Showing posts with label PTSD books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PTSD books. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Thank you for sharing your life and wisdom in For The Love of Jack

How did I go from this,

July 20, 2005

Dear Kathie,

Thank you for sharing your life and wisdom in For The Love of Jack. I must also thank you for sharing it through the internet.

I admit to you that I had not initially sought out this information. It was forwarded to me yesterday by my good friend Edward XXXXXX. I started the book last night, didn't sleep very well, too many thoughts on the matter at hand, woke up this morning, made a lighter and quicker breakfast fare than usual only so that I could get back to your story.

Being forty-eight years of age I do share most of your pre-Jack memories of Vietnam, especially the news reports at dinner time, it was a pretty horrific time in our lives. I'm ashamed to admit that Vietnam was a memory that I had set aside.

I had heard some talk of PTSD, it only came to light with 9/11. I had also heard of "shell shock" but again, it seemed like a distant memory of something that happened to people back in WWII. In my ignorance I thought that it was caused by a physical manifestation - like shrapnel or a head injury having been it's cause.

Your book enlightened me in more ways than you can imagine. I wish these living angels could sprout wings so that we would know them when we see them, so that we could revere and thank them and treat them with the fullest respect and dignity that they so deserve.

Then again, you should have sprouted a set of wings, too!

With love and continued healing and blessings to you and yours,
Elaine


August 4, 2005

Hello Kathy - I was just about to contact you. Late Tuesday afternoon, Bobby XXXX, our PTSD Unit Case Manager completed his review of the book (I've inserted his comment below) We just wanted to allow our internal case managers an opportunity to review before placing online. Now, in terms of formatting, how would you like the book to be placed on the website? In Adobe or some other format? We are now in the process of revising our website and over the next two weeks will have a lot of new information going online, at that time, we will also place your book online. Do we need to have any formal agreements from you in order to do this? Anything else you want to let me know about? Just let me know. Thanks again Kathy.

Here is Bob XXXX comment

Hi Stephen,I put a little more into Kathie's book.It'll be especially helpful to significant others or those affected by secondary ptsd,up close or from distances.She makes it easy for the readers who need to grasp closure as well as those who quietly need to know.


December 20, 2005
Dear Mrs., Costos

I came across a Web-site and I enjoyed what you had written there. I am a Veteran Vietnam 1967-69. I know what it is like to be married to a Vietnam Veteran. I have two ex.-wife's neither of whom can say I ever abused them. I think the work normal is something Vets don't have. My last two wife's still love me either can sleep in the same bed with me. So they now sleep in the bed of someone else. I have a knew wife of a year and she has moved to the couch.

She I think she is afraid, I might died during the night. I do love her very, very much so I respect her need to sleep on the couch. I have got the works, heart problems, Sugar, PTSD a whole list. I go out and work everyday I can to take care of her and would not have it any other way. My problem I just don't no how mush longer I can hang in there.

I have been fighting with the Veterans Administration since 2001 to get help. Last Dec. I manage finally to get some help. I was homeless for three years after 2001. I would work and could only make enough money to eat and buy my smokes. I was refused care by four Veterans Hospitals during that time. So, I know what you have been through. I know in your heart your a good person. You not only tried, but you kept tiring. Most women just take the money and run!

Thank you Kathie for hanging in there with yourVet, heaven has a place for you waiting.

Thank you again, To be kind is ever so wise !
Your Friend,
The Rose


to not being able to pay my bills?

What really gets to me now is that being right way back then has left me being last on support. Organizations spending most of their money on raising more funds have taken the spotlight away from people way ahead of them on the work, so they can turn around and claim they are now doing what has been done all along.

When I think of how many people I've reached over the years, my heart breaks because I could have reached so many more but was not given a chance because I didn't have financial support or even enough people passing on what I do. That was the whole point of doing this and will be the point of doing all of this tomorrow.

If you cannot find it in your heart to support what I do financially, can you send the link to my work to people you know? If you cannot do either one for me, then can you send a prayer that someone else will?

