God sent His Only Son to be a never ending story to the world

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 25, 2021 

Today, Christmas Day, we celebrated the birth of Jesus. It is a shame that we do not seem to notice that He is an example of a life with a never ending story. Oh, sure, we know He sacrificed His life on the Cross but His story did not end that day. As a matter of fact, it is still being written.

If you survived the cause of PTSD, you have witnessed His story still being written in those who came to help you. It is still begin written in through the lives of those who dedicate their lives toward helping you find hope for a happier life, compassion to help you know you matter, those who help you understand how much power you do have over the life ahead of you. Above all, through those who help you understand that God did not do it to you, but is there to help you heal.

For almost forty years, I know that is why I have done whatever I could to help and I know why I did it. I survived over ten events and remember all of it. The physical pain, the emotional turmoil, a million unanswerable questions, but I also remember what it was like to heal. What it was like to not just smile again, but feel the emotion behind it.

Above all, once I stopped focusing on what someone did to me, I was able to focus on what others did for me. No matter what happened, it always ended the same way. Someone came to help me and that began the healing.

None of our stories are even really ended. They are carried on in the lives of others we come into contact with, just as the lives of others are still being written through us.

When I wrote The Lost Son it was an answer to my prayers. I struggled with trying to find a new way of saying what I had said for almost four decades. It took a couple of weeks of praying and then one day, I sat down at my computer and the work flowed out of me. What I had not planned on was writing two books to tell our stories of healing through faith in God and when others come to answer our prayers. They heard God asking them and they responded. After all, that is the way miracles still happen. I am living proof of that.

The books are for what never seems to get covered in the news. There are over fifteen million of us being added every year to the number of survivors struggling to heal PTSD. The thing is, even after becoming an expert on PTSD, I had no clue I was one of them because my case was odd. The first time I faced death happened twice in one night, but I was only five years old. The rest was also different because of the way I looked at life, and God. I never read anything about someone like me, so I decided to write it.

These books are for everyone struggling from all different causes and helping others find their way out of spiritual darkness. They are not intended to replace mental health professional help, but to infuse it with the power of faith. They are also written for others like me, among the churchless children of God who do not feel as if there is a place for us in a building. We too can experience God's love, much like the way Jesus taught us to pray directly to Our Father. He prayed outside most of the time.

Churches are find for a lot of people but most of the people I helped over all these years, they believe in God but consider themselves spiritual instead of religious. It is not that we are wrong not wanting to go to church, but that we simply don't feel as if we belong there.

From Alive Again The Lost Son Part Two

"Thank you all for coming. I am Chris Papadopoulos. Blessed Are The Peacemakers Ingredients of Miracles tells the story of how on September 13th 2019, a Friday the 13th by the way, I sat on my bed with a gun in my hand. It was seven years after surviving a bomb blast covering war, but that night, there was a war going on inside my soul. All I could think about was ending my suffering. An angel of light and goodness was fighting against an angel of darkness and evil inside of me. The angel of light managed to declare a minor victory and I was not happy about that. The next thing I knew, I was walking to my home away from home, this bar. Strange thinking about it now, because even as depressed as I was, I was still worried about hurting someone else, so I walked instead of risking driving drunk and hurting someone else. Apparently God had other plans for how to end my suffering.

I was talking to the only friend I thought I had, Ed, the bartender,” he waited for them to stop laughing. He turned to point to Ed. “I really wanted to say good bye to him. While I was sucking down another drink, a group of men walked in carrying the answer to my prayers. This is Bill and David and Drake. We also have Alex, Mary and Benjamin, all in the book. We have with us Grace and she’s the reason I called this press conference. A couple of nights ago, we were all eating dinner at the Inn in Gabriel when a woman came to us. She was wondering if the people in the books were real. She said she was sure her Dad helped the Boston Police Officer named Frank, who ended up saving Grace. She got to meet someone her father helped without even knowing it. She thanked us for proving that the stories of our lives never stop being written. They are in fact, never ending stories of life. And she was right. We’re all living proof that those who helped us, were helped by others before them and who knows how many other generations it goes back to. We don’t even know how far forward it goes while we’re still alive.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, do we want our life stories to be about light and goodness, or do we want to pass on darkness and evil? We’re capable of both and we’ve seen how darkness and evil spreads. David has something to say about that.”

The story of our lives does go on and what we pass on to others, is defined by us and what we choose to do with our lives. Look at this list.

