around him. He’s a doctor – a surgeon – and is in the Air Force Reserves. He just returned from a second tour in Iraq, and he sure acts different. After his first tour, it took us some time to get caught up, but just when things got normal again, he got his orders to go back to Iraq. Now he’s finally home (for good?), but he just isn’t the same. He gets mad over the stupidest things and spends most of his time in his bedroom or in front of the computer.
Photo courtesy Michelle D. Sherman, Ph.D. and DeAnne M. Sherman, Ph.D.
"My Story: Blogs by Four Military Teens"
"He’s still in ‘military mode,’ and orders us around way too much. He doesn’t joke around like before, and sometimes just hangs out in the garage by himself. We don’t talk much. I almost liked it better when he was gone. It was a lot quieter and less stressful around the house. Ashley, Lisa, and I just stay out of his way. Derrick is lucky – he’s leaving for college soon."
This book also provides support and education for military teens and preteens by honoring their unique joys and sacrifices, addressing their fears and hopes, and exploring how parental deployment affects their lives.
The book was written by Michelle D. Sherman, Ph.D., and her mother, DeAnne M. Sherman. Together, Dr. Sherman and her mother – a teacher – have written other books for teens, including "Finding My Way: A Teen’s Guide to Living with a Parent Who has Experienced Trauma" (Waco, Tex.: Seeds of Hope Publishers, 2005).
Dr. Sherman is a clinical psychologist at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center, where she directs its Family Mental Health Program. She has dedicated her career to supporting families affected by mental illness and posttraumatic stress disorder, and has a special interest in the impact of parental mental illness and PTSD on youth.
"Think about the ... challenges facing our military teens," she writes in a guest post on the blog of an organization called Veterans Children. "Their parent(s) may be deployed once, twice, or even multiple times to a war zone. The parent may miss out on important events, such as prom, the school play, the state basketball tournament, and birthdays."
These young people are resilient, Dr. Sherman writes, but some are struggling with increased rates of anxiety, sleeping and behavioral problems, and the use of psychotropics.
"What does this tell us? ...They are affected by their parent’s deployment. We need to listen to them, provide resources, and make services available," writes Dr. Sherman, also is a clinical professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and a research affiliate with the South Central Mental Illness Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC).
Michelle D. Sherman
In her work with veterans and families, Dr. Sherman has developed educational and support programs. Operation Enduring Families is a 5-session family education curriculum for Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans/families, developed with Ursula B. Bowling, Psy.D., and Alan L. Doerman, Psy.D. This program is based on her S.A.F.E (Support and Family Education) program, an 18-session curriculum for those who care about someone with a mental illness/PTSD.
Dr. Sherman has developed an extensive resource list for OEF/OIF service members, and veterans and their families. (See box.) For a complete list, you can e-mail her at michelle-sherman@ouhsc.edu.
This column, "Families in Psychiatry," regularly appears in Clinical Psychiatry News, an Elsevier publication. Dr. Heru is an associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora. She has been a member of the Association of Family Psychiatrists since 2002 and currently serves as the organization’s treasurer. In addition, she is the coauthor of two books on working with families and is the author of numerous articles on this topic.
The following list of books and websites can be used to help military children of all ages cope with parental deployment:
Books
• "After the War Zone: A Practical Guide for Returning Troops and Their Families" (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2008).