Friday, June 29, 2012

Tenth Anniversary of For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle

Tenth Anniversary of For the Love of Jack, His War/My Battle
Ten years ago I self published For The Love Of Jack, His War/My Battle about living with Combat PTSD. I wanted to help other veterans and their families by talking about what was still a secret war going on when men and women came home from war.

It was finished and I was looking for a publisher when September 11th came. I rushed to have it self-publised. You can read more about this on the above link. To make a long story short, there is so much we knew back then that there are no excuses for what is not being done today. When you read it, you'll know what I mean.

I hope it helps you to understand a few things.

First, it is not hopeless and it does not have to win.
Families can stay together and help each other heal.
Older wives like me can help the younger generation learn what it took us 40 years to understand, in my case, 30 years.
That family members need just as much support living with Combat PTSD as the veteran does. Families are on the front line of this and it is up to us to fight for them when they come home.
Above all this, the need for spiritual healing since PTSD is a wound to the soul.
I don't just study PTSD and report it on my blog. I live with it everyday. I've seen the darkest days losing hope but I've also seen my wonderful husband come out on the other side of darkness. Sadly as you'll read in the book, his nephew did not make it and took his own life. His death was one of the reasons I decided to fight even harder to make sure there were more healing and less dying.

With the reports of 18 veterans suicides per day and an average of one military member committing suicide, it breaks my heart knowing none of this had to happen and I couldn't get anyone with the authority to do anything about it to listen.

For all the talk about June being PTSD Awareness Month, it seemed only right to release this work at the end of the month.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Marine veteran hopes his memoirs will help others

Marine veteran hopes his memoirs will help others, speaks at FSCJ Tuesday
Van Winkle will be giving a lecture on his book, 'Soft Spots,' at South Campus.
Posted: February 27, 2012
By Anthony DeFeo

Like scores of other veterans, Clint Van Winkle couldn’t stop waging the war inside his head.
After serving as one of the first troops on the ground in the Iraq War, he knew something wasn’t right from the first night he was home.

“Pretty early on, from the first night home, when I was away from the Marines,” said Van Winkle, “it didn’t feel right.”

His memoir, “Soft Spots,” chronicles his wartime experiences and the struggles he experienced after his return home.

It tells a personal tale of how war can affect a person and how difficult it can be for a veteran to seek help.

Van Winkle will be giving a lecture about his book at Florida State College at Jacksonville’s South Campus on Tuesday. The event is at 7 p.m. in the Wilson Center Theater and will be followed by a book signing.
read more here

Soft Spots continues to get rave reviews

Van Winkle offers view of PTSD

Friday, February 3, 2012

The Living Diet is a great read

Once in a while a book for me to review comes in and I am pleasantly surprised. Usually by the fourth page, the book gets put away and I never mention it. I simply don't give bad reviews. This is one of the books that I am happy to share. It is short, so that says a lot for the author not wanting to "hear his own voice" more than the message he wants to share with the readers. He wants to share healing and that is very much needed right now. Great read.

The Living Diet
The world is full of people who are stressed out. Anyone who has lived through a catastrophic event – military veterans, disaster survivors, crime victims, firefighters and others – can have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Living Diet chronicles the life of a veteran who is overwhelmed by PTSD following his return from overseas combat tours. His only safety line is a former military chaplain who encourages him to seek help. It doesn’t matter who you are – veteran or non-veteran. It doesn’t matter whether you are male or female. PTSD can get a grip on you and control your life. Learn to adapt to the four key strategies of The Living Diet and begin your healing process today!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

Shock Waves, PTSD book that tells it like it is





When it comes to PTSD the best therapists either have PTSD or live with someone who does. There are many things that you can't understand just by reading books or talking to someone from time to time. The frustration of living with mood-swings, walking on eggshells, constant turmoil and heartbreak, glimpses of hope shattered by reality, the constant worry for their safety, the list goes on. No one understands this better than the people living with it. When it comes to books on PTSD, it follows along the same reasoning. If you want to know what it is like living with PTSD, read it from someone who does and not some casual observer just copying news reports or interviewing people without really understanding what questions should be asked. I've been living with the good and bad for 26 years. When I'm pulled into a book I'm reading, into their world and their pain, that's when I know they get it.

