PTSD Patrol Family Road Trip Guide
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
April 7, 2019
I decided to tell our story so that no one would feel as lost or alone as I did.
When I got into all of this, there were not many people talking about live with PTSD. Within our community of veterans, we were talking about it and most of our friends were learning it from me. I learned from the experts on this road a lot longer before I ever knew there was one.
The book was ready in 2000 but I was still searching for a publisher when the planes hit the Towers.
16 years ago, on April Fools Day, my first book was published because I knew enough to know that suffering would spread out because of September 11, 2001.
I was talking to a Psychiatrist I know and he said I needed to get my book out there, so I decided to self publish it.
I am not going into detail on this right now, but there is an announcement coming on this soon. For right now, if you want a copy of the book, DO NOT BUY IT ONLINE and there are reasons for that.
If you want to read it, then email me woundedtimes@aol.com or leave a message here.
Just know that whatever you are going through, the only thing that has been causing a detour between your family beginning to heal is the missing effort on your part.
read more here and for this weeks video
How is it that for people in a profession that demands they ask questions all the time, find it so hard to ask other officers if they need backup?
Talking openly about police suicide is an important and long-overdue first step
The Washington Post
By Karen Tumulty
Columnist
April 4, 2019
NEW YORK
“There’s already enough tragedy in what we do.” Bringing it out of the shadows is an important first step, long overdue, and one that could help save the lives of those in whom we trust our own."
This week, there was an extraordinary gathering in an auditorium on the ground floor of the New York Police Department headquarters in Lower Manhattan. In that one room sat more than 300 police chiefs and other law enforcement officials from across the country and as far away as Australia and Northern Ireland.
They were there to discuss a leading cop killer: suicide. For eight hours, they took a raw and honest look at both the forces that drive officers to this most desperate of acts and the dilemmas they face in dealing with it.
“We do so much for everybody else. Very rarely do we talk about ourselves,” NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill said. “Nobody wants to take a step forward. Nobody wants to be branded, and we have to get past that.”
Suicide is a long-standing problem in police work, claiming more first responders each year than the number who die in the line of duty. University at Buffalo epidemiology professor John Violanti, a former New York state trooper who has studied the problem for decades, says the latest numbers collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate the risk of suicide for police officers could be 54 percent higher than it is for the population at large.
But Fairfax Police Chief Edwin C. Roessler Jr. realized that he would have to do more than that, something that took courage. He began sharing with his officers his own struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. “It’s okay to not be okay. I, the chief, seek help. I see a doctor once or twice a month to keep myself well,” he told me.
Riccio choked up as he told of a female officer who showed up for roll call, then went out to her patrol car to take her life.
North Miami just experienced its first officer suicide in three decades.
read more here
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife
Unaccounted casualties: The suicide rate of young veterans far outstrips the general population
Sun Coast Today
By Michael Bonner
Posted Mar 30, 2019
A knock on the door interrupted Brandon Cardoza. Standing outside of his second floor Chestnut Hall freshman dorm room was Luke Carreiro.
“This wasn’t ordinary for him,” Cardoza said. “When he showed up, I was concerned. He wanted to come in. I said ‘Let’s have a conversation.’”
Cardoza discarded his books, brushed aside his homework and sat on his bed. Sitting at Cardoza’s desk, Carreiro informed one of his best friends he was unhappy in college. He wanted more. He wanted to enlist in the military.
“I wanted to be a supportive friend,” Cardoza said. “I was just hoping he would stay. Because we had grown up together for five years. It’s selfish I understand, but, with the stories coming out overseas, I didn’t want to lose my good friend.”
Cardoza’s premonition became a reality. Carreiro died, not in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty, but because of Iraq.
On December 2, 2015, Carreiro, at the age of 26, took his own life on a military site in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
“Once I heard it was suicide, I instantly snapped back to that conversation in my dorm room,” Cardoza said.
The details of Carreiro’s story may be unique, however, the ending is not.
