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Home » Under Secretary for Management » Office of Medical Services » Deployment Stress Management Program (DSMP) » Do You Need Help?

When Should I Consider Face-To-Face Counseling?

High Stress/High Threat/Unaccompanied Tours affect people in many different ways. Of course, seeking professional counseling is your choice. However, there are conditions that occur in people’s lives when it is best to work with a provider.

We strongly encourage you to get help and support from a trained mental health professional if you are:

• Feeling sad or depressed most of the time for more than a week.
• Feeling anxious or having distressing thoughts you can’t control most of the time for more than a week.
• Having continuing difficulty working or meeting your daily responsibilities.
• Having problems in your relationships, or trouble taking care of your family.
• Increasing your use of alcohol or street drugs, or using them to cope.
• Overusing prescription medications.
• Having traumatic stress reactions that are not getting better as time passes.
• Thinking about hurting or killing yourself.
• Thinking about hurting or killing someone else.
• Doing things to hurt yourself, like cutting or burning yourself.
• You are extremely angry most of the time.
• Other people are saying they’re concerned about you and think you should talk to someone.
• You are having trouble sleeping most of the time.
• You are having trouble with eating or with your appetite most of the time, or you’ve lost significant weight without meaning to.

If you are feeling suicidal or homicidal, it’s important that you let someone know. You should seek help immediately by calling 911 or going to the closest emergency room.

It doesn't have to be an emergency for you to benefit from talking with a professional helper or counselor. Professionals who have training and expertise in working with military personnel and those deployed in the combat environment can help you with several things:

• Learn to manage your feelings and thoughts more effectively.
• Learn to feel more comfortable talking to people in your daily life.
• Learn to pursue goals that are important to you.
• Learn to focus on the future.

Some reactions are very common in the first week or two following a traumatic event and, and do not necessarily require in-person consultation with a counselor. Difficulties getting through normal activities and responsibilities, avoidance of situations, nervousness, and sleeping problems are common at first. But if there is no improvement in the first weeks following a stressful or traumatic event, then face-to-face counseling should be strongly considered.

Another reason to consider face-to-face counseling might be that you don't have people to talk to about what happened, because:

• The people close to you are not able to support you the way you need them to.
• You are isolated or without close family or friends.
• The traumatic experience feels so personal or sensitive (such as rape, assault, domestic violence, loss of a buddy, friendly-fire related incident) that you don't feel comfortable or safe talking with anyone you know.

Remember...

Seeking counseling is not a sign of weakness; seeking support is a sign of strength. Talking to a counselor can improve your ability to help yourself.

If you’re Not Sure Whether to Seek Counseling

If you’re not sure whether to seek counseling, you could go for an introductory, or evaluation session with a counselor to see if the counselor seems like someone you could work with. An introductory session will also give you an opportunity to get some feedback from the counselor about your problem. Trying out a session lets you consider all of your options. Remember that “shopping around” for a counselor is a perfectly acceptable thing to do; in fact many people recommend it. Just because you go for one session does not mean you have to return. You can always go and check out other options.

State Department Resources

Deployment Stress Management Program (M/MED/MHS/DSMP)
Deployment Stress Management Program
Office of Medical Services
Columbia Plaza
2401 E Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Tel: 202-663-1903
Fax: 202-663-1454
Email: MEDDSMP@state.gov
Intranet Website: http://med.m.state.sbu/mhs/dsmp/default.aspx

Employee Consultation Service (M/MED/ECS)
Tele: (202) 663-1815
Email: MEDECS@state.gov

The Family Liaison Office (M/DGHR/FLO)
HST Building, Room 1239
(202) 647-1076, or (800) 440-0397
Email: FLOAskUT@state.gov
Internet Website: http://www.state.gov/m/dghr/flo/