Cynthia Orange gets it. In her new book Shock Waves, she shares her life and uses quotes from others to help healing. She shares her life along with research to get others to know the life we live everyday. It's well written and flows without hype and needless words just to fill pages.

It's the best $14.95 you can spend if you want to learn more about PTSD.

I am asked all the time to review books and usually I cringe a bit when I get an email about the newest book coming out. I don't give bad reviews, so I don't mention the books I find more self-promoting than helpful. One recent book came to me and when I read about full names being printed along with personal information by a therapist, I just about fell off my chair. That one almost made me reach the point of stopping reviewing books all together. Other books left me feeling as if they just don't know enough about it. Shock Wave just restored my faith in good people writing for the right reasons.

Monday, December 21, 2009

The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Relationship

I am not a psychiatrist or a psychologist. I need them now just as I needed them in the beginning to help heal my husband. I had to go it alone for years but finally found great doctors at the Bedford VA in Burlington MA, and we got my husband thru the darkest of times. That's one of the biggest things missing today.

Families are often avoided when a veteran is being treated for PTSD instead of added into the healing. Too many veterans are not receiving any therapy at all to go along with their growing list of medications they take. What we see are more suicides, attempted suicides, families falling apart, drug abuse, homelessness and hopelessness. All of this does not just happen to the veteran at the center of the turmoil in the family but to the entire family often being carried over one generation to the next, just as it had been since man first went to war with man. No one was doing anything as PTSD claimed more and more of the character of the veteran.

Today we have the Internet allowing veterans to connect to veterans all over the nation and families connect to other families for support and advice. As we travel the world wide web of knowledge, keep in mind there will be great advice as well as bad advice. Most sites offer support from groups of individuals in the same position and of the same background. Not one single site, including mine, has all the answers and they never will.

I know what it's like living with PTSD and have gained great insight into their world talking to them and their families, as well as my own husband, but no matter how much I know, I cannot go past suspecting PTSD. It takes a doctor to diagnosis it and provide medication for it. I can add to therapy they receive but I cannot replace it. I can give back hope of healing but I cannot answer prayers or replace God. My job is just to get them back into communicating with God instead of feeling abandoned by Him or trying to hide from Him.

Helping as teams, much can be accomplished but if you come across anyone acting as if they are the alpha and omega with all the answers on PTSD, run as fast as you can. After over 25 years, there are still things I am learning but above all, learning I can't do it all and was never intended to.

Read books and reports on PTSD and about what it being done. Find something that makes all of this click because there is no one size fits all answer or treatment any more than there is one style of therapy that works for all. Keep searching and stop being afraid to hope.

This is a book you may find helpful as you learn more about PTSD.


The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Relationship: How to Support Your Partner and Keep Your Relationship Healthy
The Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Relationship
(Paperback)
Diane England (Author)


Editorial Reviews
Product Description
War, physical and sexual abuse, and natural disasters. All crises have one thing in common: Victims often suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their loved ones suffer right along with them. In this book, couples will learn how to have a healthy relationship, in spite of a stressful and debilitating disorder. They’ll learn how to:
Deal with emotions regarding their partner’s PTSD
Talk about the traumatic event(s)
Communicate about the effects of PTSD to their children
Handle sexual relations when a PTSD partner has suffered a traumatic sexual event
Help their partner cope with everyday life issues
When someone has gone through a traumatic event in his or her life, he or she needs a partner more than ever. This is the complete guide to keeping the relationship strong and helping both partners recover in happy, healthy ways.



About the Author
Diane England, PhD has a particular interest in the topic of post-traumatic stress disorder after having worked with military families for five years at a NATO base. Dr. England holds a PhD in clinical social work from the University of Texas at Arlington. In addition, she has a master’s degree in family studies from Oregon State University and a bachelor of science degree in child development from the University of Maine. She is a licensed clinical social worker who has practiced as a psychotherapist. She has also held other positions that provided opportunity to educate individuals on how to strengthen themselves, their marriages, and their families.