Carreiro was one of more than 72,000 veterans who committed suicide from 2005 to 2016, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
The suicide rate among veterans ages 18-34, which Carreiro fell into, is 45 per 100,000, much higher than the rate of non-veterans, which is less than 30, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Younger veterans experience a higher rate of suicide, however, older veterans, ages 55-75 experience the highest number of suicides.
“This story, (Luke’s story), it happens so much,” Veteran and activist Chris Azevedo said. “And this is the problem.”read more here
Plugging into present
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 31, 2019
Tomorrow is April Fools Day, but so far, the joke may have been one you pulled on yourself.
If you have been telling yourself that you are currently worth less than you used to be, then, it has been a cruel joke.
Maybe you told yourself that you have fallen down on the job...or because of your job. Maybe you told yourself about a thousand times that you should just give up and end the misery. Well, you're partly right on that one but not in the way you think.
You should give up on all the negative thinking so that you can end the misery and start to live a happier life.
How about you unplug from the negativity of yesterday and begin to "plug into the present" possibilities available to you today?
Plug Into The Present is a site about electric cars. They need to have charge stations on the road, especially on long trips, or they run out of power.
You need charge stations too. So far you have been using the wrong power source. Think about it this way. If it was your job to save lives, why would you give up on yours now?
You can take the back seat of your own life and give up...
or you can use your power to take back control of this moment on.
Think about that. Think about how up until now, you have not been thinking enough of the right things. You operated on the negative charge stations instead of the positive change stations.
The lives you saved would not be here to be fighting to take control of their own lives as survivors without you. Have you ever wondered what happened to them? Would you be shocked if they had PTSD? Well, over 7 million Americans have diagnosed PTSD and a lot more are wondering what the hell is going on with their lives.
Now, notice that it only takes one time for PTSD to take over. That's right. Just one event can cause a survivor to be bitten by it. How many times did you expose yourself to traumatic events because you put your own life on the line to save someone else?
Now does it make sense that it has nothing to do with being weak? If not then understand that it actually has more to do with the strongest part of you. It is the same part that compelled you to take action with courageously placing yourself in harms way.
Your courage and training did not mean you stopped being human.
read more here
OMBUDSMAN ALERT: State eliminates $4.7M in funding for veterans mental health program, including $185K for BRIDGES in Rockland County, putting services for returning veterans at risk
BY DR. LOUIS ALPERT
Ombudsman
March 28, 2019
Senator David Carlucci said at a press conference, “It is shameful that the Governor did not provide funding for the PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Veteran Peer Support Program. This is about supporting the men and women who sacrificed their lives for our freedom and may return needing our help. We cannot let PTSD and TBI take another veteran’s life, which is why I support $4.7 million in funding for this program in our state’s budget.”
In Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2019 state budget, $4.7 million in funding designated for the Joseph P. Dwyer Veteran Peer Support Program has been cut statewide. The program has been effective improving the lives of many troubled returning US war veterans, many of whom were considered at risk of mental health crises, including suicide.
In Rockland County alone, $185,000 allocated to the non-profit group BRIDGES to administer the program has been eliminated. Carlos Martinez, executive director of the Rockland BRIDGES program, said this cut will put the program “entirely out of business” in our county.
State officials expressed disapproval of the defunding of BRIDGES’ veterans program.
Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee said, “In gratitude for their service to this nation, our veterans and their families deserve the resources and support they need, “ said Assemblywoman Ellen Jaffee. “New York State has a moral responsibility to ensure the economic stability and mental wellness of the men and women who have made the ultimate sacrifice. “As a member of the Mental Health Committee, I am committed to providing adequate funding in the budget for mental health services and programs.”
Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski said, “I have long supported the Joseph P. Dwyer program and am pushing for the restoration of funding in the final budget. The Dwyer funding has allowed BRiDGES to implement a successful peer to peer program that provides veterans with effective support services. I have pledged my full support for this important program and am fighting to see it continued.”
read more here
Fire Chief made joke about PTSD to firefighter?