Causes of PTSD from The Mayo Clinic
Risk factors
People of all ages can have post-traumatic stress disorder. However, some factors may make you more likely to develop PTSD after a traumatic event, such as:

Experiencing intense or long-lasting trauma
Having experienced other trauma earlier in life, such as childhood abuse
Having a job that increases your risk of being exposed to traumatic events, such as military personnel and first responders
Having other mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression
Having problems with substance misuse, such as excess drinking or drug use
Lacking a good support system of family and friends
Having blood relatives with mental health problems, including anxiety or depression Kinds of traumatic events

The most common events leading to the development of PTSD include:

Combat exposure
Childhood physical abuse
Sexual violence
Physical assault
Being threatened with a weapon
An accident

Many other traumatic events also can lead to PTSD, such as fire, natural disaster, mugging, robbery, plane crash, torture, kidnapping, life-threatening medical diagnosis, terrorist attack, and other extreme or life-threatening events.

Prevention

After surviving a traumatic event, many people have PTSD-like symptoms at first, such as being unable to stop thinking about what's happened. Fear, anxiety, anger, depression, guilt — all are common reactions to trauma. However, the majority of people exposed to trauma do not develop long-term post-traumatic stress disorder.

Getting timely help and support may prevent normal stress reactions from getting worse and developing into PTSD. This may mean turning to family and friends who will listen and offer comfort. It may mean seeking out a mental health professional for a brief course of therapy. Some people may also find it helpful to turn to their faith community.

Support from others also may help prevent you from turning to unhealthy coping methods, such as misuse of alcohol or drugs.

If you want to begin to believe in miracles again, today would be a great day to start since we are remembering the day when God sent His Only Son to be a never ending story to the world. 

Mental Health Crisis calls cannot be solved with bullets

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

December 23, 2021

Why is it that people have no problem selecting someone to blame instead of knowing what is actually responsible? Mental Health Crisis calls cannot be solved with bullets.

Over and over again, we read news reports about police officers shooting someone after receiving a mental health crisis call. What we don't read is what comes afterwards. What happened to the family of the person in crisis? What happened to the officers responding?

The Concord Monitor just told the story of Meredith New Hampshire police officer Kevin O’Reilly after he received a call to respond to a man in crisis. The man was not a stranger to officer O'Reilly. He had responded because of the man "several times" before.

The article stated, "In New Hampshire, more than 60 percent of the people killed by police in the last decade struggled with mental illness, according to a Monitor analysis based on 10 years and more than 30 Attorney General reports."

 

Police are tasked with responding to mental crises. The results can be disastrous for officers and callers alike.

Concord Monitor
By TEDDY ROSENBLUTH
December 23, 2021

In New Hampshire, police officers, often not sufficiently trained on the intricacies of handling mental illness, are likely the first — and sometimes the only — response to those in a psychiatric crisis.

Last summer, Kevin O’Reilly sat around the Meredith police station with other officers and talked about a trend they noticed on the local news.

Stories of police shootings, specifically those that involved someone in a mental health crisis, seemed to pop onto the television every couple of months.

They listed off the recent ones: there was the middle-aged man shot in Belmont, about 16 miles south, whose parents said had been in and out of the psychiatric hospital for PTSD and bipolar disorder. About a year later, a 37-year-old man, who family members said struggled with delusions and paranoia for most of his adult life, was shot while running naked at a Thornton police officer about 20 miles to the north.

Every year, it seemed like more and more of O’Reilly’s job was consumed by mental illness. He estimated that on a typical night, three-quarters of his calls were to help someone in crisis.

“We’re not equipped or fully trained to deal with that,” he said. “We do our best: we try to talk softer and slower, bring them down. But we didn’t go to school for that.”
read more here

Sometimes the person has no one trying to help them. Others have family members facing their own turmoil, knowing someone they love needs help, but for whatever reason, the help they receive is not enough. Either way, families have to deal with the results and most of the time, they are unable to make peace with the fact they did the best they could with what they were not equipped to deal with.

For the officers involved, they may be able to come to terms with having to shoot a criminal easier than they can rationalize having to shoot someone who is only dangerous because their minds are sending them into the crisis the police had to respond to.

How many times does this have to happen before this nation actually comes to the conclusion that we have a mental health crisis in this country? January 9, 2020

Police officers opened fire on the man who was armed with a knife at about 10:22 p.m. at the Veterans Affairs Hospital at 4500 S. Lancaster Road. The man was at the hospital seeking psychiatric help, police said. At some point during the interaction, the man started to walk off and the VA officers followed him and tried to disarm him, according to the VA police. Their attempts to disarm him were unsuccessful and two officers opened fire, police said.

