Healing PTSD Coming Out of the Dark

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

June 17, 2020

Coming Out of the Dark

Why be afraid if you're not alone? Life is never easy, the rest is unknown. The song is by Gloria Estefan and the first time I heard it, all I could think about were the Vietnam veterans I spent so much time with including my husband. You are not alone fighting to heal PTSD just as you were not alone during combat.

PTSD healing awareness videos

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

June 17, 2020

The following videos are all about healing PTSD. Since my work was focused on veterans for the last 38 years, these are about them. The only difference is the numbers are higher than they were when I started these in 2006.

If you are not a veteran, they should help you understand PTSD enough to know that no one is beyond healing it! I pray you find enough hope in these to #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from PTSD.

In 2006 I created this video on Wounded Minds. Long before PTSD was in the news, families like mine were doing the best we could to make our veterans lives better. Sometimes we failed but after three decades, I'm still married. I still have no idea how other families do it when they know hardly nothing about PTSD. I knew almost everything and there were times when it was almost impossible to find hope. The key is to learn as much as you can, love as an active partner in their healing and find what works to make your lives better!

This is from my old website, NamGuardianAngel. Go to Combat PTSD Wounded Times to learn more.

you may think you won, but God has other plans for what you deserve

EndingWounded Times

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 10, 2020

A few days ago I wrote about how this site was changing. I had to face the fact that the support I needed to keep going was never going to come. This started in 2007, but my work online began in 1993. My work with veterans dealing with PTSD started in 1982. In all those years, while where my heart is, never changed, the way I attempted to communicate changed many times.

My heart is still with veterans, and always will be. I cared because I came from a military family and married into another one.

What got lost in all of this was the fact that I understood what it was like to survive traumatic events, because I did it 10 times. It was even more if you want to count hurricanes when I lived in Florida. Yet I am living proof that prevention works and so does everything else I did to recover. I beat the odds!

My marriage also beat the odds because we are past 35 years!

Once I decided to change the focus of this site and stop trying to get support from veterans groups, it was like the weight of the world had come off my shoulders. It turns out that it has happened to others too.

I received an email from someone going through the same thing. He is a Vietnam veteran and dedicated his life to helping veterans heal with equine therapy. He has done it for decades. I was shocked to hear what he has been going through, since he not only deserved the help, he is a veteran but the groups will not help him either.

This is posted with his permission and I omitted the groups mentioned because what I heard after this is, we are far from alone.

Kathie,
I have wanted to for some time now to write the same first three paragraphs of you letter of today.

As you know, I read you every day. I know the struggle all too well. You are so absolutely correct about your feelings.

Yes, veterans organization seem to now days be all be about "themselves" Yes, I am talking about the so-called "veteran's charities" "These old as well as the new pop-up charities who think they have all the answers.

Our Organization received IRS tax exemption in 1992 We were created by Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 23 and I have served as Director ever since. My beginning salary was set by VVA23 at $200.00 per week. Over the years, my salary has never been more than $400.00 per week and, I have not taken any salary in the last 10 years.

To be completely honest, We still serve veterans but, I have come to realize, CHILDREN who have suffered from trauma is where my calling should be.

I am so happy to hear I am not alone and someone else who has the same experience as me, feels the same way. Now with the virus, donations are impossible and yet here I am left with 8 horses to feed. Horses my wife and I love and can't even think of giving up. Will there be help from veteran's groups. NO, HELL NO.

I respect you Kathie and wish you the very best. I think you are doing the right thing. Bob Bambury

 

This was my reply
Bless you Bob! I really needed to know that it is not just happening to me. You have been a blessing to veterans for far too long and earned the support, they refuse to give.

When Jesus sent out 72 with His 12 Disciples, this is what He told them.

10 But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, 11 ‘Even the dust of your town we wipe from our feet as a warning to you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God has come near.’ Luke 10

They will not hear us, or support us, but we must trust that God is ever faithful to what He asks us to do. I find it comforting to know that when we pray for help, He tries to send others to answer our prayers. Much like we have tried to do for all those in need. When they will not listen to what He is asking them to do, never lose faith in Him and shake the dust off your feet.

Reach out to where your heart is telling you that is where you need to be.