Why is this still happening when someone with the authority should have invested time in understanding what PTSD is considering the men and women under him face the causes of it on a daily basis?
Advocates have spent decades to educate everyone on what PTSD is, why they have it and what they can do to heal. We spent all these years to do that so that the stigma is proven stupid and so are jerks like this who feel it is OK to make a joke about a firefighter finding the courage to #BreakTheSilence and ask for help.
Any kind of idea what kind of message this sends to the people they rescue who end up with PTSD as survivors too?
At least the other firefighters made sure their "brother" got the help he asked for and the want to make sure the Chief is held accountable~
Firefighters call for Marion Fire Chief to step down after disconcerting comments
The Indy Channel News
By: Nicole Griffin
Mar 22, 2019
"He said, 'ha, we'll tell your family how good of a guy you were,'" Captain Lamb recalled. He said the chief then made a joke, referencing the death of another firefighter.
MARION —Firefighters at the Marion Fire Department said they are stunned about comments the fire chief reportedly made to a firefighter who confided in him about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms he was having. They are now asking the city's mayor to demote the fire chief, or for him to step down.
"It's probably the least common thing for someone to talk about it, to be honest with you," Captain Jordan Lamb, Marion Fire Department, and local union president, said.
Captain Lamb has been a part of the Marion Fire Department for 12 years. Day after day, he responds to difficult calls. He said every firefighter and EMT handles the emotions differently.
"I just try to keep it in and let it pass. Kids are the worse - especially since I have kids," Captain Lamb said. "I can see anything, but you put a kid out there it's going to affect me."
The department recently went through mandatory suicide awareness training. One firefighter came forward to the chief expressing his feelings of PTSD. It was the chief's response that has firefighters upset.
read more here
PTSD Patrol Highway Construction
Wounded Times and PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 20, 2019
There is movement going on right now on the road to healing but it has not made it onto every road map yet.
The movement is driving away from the long line of frustrating road blocks (suicide awareness) and onto the freeway (healing awareness) more people are getting on.
A couple of years ago, a group of us were talking about how all the suicide awareness was not only blocking hope, it was pushing too many into the dead ending. Facts back that one up. If you doubt that, here are some things you need to know.
Military suicides, all branches, 10 year high.
Known veteran suicides, percentages increased over the last 20 years, while population of veterans decreased.
Police Officer suicides increased.
Firefighter suicides increased.
All you have to do is read Wounded Times and know, we have the proof. If not, then you can GPS (Google portable search) it and find it for yourself. Type what you want to know, and then click the "News" tab, since that search produces the most current news reports.
It was time to change the conversation with my first book published in 2002, then in 2006, when I put up some of the first videos on PTSD. Back then it was easier to get the truth out because the roads were not blocked by traffic jams.
So, having little faith in social media to verify anything, we knew the only way to change the outcome, was to change the conversation.
Everyone can understand the vehicles they drive, how they control where they go and how they get there. They also know that someone had to clear the road before anyone got on it. Some of the best experts cleared the way when I was learning how to drive on this road back in 1983. I just had to learn how to navigate on it.
It is the same with the vehicle you live in. You actually control where you go and how you get there. You decide if you want to stay parked right where you are, or just coast downhill in neutral.
Popular Mechanics Mike Allen wrote about this notion.
"I get mail. I've said, on the record, many times, that it's a bad idea to coast downhill or up to a stop sign in neutral. It's unsafe. You need to be able to use the accelerator to avoid an unexpected road hazard; cars don't handle well in neutral during sharp cornering maneuvers when the engine isn't connected to the drivetrain.
So why on earth would you put the transmission in neutral—whether on manual or automatic—when coasting? Apparently there are a lot of people out there who think they are saving gas by doing so. They're wrong."
That is what the Suicide Awareness groups have been doing for a very long time without being aware of how unsafe it actually is.
All of us, at one time or another, have had to endure construction aggravation when highways are being changed to improve driving conditions. Between the year they start and the year the finish, there is an increase in the number of accidents...and traffic jams.
