# Post-Deployment Guidelines

1. Prepare your loved ones to expect that you may be more tired, less active, less talkative, and requiring more support after working in the disaster environment.  Some individuals may even become irritable and short tempered upon returning from a difficult, intensely emotional or exhausting assignment.  While this is not an excuse to be unpleasant to family members, it may be helpful for them to know that you need some time to quiet yourself, resettle, and rest.  Family members may need to lower their expectations of your desire and/or ability to be social at these times.  You may need to lower your expectations of yourself as well.

2. Once off duty, be sure to make *REST* a priority.  Arrange time to get sufficient sleep and even if you feel you cannot sleep, find a place that is quiet or lie down and rest your body. 

3. Exercise only lightly for the first 2 weeks after a stressful, emotionally intense, and/or physically exhausting deployment.  Refrain from using heavy weights as doing so when you have excess adrenaline in your system can result in muscle injury.  WALKING, STRETCHING, and BREATHING exercises are most effective.  Integrate exercise several times into each day whenever you are able. 

4. Eat lightly and healthfully during and especially after a stressful, emotionally intense, and/or physically exhausting deployment.  Know that some individuals suffer with stomach ailments such as constipation or diarrhea during or right after a deployment.  This is not unusual, but if it persists, see your physician.

5. Know that some individuals suffer with sleep problems after an intense and even after a tiring deployment (unable to fall asleep, unable to remain asleep, waking in the early morning hours and unable to go back to sleep).  Some tips for helping with sleep problems include: 

a. Only go to bed when you are ready to go to sleep.  Don’t read, watch TV, or engage in other activities when you are trying to tire yourself enough to sleep. 

b. Use soothing music to relax you or relaxation tapes that help with cognitive messages that assist in going to sleep.

c. Use sleep balms with relaxing aromas such as lavender that help induce sleep.

d. Try a relaxing tea an hour before sleep, such as chamomile or lavender.

e. Avoid eating (especially sugar) or drinking (especially alcohol) at least 1 hour before retiring. 

f. Try massage oils or balms on your feet, hands, calves, and temples to induce sleep.

g. Ask your physician if you might use a vitamin such as valerian to assist in sleep.  If sleep problems persist, see your physician or therapist for assistance. 

6. When exposed to the trauma of disasters such as destruction, injury and death some people  suffer with nightmares and flashbacks during or after a disaster deployment.  These will likely decrease over time, especially if you employ some coping skills like exercise or writing.  It can be helpful to talk to your team leader, buddy, or a family member as well.  Request a debriefing if you want additional assistance or see your physician or therapist if such sleep disturbances persist.

7. Know that some individuals have difficulty responding sexually to their partners after an intense emotional and/or physically exhausting disaster deployment.  This is not unusual and most often resolves in a week or two.  Individuals concerned about any physical functioning or lack of functioning in the 2 weeks after ending a disaster assignment should see their physician.

8. Some individuals may question their belief system when exposed to horrific events that change their worldview.  Seek your faith leader, religious, or spiritual guide who has helped you in the past.

9. When reentering the traditional work world, know that it will feel very different from disaster work.  The immediacy and sense of mission that accompanies disaster work may make it difficult for you to find meaning in your traditional work.  Know that the disaster environment is unusual and very difficult to continue to function in such circumstances for a long period of time without experiencing some physical, emotional, and/or cognitive effects.  Remember why you chose your traditional work when you did and find meaning in whatever you do.  Every person contributes to the functioning of our society: the farmer who plants the vegetables we eat every day, or the cotton that gets turned into the clothes we wear; the laborers who gather the fruit; the assembly line workers who package the goods we use; the truckers who haul the deliveries, the merchant who sells us the final product; the cashier; the bagger.  We cannot have what we do without the work of any of these folks.  Value all of them and their work.  Value your own work, whatever that may be.    

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