These are very dark days and more people will be hurting than ever before. This "harvest" is plenty but true workers are few. Follow where He leads and I will pray you find the support you have so long been denied!

With your permission, I would like to include part of your email in a post later today. No pressure and understandable if you do not want me to. You can also write what you want and I will include it. It is the beginning of the new mission today.

From this point on, Wounded Times will be updated at-will. I am basically leaving the posts up because there is a ton of information within the over 30,000 posts.

Honestly, this site hit over 4 million, but no one thought it was worth supporting. Had some readers valued it instead of just deciding to plagiarize my work, things would have gone differently. 

If you supported it by passing on the links, thank you for what you did. If you are one of those who just stole it, you may think you won, but God has other plans for what you deserve.

For updates go to PTSD Patrol where I am giving lessons on PTSD and educating those who need to discover a different way of healing!

Lesson One: Take control of where you go from here

Survivors take control of the road after traumatic events

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 8, 2020

First lesson to #TakeBackYourLife is to start right here...right now!

I survived things that could have killed me 10 times. In this video, I am retelling the story of one time when I was in a really horrible car accident.

The lesson of this is what my Dad told me after we went to see what was left of the car I walked away from. He told me that I survived it and then handed me the keys to his car so that I could take back control of my life right away.

Mass murders stopped in minutes because of law enforcement

Open your eyes to what law enforcement also does

Wounded Times
Kathis Costos
June 8, 2020

According to reports from the AP there were at least 11 protestors killed during the protests for George Floyd as of June 2, 2020. We all saw the horrible images of looters, rioters destroying property, as well as what happened when police responded to protestors. We saw them being attacked, vehicles destroyed and every other horrible thing that happened.

The thing is, we also saw humanity at its best. Officers joining protestors, walking and praying with them. We saw protestors protecting officers. We saw a lot, but as much as we were affected by the images, we tend to forget that they are also affected by what they see on a daily basis. They see the bad results of what people choose to do, as well as when they choose to respond with acts of kindness.

Right now there are government officials talking about defunding law enforcement. It is almost as if they think there is no need for them to be there. It isn't as if everyplace is like Mayberry with Andy and Barney being able to protect the community.

Instead of getting rid of officers, how about we do the smart thing and get rid of bad ones at the same time we get those who need help to heal because of their jobs actually get it?

In 2019 at least 228 current and retired officers committed suicide. So far for 2020 there were 63.

We tend to forget all the times they have been putting their lives on the line to protect people.

According to statistics reported to the FBI, 89 law enforcement officers were killed in line-of-duty incidents in 2019. Of these, 48 officers died as a result of felonious acts, and 41 officers died in accidents. 

According to Officer Down it was 147. For 2020 so far it has been 97.

From 2008 throughout 2010, I trained to help first responders heal because of their jobs. Crisis Intervention Teams seemed to focus on the victims, more than the responders but the need was clear to me.

Please take a serious look at just a few of the times when they showed up to mass shootings and notice how fast they responded. As bad as the incident was, it would have been much worse had they not been on their jobs willing to die for others.

Pinterest

Sandy Hook Elementary School and slaughter 26 children and educators last Dec. 14, and finally kill himself.

•9:35:39 The first 911 call to police was received.

•9:36:06, a dispatcher broadcast that there had been a shooting at Sandy Hook school.

•9:39:00 The first Newtown police officer arrived at the school. Two more officers arrived 13 seconds later. Gunshots were heard.

•9:39:34, a police officer encountered an "unknown male" running along the east side of the school.

•9:40:03, the last gunshot was heard.

USA Today

Pulse Nightclub (CNN)Here's a timeline of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, when a gunman killed 49 people and wounded 53

1:58 a.m 320 people are enjoying a "Latin flavor" event at Pulse

2:02 a.m. ET: An officer working extra duty in uniform at the club hears gunshots and engages the shooter. Some 100 officers from the Orange County Sheriff's Office and the Orlando Police Department respond to the chaotic scene over the next 45 minutes.

Mandalay Bay Resort 58 people were killed and more than 850 injured when a gunman opened fire at a country music festival on the Las Vegas Strip on October 1, 2017. 

Using multiple rifles, Paddock opened fired on the crowd of 22,000 people below him, from a distance where he would have had no ability to distinguish individual targets.

10:05 p.m.: Paddock starts shooting out the window.