Living in Florida, I work near I-4 in Maitland, subjected to the I-4 -Ultimate Project. At least once a week, there is a traffic helicopter hovering above due to a bad accident, along with daily blares of sirens from emergency vehicles rushing to help.
Anyway, after all these years, the idea of PTSD Patrol came up as a way to clear all the stuff out of the way so veterans could heal...and it has been lighting spark plugs to empower creative thought.
The key is to help them learn how to drive the rest of their lives the right way.
We are giving them their lessons, so they can learn how their vehicles work. Then explain what PTSD is, is not and how to #TakeBackYourLife.
With that, they have a learners' permit, so they can experience the control of their "vehicle" and how to handle road hazards.
They learn how to navigate to the mechanics who can properly maintain their "vehicles" (mind body and spirit) and be empowered to become a master of their own journey.
So, which do you think will work the best? Having them hear about how others gave up or how to switch gears and live it up?
Firefighter honored for saving colleague from suicide
EastIdahoNews.com
Nate Eaton
East Idaho Real Heroes
March 14, 2019
POCATELLO — Dustin Hale was ready to end it all.
The Pocatello firefighter had decided life wasn’t worth it and didn’t care to live anymore.
“I had reached a point where I couldn’t see a way out,” Hale says.
Hale served ten years in the U.S. Navy before joining the department where he worked for five and a half years.
He was a paramedic and dealt with traumatic, life and death situations nearly every day.
“You take those images home and you see all that pain and suffering and some people are ok with it,” Hale tells EastIdahoNews.com. “I seem to absorb all that and take it with me all the time.”
The PTSD from his job led to insomnia and Hale would sometimes go two or three days without sleeping. He turned to alcohol and it got to the point where he could no longer do his job.
“I knew that I wasn’t the person I would want showing up to take care of me,” Hale says.
Hale’s behavior was so bad the department needed to let him go but on the day he was supposed to meet with administrators, he never showed up.
“I reached out to try and contact him and was unable to get a hold of him,” recalls Pocatello Fire Captain Andy Moldenhauer.
Moldenhauer didn’t feel right about Hale’s absence so he met up with Hale’s sister and went to his house.
“The fire department is a brotherhood and I relayed to him that even if he was no longer an employee of the fire department, he was still a brother,” Moldenhauer says.
Those work brothers spoke for four hours with Hale initially refusing to even think about getting help.
“He admitted to having a gun in his mouth earlier that day and that was the point when I tried to turn his experience as a paramedic on him and say, ‘You’ve now obligated me to stay here,'” Moldenhauer says.
Eventually, Hale agreed to go the VA Salt Lake City Center and Moldenhauer, along with a battalion chief, drove him to Utah.
read more here
Who are you driving away?
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 17, 2019
Today is St. Patrick's Day. Tradition says that he drove snakes out of Ireland. That got me thinking about driving other things away, like the people in your life.
So who are you driving away? Are you pushing people away so they do not see you as being vulnerable? Weaker than they thought you were?
What is it that keeps you from seeing that you would feel terrible if someone needed you, but pushed you away instead.
St. Patrick
St. Patrick, (flourished 5th century, Britain and Ireland; feast day March 17), patron saint and national apostle of Ireland, credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland and probably responsible in part for the Christianization of the Picts and Anglo-Saxons. He is known only from two short works, the Confessio, a spiritual autobiography, and his Letter to Coroticus, a denunciation of British mistreatment of Irish Christians.
Healing takes a triple play like the trinity. Mind-body and spirit. Leave one out and you will not heal as well as you would by taking care of all the things that make you...you.
Before the end of the 7th century, Patrick had become a legendary figure, and the legends have continued to grow. One of these would have it that he drove the snakes of Ireland into the sea to their destruction. Patrick himself wrote that he raised people from the dead, and a 12th-century hagiography places this number at 33 men, some of whom are said to have been deceased for many years. He also reportedly prayed for the provision of food for hungry sailors traveling by land through a desolate area, and a herd of swine miraculously appeared. Another legend, probably the most popular, is that of the shamrock, which has him explain the concept of the Holy Trinity, three persons in one God, to an unbeliever by showing him the three-leaved plant with one stalk. Traditionally, Irishmen have worn shamrocks, the national flower of Ireland, in their lapels on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17.
