Once on board, you feel the anticipation of starting; your heart beats faster and you might worry about what’s going to happen next. Suddenly, you’re plunged into the unknown with your stomach churning as the air rushes to your face. Hurtling down the slope you might start to feel joy, exhilaration or possibly fear. At the end of the ride you try to get off, but your loved one asks you to go round one more time. The journey repeats. This time, you discover that you experience new emotions and notice the skyline a bit more.
Deployment can be a bit like this!
They can be gone for a long time. While they are gone you will feel lots of different feelings and that’s ok, it’s also completely normal.Whilst your serving parent or loved one is away you may miss them.
Friends and trusted adults can support you by learning about how you could be feeling and what might help you at different times. This is called the ‘Emotional Cycle of Deployment.’
There are 7 stages to the rollercoaster which help you to navigate your own deployment journey.
The stages are:
This will take you to information explaining the stage in detail and will provide resources created by young people from forces families to use and get support.
Complete our contact form below and our friendly team will get in touch as soon as we can.
The Armed Forces Covenant Fund Trust and BFBS Big Salute generously fund our digital deployment pack resource.
If you are a parent or carer looking for more information about the emotional cycle of deployment, please access the resources below for numerous resources around parental separation and wellbeing.
Access resources