10:12 p.m.: Police inside the hotel start to close in.

10:15 p.m.: Paddock stops shooting out the window.

There are many more of these times, but I am sure you noticed how much worse it could have been. Consider that the next time you want to approve of law enforcement being off the jobs they do.

Post Traumatic Survivors

Post Traumatic Survivors Define Themselves

Wounded Times 

Kathie Costos 

June 7, 2020

You are no longer a victim of yesterday.

Today you are a survivor.

Tomorrow you start healing!

Join in on what will change your life!

Stop being defined by what you survived and start to #TakeBackYourLife as a SURVIVOR!

Tomorrow begins a new day!

This is my turning point

Wounded Times is changing 

Wounded Times 

Kathie Costos 

June 6, 2020 

It is with a heavy heart that I have given up on what I have dedicated the last 38 years to. My focus has been on veterans fighting PTSD all these years. But lately, I have gone from waking up in the morning, wondering what I could do to help, to waking up wondering why I even bother to try. 

While individual veterans have supported the work I do, the truth is, the Veterans Community never really did. They just wanted what I could do for them with my camera and giving them publicity. Understandable since I am not one of them.

I did not plan on making this announcement on D-Day but it just worked out that way. I gave up my tax exempt and constraints of belonging to groups. From this day forward, I will write and speak for myself...as myself. This is my turning point, just as D-Day was the turning point of WWII, when soldiers like my Father-in-law hit the beach of Normandy.

On Sad Anniversary, Few to Mourn the D-Day Dead in Normandy 

All too many have been, for 76 years since that fateful June 6 on France’s Normandy beaches, when allied troops in 1944 turned the course of World War II and went on to defeat fascism in Europe in one of the most remarkable feats in military history.

My heart is forever with veterans and I will not abandon you. My phone still works and my email has not changed. With that said, from this point on, Wounded Times will be about anyone dealing with PTSD and so will PTSD Patrol

I trained for decades to do this work because I understood what it was like to suffer after surviving. I did it ten times. Personal knowledge of what it does gave me a greater understanding of what others endure. So, yes, this was all very personal to me. On the flip side, I also understand what it is like to heal and how to do it.

My faith has sustained me, guided me and healed me. It has allowed me to see the glory of God's work through me as more and more veterans found the way to heal and my life has been blessed by many sharing what they have done with what they learned from me. Now I want to share that with everyone else. 

I have been beaten down many time before but as the sun set on one attempt, it lifted on another. I hope, I pray, that this turning point will help others be aware that tomorrow can be a lot better than this day was.

I Will Rise 

There's a peace I've come to know

Though my heart and flesh may fail

There's an anchor for my soul

I can say "It is well"

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

There's a day that's drawing near

When this darkness breaks to light

And the shadows disappear

And my faith shall be my eyes

Jesus has overcome

And the grave is overwhelmed

The victory is won

He is risen from the dead

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the cry of every longing heart,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the voice of many angels sing,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I hear the cry of every longing heart,

"Worthy is the Lamb"

And I will rise when He calls my name

No more sorrow, no more pain

I will rise on eagles' wings

Before my God fall on my knees

And rise

I will rise

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Chris Tomlin / Jesse Reeves / Louie Giglio / Matt Maher

I Will Rise lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Storytellers Project "Bouncing back. Recovering. Getting help..."

Storytellers Project to stream show about never giving up

USA Today
Michelle Rogers
June 5, 2020 

The USA TODAY Network's Storytellers Project will stream the show, part of its virtual season, at 8 p.m. EST on Thursday, June 11.

Bouncing back. Recovering. Getting help and getting on with it.

The Storytellers Project will celebrate resiliency in all of its forms during a show on June 11 from the USA TODAY Network.

“For so many reasons, now feels like a time when we could use stories of meaningful resilience in the face of adversity of all kinds,” said Megan Finnerty, founder and director of the Storytellers Project. “We are so fortunate to have storytellers willing to be vulnerable, and honest.”

The series, called “LIVE, In Your House," has been drawing hundreds of thousands of views since debuting April 2, when the COVID-19 pandemic started closing down venues where in-person shows had been held across the country. Shows are now streamed on the Storytellers Project’s Facebook page and YouTube channel.
read it here