St. Patrick took care of poor sailors..what if they were too proud to accept his help?
Well, that happens all the time...especially when you were the one who made it your job to save other people. Bet you didn't stop to see that it was the same career choice everyone you serve with made too.
Would you help them if they needed you? Then what's stopping you from asking them for help to stay instead of pushing them away?
Don't give me the stigma crap. If you spent a fraction of the time you use to cover up the pain, on learning what is causing it, the stigma would be proven to be a grim fairy tale. It would not even exist.
read more here
Officer dies in reported suicide
Miami Times
March 14, 2019
Miami Gardens Police and Miami-Dade Fire Rescue responded to a home near 3800 Block of NW 201 Terrence in reference to an apparent suicide. The victim was pronounced dead by Fire Rescue on the scene. An investigation revealed that the victim was discovered unresponsive by his wife.
The victim is employed as an officer with a “South Florida law enforcement agency,” according to Miami Gardens Police.
The victim’s name is being withheld pending complete notification of next-of-kin. The victim was transported to the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner’s Office for a post mortem examination to determine the cause and manner of death.
An Indiana veteran sat in his kitchen ready to take his life. Then he looked at the clock.
Indianapolis Star
Holly V. Hays
March 14, 2019
Two days later, while he was still contemplating how best to kill himself, Eric received a phone call. One of his former platoon sergeants, a close friend, had killed himself.
The Glock was loaded with a round in the chamber.
U.S. Army veteran Eric Donoho sat in the kitchen of his Carmel home, trying to decide where he was going to die.
Not here, he thought. My family's gonna have to live in the house I just killed myself in.
Eric had been to war. Survived three bomb blasts. Lost children and friends. Was on the verge of losing his marriage.
Would the yard be better? Should I get in the car?
The minutes ticked by as he deliberated. Something made him check the clock.
2:15 p.m.
Time to pick up the kids.
He walked away from the fateful decision that day but remained committed to following through with it.
The death would later upend his family. But the death would not be his.
Bliss and heartbreak
A native of South Bend, Eric enlisted in the U.S. Army in 2004, when he was 26. He trained at Fort Benning, Georgia, completing infantry, airborne and shoulder-fired missile training. On a flight to his assignment in Fort Richardson, Alaska, he met the woman who would become his wife.
They spent much of the eight-hour flight between Atlanta and Anchorage laughing, Jenn Donoho said. They married nine months later, March 2006.
“We had so much fun in our early relationship and marriage, and whenever things were tough, he always had the right amount of humor to lighten those moments,” Jenn said.
They had less than a year together before Eric was deployed in October. Jenn was 28 weeks pregnant with their first child, a son they would name David.
"We said goodbye at base," Jenn said, "and that night, I dreamed that David died."
A Red Cross notification upon landing in Kuwait had Eric back on a flight to Alaska. There was trouble with the pregnancy. He arrived just in time for his son's stillbirth.
The couple buried their son at Fort Richardson National Cemetery before Eric redeployed to catch up with his platoon in Iraq.
“That was horrible for everybody,” Jenn said.
Eric was rattled by an explosion his first night back.
He returned to the things he loved before war: photography and the outdoors. During a veterans retreat and expedition to New Mexico he took a photo he now calls “The Canyon of Hope" along the Gila Fork River.
read more here
The new plan to prevent veteran suicides: new grants, better research, more community focus
Military Times
Military Times
By: Leo Shane III
March 4, 2019
Officials from the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee are scheduled to hold a roundtable with administration experts on the issue later this week. Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee ranking member Jon Tester, D-Mont., introduced new legislation on the issue last week.