The worst thing of all is, police departments across the country are not taking mental health seriously in their communities or in the force itself. How do they expect officers trained to respond to criminals, suddenly become able to respond to people in crisis, when they cannot even respond to officers in crisis because of the jobs they do?

The only way is remember who is responsible for what. Officers are not trained to for mental health emergencies, anymore than psychologists are trained to deal with criminals. Knowing the limitations on humans will go a long way to changing the outcome.

Voting, "one of the most solemn trusts in human society"

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 17, 2021 

Right now the biggest danger to this nation is not what other nations can do to us, but what we can do to ourselves. The voice we have is our vote and what some politicians are doing is the equivalent of putting a muzzle on all of us. 

"Let each citizen remember at the moment he is offering his vote that he is not making a present or a compliment to please an individual - or at least that he ought not so to do; but that he is executing one of the most solemn trusts in human society for which he is accountable to God and his country." Samuel Adams

Some voters are deluded enough to not see that all votes are in jeopardy. All they want to see, all they want to know is, the vote of the "others" are being removed. They fail to see that their own votes are in peril.

If anyone has the right to disallow, remove or overturn the voice of the voters, then no one running for office is safe. Even if they do the will of those with the power to overrule votes, there is nothing to prevent themselves from becoming a target later on when someone else shows up, and those in power want to hand over that seat to them.

It is time for wisdom to defeat ignorance. This is something the Founding Fathers tried to imagine happening and they sought out ways to avoid it.

The connection between Jay’s day and ours is clear: “In our age,” Roberts wrote, “when social media can instantly spread rumor and false information on a grand scale,” there is even greater danger that political passions can turn us against one another, or against constitutional government itself. He emphasized judges’ particular role as “a key source of national unity and stability,” but his deeper point was that those values are needed among more than just judges.

His letter invoked Jay, Hamilton, Madison, and John Marshall, but his ideas called to mind another Founding Father: Benjamin Franklin, who, on leaving the constitutional convention of 1787, supposedly told a curious passerby that the Framers had produced “a republic, if you can keep it.” (The Atlantic)

New Hampshire Senator Maggie Hassan spoke about the need to secure our votes yesterday.

The truth is, men and women have been putting their lives on the line to defend this right to determine the direction of this country, before there even was a country. They fought the best military in the world and defeated it so the people could decide the leaders. That right has been defended over and over again because men and women valued it more than their own lives.

Now we see that the perception of military members being Republican, no longer applies.

In August, Military Times released its annual poll of service members, one of the only political pulse readings conducted of those actively serving. The poll found that support for Trump among the 1,018 active duty troops surveyed had fallen to 38 percent in 2020 from 46 percent in 2017. Of those respondents in the August poll, 41 percent said they were voting for Biden; 37 percent said they planned to vote for Trump; 13 percent would seek a third-party candidate and 9 percent said they did not plan on voting. “Donald Trump’s numbers are beyond dismal in the military, especially for a Republican,” said Jon Soltz, an Army veteran who deployed to Iraq twice and founded the 700,000-member VoteVets, a progressive-leaning veterans’ political advocacy organization. “The idea that veterans and the military are heavily Republican is just not true anymore.” (McClatchy)

Republican voters seen to think it is hitting Democrats. Democrat voters seem to think the same thing. The truth is, more voters are Independents and our votes are being threatened as well. This is from PEW

If we, as Independents, do not fight for all voters, no matter which party they claim, as well as, we who have no party loyalty but true loyalty to this nation we love, then we have failed all those who came before us.

When the church has no room for you

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 15, 2021

Almost 40 years ago, I started researching PTSD and in all these years, 90% of the people I helped, do not attend church. They felt as if there was no church that had a place for them. They just never fit in with what the leader preached, but did not practice. They didn't fit in with what the parishioners claimed when they saw how they actually acted. More had other reasons. Some were raised in a certain faith, but it was not practiced at home. Others were not raised to worship in a place, but raised to be "good people" with compassion and kindness, the same way Jesus taught.

Some knew that God still had room for them, even if they simply lived their lives worshiping Him the same way Jesus did. He did not attend "church" but prayed outside most of the time. He was actually against what was being done in the name of God, while it always involved money.

