Change the conversation from Suicide Awareness to Healing Awareness

PTSD Patrol Changing the Conversation
PTSD Patrol and Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
June 9, 2018

We have got to change the conversation from Suicide Awareness to Healing Awareness! Suicides increase in Florida, country but we have failed at wondering what the hell we got wrong. 

Considering there has been this massive "effort" to change the outcome, no one seems to thinking about changing the FUBAR attempt of "raising awareness" that people were committing suicide. 

I've spent almost my entire life fighting against oblivious fools because I was also one of those who lost hope to the point where death seemed better than one more day on this earth.

No, I didn't try to commit suicide. I prayed I would get out the hospital bed in a body bag. Yes, I was that lost that I wanted the infection trying to kill me, to actually win.

I know what trauma is. I've been facing it since the age of 5, when a doctor not only told my parents I could have died, but used the word "should" have died. He was talking about how two things that happened, should have killed me. There was no earthly reason for surviving the push from the slide that caused me to fall onto the earth...on my head, and no earthly reason the first doctor missing the crack in my scull and the concussion. She told my Mom to take me home to get a good nights sleep.

One thing after another and every time should have caused PTSD in me, but it didn't for a very earthly reason. Nothing was left for me to "get over" on my own. My family had a habit of talking everything to death. It brought me out of the abnormality of what could have killed me, the normality of a safer existence. They never treated me like a victim. They comforted me for a while and then it was full swing into survivor mode.

I got into all this because of my Vietnam veteran husband in 1982 and have not stopped because while I do not know what combat did to him, I know what trauma did to me. I also know what it did not do and why it didn't. It is one of the reasons I spent years training in Crisis Intervention and becoming a Chaplain. 

Taking back my life from "it" was a challenge I was not about to lose and I am not about to let anyone else suffer in silence and fall into hopelessness without one hell of a fight!

I'm trying my best to get people to understand that their lives can get better. After over 29,000 post on this site, hundreds of videos, books and...you get the idea, I started PTSD Patrol because while I have seen the worst outcome too many times, I am a living example of the best outcome of all! I took back my life from the thing that tried to kill me.

Everything on PTSD Patrol is tied to driving. Yes, driving. Everyone can understand how we control where we go, how we get there but few understand how their vehicle works. This ends up with it breaking down! 

We are in our own vehicles! We are not our bodies but we are in them. The goal is simple and that is to make something as complicated as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder into something that if we do not know how to fix it, we go to a mechanic for our minds instead of our vehicles.

If you want to change the outcome, change the conversation! We do not want your money! I've done this work for over 3 decades and lose money every year because it does not cost much to talk or make people aware they can heal. Plus I have a regular job that covers the expenses.

We want your time so if you want to be part of the Road Crew, contact me. On Facebook, I am scoutpreacher and by email woundedtimes@aol.com. For videos on YouTube PTSD Patrol Sunday Morning Empowerment Zone

Kathie Costos DiCesare
Published on Feb 25, 2018
Starting today, we're going to be changing the conversation from suicide to empowerment. The only way to change the outcome, is to help veterans find hope again. They need to know what PTSD is, why they have it, but more than that, they need to know they can take back control of their lives. Lot better than taking their live isn't it?

Check back on Sunday mornings for more.

If you have one of those groups "raising awareness" then please stop talking about what veterans already know how to do and start helping them learn what they need to know, how to #TakeBackYourLife

PTSD Patrol begs female veterans to train their power

Female Warriors: Train Your Power
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 3, 2018

Earlier this week NPR had a heartbreaking report on female veterans and suicide.

"The suicide rate for female veterans has soared 85 percent in recent years, leading the military, VA and advocacy groups to try new ways to improve women's mental health care during and after service."

That caused me to write about how it was time to put "suicide awareness groups" out of business. Most of them do not know the facts, few focus on the majority of known veterans committing suicide and even less focus on female veterans.

I thought about all the female veterans I've met over the years. Some were suffering but even with that suffering came this survivor attitude that kept them moving forward, doing all they could for others. They trained the power within them so that giving up, settling for what their life was like, was not an option.

Think about what would have happened if these women had given up.  
Primer Magazine, Adam Brewton wrote about the powertrain.

Shop Talk: Understanding the Powertrain

"Your car is an integral part of your life and a large investment item. Knowing some basic information will help you better understand what needs fixing when you have to take your car to the shop, and allows you to have a chance at holding your own when your..."

read more here 

Hope spark plug works to heal PTSD

Hope spark plug works
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
April 29, 2018


If all you hear is negative, how can you find anything positive to fire your imagination? If your car battery only had negative terminals, it would not work, no matter how many times you tried to charge it.

You need something to put energy into your life again. You need some spark plugs to get you going.

This is from Firestone Complete Auto Care but think of it as complete YOU care.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT SPARK PLUGS
What do spark plugs do?

Spark plugs are vital to your car’s efficiency!

"Think of spark plugs as the tiniest bolt of lighting. Small but mighty, the spark of electricity that the plug emits across a small gap creates the ignition for the combustion needed to start your car. By putting the engine’s pistons in motion, your car can power up, stay powered up and produce a smooth burn of the compressed air-fuel mixture. Mind you, spark plugs like it hot: they withstand extreme heat and pressure within your cylinders and are built to burn off deposits from fuel additives or other contaminants."

read more here 

What is wrong does not mean you are not strong!

PTSD: What is wrong does not mean you are not strong!
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 25, 2018

My buddy Murray is one hell of a strong dog. He is as tough as they come and not much bothers him. (Well, aside from a couple of TV commercials making him freak out, or anyone near our house.) He loves people (as long as he is outside with them.)

We have a routine when I get home from work. I dump my purse and shoes just inside of the bedroom doorway and jumps on the sofa for his petting. First behind the ears and then he'll roll over for a belly rub. Wednesday when I rubbed behind his ears, he winced. Trying to figure out what was wrong, I did it again, and that time he almost cried.

I took him to the Vets and sure enough, he has a massive double ear infection. It must have been there for a while as his body was trying to fight it off.  

The fact he has an infection, does not mean he is any less strong, or brave. It means something hit him and tried to defeat him. With the right medicine and treatment, he'll be fine soon.

So will you! PTSD hit you! It does not mean you are not brave, or strong, or any less resilient than before. It means all the stuff you went through, your whole body was trying to fight off. There comes a time when it just can't fight anymore without help.

read more here

Don't settle for suffering. Take your life back from PTSD

From my other site PTSD Patrol
"Yesterday, my buddy Jonnie Rodriguez had something he wanted to share. His simple, powerful message of healing. 

When he thinks about what his life was like, when he had no hope of getting out of the hell he was in, and what his life is like now, he gets angry. Angry that others are settling for being defined by PTSD instead of taking control as a survivor."


The road ahead is yours! Stay in neutral, getting numb, feeling sorry for yourself, or get on the road paved by others who have gone before you.

It is a lot of work, but hey, training was hard work too. Your job is/was hard work. But as with any road trip, you can get help to get to where you want to go.

Think about every road has been laid out by someone looking at a forest and figured out how to connect one place to another. Same thing with healing PTSD. It took someone seeking a better way to get through what was keeping them out of where they wanted to go.