WASHINGTON — The White House is creating a new high-level task force on preventing veterans suicide which will include new community outreach grants aimed at former service members and expanded projects across a host of government agencies to coordinate research and prevention efforts.
President Donald Trump will sign a new executive order on the initiative — dubbed the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide, or PREVENTS — on Tuesday afternoon at the White House.
It’s the latest in a series of steps by his administration to address the problem, which claims an estimated 20 veterans lives every day. Last year, the president signed a separate executive order providing more counseling and mental health care for recently separated service members, who face a significantly higher risk of suicide than other military groups.
According to senior administration officials, the new order will give agency officials a year to develop plans for a more aggressive approach to suicide prevention, with a goal of more state and local community engagement.
The task force will look to develop a new grant system for mental health support and outreach similar to the Housing and Urban Development-VA Supportive Housing program, which provides funding directly to local charities and city programs to help individualize assistance plans for veterans.
The research work will also include pushing the Centers for Disease Control to provide more up-to-date information on veterans suicide research. Currently, the latest available data on the problem typically trails at least two years behind current efforts. Senior administration officials are hoping to cut that wait down to no more than six months.
read more here
Gee, where did I hear this one before?
Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide
Trump reads staggering veteran suicide statistics
President Trump signed an executive order aimed at creating a federal task force that will tackle how agencies can help prevent veteran suicides.
"Hard to believe an average of 20 veterans and servicemembers take their lives everyday..."
And that President Trump, is because it is NOT 20 A DAY but is much higher when the facts are actually put together!
PTSD Patrol Turbo charge your healing
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 2, 2019
It seems as if everyone is talking about younger veterans with PTSD...forgetting that the majority of veterans seeking help for PTSD are over the age of 50. Unfortunately, that age group are also the majority of the known suicides. What did you expect me to say when they are also the majority of veterans in our country?
OK, so, if you are driving an antique, you know it takes a lot more to keep it running than if you had a new car with all the techno crap you really don't need.
When you figure out that there is something seriously wrong with your vehicle, you can keep it in the garage, but that does not solve the problem. You ask some buddies what they think could be wrong, but you won't get the right answer unless you are able to mimic the noise that is in the engine.
Often, you will search online, then discover what you think it may be. You may make an appointment with the mechanic (docs at the VA) and get a diagnosis.
read more here
Ohio fraternal order calls for PTSD care for first responders
The Blade
KATE SNYDER
Blade Staff Writer
February 28, 2019
Officer Payne did not report to work as scheduled on Tuesday, which prompted a welfare check, police said, and indications are that the death was a suicide. He was hired by the Toledo Police Department on Jan. 24, 1997, and served in field operations most of his career.
COLUMBUS — The Fraternal Order of Police of Ohio is calling for post-traumatic stress disorder care for first responders, citing a Toledo police officer’s possible suicide.
In a statement released Thursday, the Ohio FOP highlighted the mental-health hardship officers face in their work, and said the order plans to work with lawmakers on a new bill to provide better resources to police who may be suffering in silence.
“If a police officer breaks his leg carrying an injured child to safety, workers’ comp is there to help him heal,” the Ohio FOP said. “If that same child dies a painful death in the officer’s arms, and the officer isn’t otherwise injured, there is no help for the officer to process and cope ... ”
Toledo officer Jeffrey Payne, 53, died Tuesday in a possible suicide, according to the Toledo Police Department. Lucas County Sheriff John Tharp, whose office has investigated the death, said law enforcement throughout the country could benefit from expanded access to mental health services.
read more here
Vietnam Veteran Had PTSD For Years Without Knowing
Huffington Post
By Chai Dingari
February 27, 2019
Today, Smallwood is an accomplished actor and writer. His book Return To Eden discusses his Vietnam experiences extensively to share with others who might have gone through the same thing. He still lives with depression and takes each day as it comes. At the end of it all, he acknowledges, “I’m a survivor.”
As Tucker Smallwood explains, when Vietnam veterans returned home, oftentimes they were met with the words “baby killer” and “cry baby.” Those unwelcoming sentiments only added to the severe psychological trauma that many of them were coming back with.