Jesus at the Temple
12 Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. 13 “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’[e] but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’[f]”

14 The blind and the lame came to him at the temple, and he healed them. 15 But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple courts, “Hosanna to the Son of David,” they were indignant.

They charged money for everything and if you didn't have any, you got nothing from them. Jesus never charged anyone for anything but paid for everything people needed from God with His Own Life!

Early Christians did not attend church, but prayed at home, or in small groups among their friends. They passed on hope, healing, God's mercy and love for them freely!

Not all houses of worship are like the robbers, and that is wonderful. Not all religious leaders are saying, "Praise God but write the check to them." Not all of them are living in mansions while people go homeless and hungry. Not all of them are involved with seeking political power over prayer. Not all of the people attending church are showing up just to be seen and then doing what they want the rest of the week.

No need to wonder why so many have left organized religion and prefer to be called spiritual instead of religious.

What's your religion? In US, a common reply now is "None"
Associated Press
By LUIS ANDRES HENAO, KWASI GYAMFI ASIEDU and DAVID CRARY
December 14, 2021

Through high school and college, he "drifted away" from Christian beliefs and in his 30s began a serious, long-lasting journey into spirituality while in rehab to curb his alcoholism.

"Spirituality is a soul-based journey into the heart, surrendering one's ego will to a higher will." he said. "We're looking for our own answers, beyond the programming we received growing up."

'I want to inspire people': Woman dedicates 10 years to copy the entire Bible by hand His path has been rough at times – the death of his wife from a fast-moving cancer, financial troubles leading to the loss of his house – but he says his spiritual practice has replaced his anxieties with a "gentle joy" and a desire to help others.

He previously worked as a landscape designer and real estate appraiser, and now runs a school teaching qigong, a practice that evolved from China combining slow, relaxed movement with breathing exercises and meditation.

"As a kid, I used to think of God up on a throne, with a white beard, passing judgment, but that has totally changed," Marston said. "My higher power is the universe... It's always there for me, if I can get out of my ego's way."

This is why I wrote The Lost Son series on Amazon. 

We live in a time of growing traumas and survivors need help to begin to heal. Experts have proven the need for mind-body-spiritual approaches to healing. How can they turn to spiritual healing when they feel there is no place for them?

Most people focus on veterans when they hear the term PTSD and then dismiss others suffering after surviving other events. They turn it into a contest to see who has the worst story of survival instead of listening to those who have the best stories of inspiration. It is almost as if having a happy, successful life afterwards is something we made up. I've heard it said time and time again, if a person is happy, then they made up the suffering.

I refuse to be ashamed of surviving over 10 events and still having a strong relationship with God, even though I have become a churchless child of His. I refuse to get into a contest with churchgoers because they are satisfied with their house to worship in when I prefer my own house.

There is a place for all of us with God. It is up to us how we live our lives and how we choose our own beliefs to live by. The Lost Son is about healing through faith and the actions of others to deliver the miracles out of God's Hands into our lives.

If you are still unsure of how God does understand trauma, all you need to wonder is, "Did Jesus Experience Trauma?" Experts Say ‘Yes’

Under the weight of the sins of the world, Jesus' body began to show signs of acute stress and trauma even before the physical torment leading to the crucifixion, and the crucifixion itself took place. In a moment of overwhelming love for us, dedication to his Father’s will, and desperation to be released from the agony to come, Jesus suffered in his mind, body, and spirit as he knelt in the garden. And then, he surrendered himself to the men who would torture, humiliate, and murder him.

“From a neurobiological perspective, we know that Jesus experienced pain so intense and overwhelming that by any human standards would likely mean he became traumatized,” says author and therapist Aundi Kolber.

So yes, He does. He doesn't send all the bad  stuff into our lives. People do. The weather does. Fires do. Wars do. Evil people doing evil things do. If you believe in God then you need to admit that the other guy is just as real. We've all seen what he does but he gets most of the attention making headline across the world. The Lost Son is an attempt to get people to see it is time to give credit where credit is due and give God as much publicity as Satan gets. 

determined to build a new life for himself and stay positive

'I don't know why anybody would be a police officer, you get a target on your back'

Rochester Voice
Harrison Thorp
December 11, 2021

"What really irks me is some people are so quick to place judgment and write negative shit. And then when they're cleared, there's no media coverage. I went through two years of being guilty before proven innocent, which is different than any other person out there." Michael McNeil Jr

Michael McNeil Jr. said he's learned a lot about people and the press during those worst two years of his life.

(Courtesy photo)

A former Rochester man and 20-year Northern Seacoast lawman accused of felony criminal threatening in 2019 said on Wednesday he lost his career in law enforcement "over lies," but is determined to build a new life for himself and stay positive.

Still, it's not easy.

"All this was over selfish lies," Michael McNeil Jr., 41, told The Rochester Voice on Wednesday. "What I went through was horrible. Every time I Google my name and see this stuff, it's heartbreaking."

"The support I've had from people I used to serve have expressed their support for me," he said. "They knew from the beginning this was all a lie. I've had such an outpouring from who I served in towns who reached out on Facebook to show their support. That helped me get through the hard times, the two years I had to go through. They would say. 'We thought you were the best, you cared about people.'"

read more here

Please pray for my friend

One of my best friends Gunny is in the hospital fighting for his life. He has COVID and is on oxygen. All he asked for was prayers. He has come to believe in the mighty hand of God and trusts the power of prayers. If it is not His will that Gunny be healed, then he wants prayers for his beloved wife.

It is time for the other survivors to find comfort too

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 8, 2021

If you have PTSD, it can be very hard to believe in miracles. Surviving the cause of it, didn't feel like a miracle, especially if you are suffering afterwards. The thing is, it won't change as long as you only focus on the event and misery that came with it.

Having survived over 10 of them, I can tell you that I felt lucky to still be alive at first. Then came the unanswerable questions filling up my mind. Some were caused by strangers. Some were caused by people I knew. Some were caused by doctors. Some were caused by my own body. Each and every time, there were miracles following the horror shows.

If you learn nothing else from me, learn how to see things in a different way.

The first miracle was, I survived. 

Once I stopped asking why it happened to me, I started to wonder why strangers would show up to help me. That was the second miracle I needed to see. All the people dropping what they were doing and helping me, in whatever way they could, helped me heal.

The third miracle was when I started to cry and released all the bad emotions that came with the event. That allowed good emotions to be fed and hope returned to my soul.

The forth miracle was when I used what I learned to help others along the way. I think that is the best miracle of all because it did not stop with me. It spread out. People I helped, helped others. They helped even more and it just kept going.

Survivors are proof that miracles do still happen. The thing you need to decide is, do you want to have your life defined by what tried to kill you, or do you want it defined by the miracles you pass on? Each time I helped someone, I was strengthened. There are no limits on what you can do, just as there are no limits on what God still does.

I hope you find what you're looking for in THE LOST SON because that is what it is all about. Each character in the book survived, regretted it and then, miracles walked into their lives. They became the answer to the miracles others were praying for.

While there are veterans in it, there are other main characters from other events as well. It is time for the other survivors to find comfort too, because there are 15 million Americans fighting PTSD every year and joining this group seeking happiness.

being denied mental health care and compensation is mashugana!

I continue to be stunned by the fact no nation takes care of their service members or veterans with PTSD. As bad as that is, it is even more a sickening they fail to see the rest of the people in their country feel the sting of the stigma inflicted upon them as survivors of the traumas they face too.

Getting PTSD because you serve your nation, was job related. Getting it because Israel requires service of everyone, then being denied mental health care and compensation is mashugana!

Disabled IDF veteran denied PTSD treatment commits suicide

The Jersualem Post
By ELIAV BREUER
Published: DECEMBER 5, 2021

47-year-old Itzik Chen, who was injured in Lebanon in the early 90s, committed suicide while fighting for recognition of his post-trauma.

A protest by disabled IDF veterans in Tel Aviv, April 18, 2021

(photo credit: AVSHALOM SASSONI/MAARIV)

Itzik Chen, who served as a paratrooper in Lebanon and Nablus, committed suicide on Sunday morning, Israeli media reported. Chen, 47, was recognized by the Defense Ministry as a disabled veteran but had been fighting for additional recognition of mental illnesses stemming from his service.

The Defense Ministry’s Rehabilitation Department has long been criticized for being excessively reticent in recognizing veterans’ claims of injury during military service. Until a veteran’s condition is recognized – a process that can take years in some cases – they are not eligible for assistance.

“We are hurting and stunned by the suicide of the disabled veteran Itzhik Chen,” the IDF Disabled Veterans Association said on Sunday. “This is exactly the cry that we have been raising the whole time. There are disabled IDF veterans who have been waiting for recognition for years, falling through the cracks over time and not receiving proper treatment.”
read more here