Smallwood’s story shares elements of many American soldiers’ experiences in Vietnam. Drafted into the army in 1967, he was wounded in action on Sept. 14, 1969. He was left for dead on the operating table before a second doctor saved his life. He came home and threw himself into a new life as an actor, quickly finding acclaim.
For years, Smallwood had a high-functioning and successful life. Then, an incident in 1978, eight years after his wartime injury, triggered a decade-long cycle of severe depression that he suffered through until he was persuaded to seek help.
As Smallwod explains, “There’s lots of kinds of PTSD. Anyone can be traumatized [...] You might break down right then. I might not break down for 10 years. It’s post-traumatic.”
The trigger for his PTSD came in the form of two young kids who pointed a gun at him one day in New York City and attempted to shoot him. Thankfully, the gun misfired and Smallwood was left standing there in confusion. Shortly afterward, while he was onstage performing in a musical, he broke down in tears in front of 600 people and had to be led offstage. At that point, Smallwood realized he had some issues he needed to resolve.
For more than 20 years, Smallwood experienced what is known as “anniversary syndrome.” Every year on Sept. 14, the day he was wounded in action, he would experience visceral flashbacks to the jungles of Vietnam.
Smallwood lived with this annual trauma for two decades until he began talking about Vietnam in his regular therapy. It wasn’t until 1988 that he was formally diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
read more here
When it is your job to save people, that should include YOU! Everyone you work with would do it for you and you would do it for them. That should tell you that you should not be last on the list of lives to save! #BreakTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife
Pasco deputy, a wife and mother of three, died by suicide at home, sheriff says
Tampa Bay Times
By Langston Taylor
Published 6 hours ago
Updated 1 hour ago
There have been 37 law enforcement officers who have died by suicide so far in 2019, according to the nonprofit Blue H.E.L.P., which was started in 2015 to collect data and offer resources and help to officers and their families. It reported 160 deaths in 2018 and 159 in 2017.
Pasco sheriff’s Deputy April Rodriguez, a wife, a mother of three and a grandmother, died by suicide, said Pasco Sheriff Chris Nocco at a Monday news conference. [Pasco County Sheriff’s Office]
A Pasco sheriff's deputy and mother of three has died by suicide, said Sheriff Chris Nocco.
Deputy April Rodriguez, 43, was found Sunday morning. She is the latest in what Nocco called an epidemic of law enforcement suicides.
Rodriguez didn't show up for work that morning, the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office said. Deputies attempted to contact her, then went to her apartment, where her coworkers found her.
“She was a good person, with a great heart, and loved her children very much,” Nocco said.
She was the third first-responder in the Tampa Bay region to die by suicide in the past two months. A Pinellas County sheriff’s deputy and a St. Petersburg Fire Rescue firefighter both killed themselves in December.
read more here
Seminole County sergeant speaks candidly about suffering from PTSD, suicidal thoughts
WFTV 9 ABC News
By: Katy Camp , Lauren Seabrook
Feb 23, 2019
SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. - In the mid-'80s, Sgt. Mark Dibona decided on a career. He decided to go into law enforcement, joining the Seminole County Sheriff's Office.
"I've been on the job now almost 34 years," he said.
That's more than three decades of seeing people at their worst, day in, day out. Exposed to tragedy, violence and - at times - overwhelming sadness - Dibona took the advice of those before him and developed a tough guy mentality.
"We were told to toughen up, walk away, have a beer," he told WFTV reporter Lauren Seabrook.
But that hard shell was just that - a shell. The truth of his heart reveals a man who is deeply caring, deeply empathetic and devoted to the people he is committed to protecting.
"A family pulled up next to me about two or three o'clock in the morning and handed me their baby and said, 'My baby's not breathing,'" he recalled. "It seemed like it took forever when I was doing CPR. Unfortunately the baby didn't make it. But to this day, I can still feel the baby on my arm. And that took a toll on me."
read more here