Friday, July 17, 2009

Shell-shocked: Jacqueline Winspear takes on PTSD

This may help the general public finally begin to understand what it's like. I know it helped my Mother when she would read mystery novels and love stories. Occasionally she would come across a character with PTSD and feel terrible about them, around the same time she stopped telling me to get divorced. Before words of the writers of these books connecting her to the character, even her own son-in-law was hard to understand. It was almost as if she was just too closely connected to him to really see him. In fantasy land of the fiction novel, they can manage to what all the clinical studies and real life stories can't manage to do. I am sure that if my Mom was still alive, she'd buy the book.


Shell-shocked: Jacqueline Winspear, Iraq vets, and the EPICON study
Jacqueline Winspear, England-born and raised, is the author of the award-winning, wildly popular Maisie Dobbs mystery books - whose latest installment is titled Among the Mad. In it, Winspear, with characteristic British practicality and compassion, explores territory few writers dare to tread - the psychic cost of war. The EPICON study, just released, explored the same territory in the lives of returning men of one troop exposed to multiple tours and higher levels of conflict. The EPICON study analyzed a cluster of murders in Colorado committed by members of this troop. According to the AP "The psychological trauma of fierce combat in Iraq may have helped drive soldiers in a single battle-scarred Army unit to kill as many as 11 people after their return home, the military said."

Specifically, study subjects said they "carried weapons with them because they felt 'naked' and unsafe and had difficulty transitioning to civilian life. Some said they felt 'weird' and didn't fit in, the Army report said. 'There, we were the law; here, the cops are the law,' one of the accused told investigators."

Jacqueline Winspear's books are set in post-World-War I England.

Shell-shocked: Jacqueline Winspear

Monday, June 1, 2009

Soft Spots continues to get rave reviews

ASU alum, Iraq War vet finds healing in his book, 'Soft Spots'
Clint Van Winkle, a Marine veteran of the Iraq War, was struggling to cope with life after combat upon his return to the States in 2003. Awful memories and images of devastation, callous violence and mind-scenes that included burned bodies and dead children were impossible to erase, and help was hard to find. Although he didn’t know it at the time, he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A 2005 graduate of Arizona State University’s New College of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (B.A., English), Van Winkle found a small but important piece of the elusive healing process through his authorship of “Soft Spots: A Marine’s Memoir of Combat and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder,” (St. Martin’s Press, 2009) a book that evolved from essays he had written. The critically acclaimed book is a detailed account of his service in the early stages of the Iraq War and, more importantly, war’s aftermath and his frustrating experiences upon his return home.

“This memoir of combat in Iraq, and the post-traumatic stress disorder that followed, contains more literary touches than most, and it’s an admirable effort…it presents a vivid picture of what many vets endure,” reads one review in Publishers Weekly. Another review, by The Washington Post’s Juliet Wittman, notes, “Nothing gets held back in “Soft Spots”…despite the author’s lacerating honesty, the narrative is dreamlike and surreal.”

Van Winkle was a Marine sergeant in Iraq, commanding an amphibious assault vehicle section while attached to Lima Company 3rd BN 1st He crossed into Iraq on the first day of the war and moved about the country constantly, encountering all the horrors of war as only a front-line combatant can. Among those horrors were “soft spots,” the term used to refer to a fallen Marine, killed in battle, and accidentally stepped on in the midst of rubble. Marines.
go here for more
http://asunews.asu.edu/20090601_iraqvet

Sunday, May 31, 2009

Van Winkle offers view of PTSD



by
Chaplain Kathie
There have been many books I've had the honor of being sent to read. This is one I highly recommend. I brought it on the trip to Washington DC last week, but the trip didn't allow much time for reading. The rest of this week was playing catch up on the news and emails. Today, I had the time to finish reading it.


Van Winkle writes like master and commander of a remote control. He flips back and forth between events in Iraq and life back to what is supposed to be normal. He couldn't have done a better job because that is exactly what PTSD veterans go through all the time. Flashbacks take them back to where they were when their lives were in danger. Much like a remote control can change channels back and forth between programs, the mind performs the remote viewing on months, years and even decades in the past only this remote brings the smells and taste with the trip back into hell.

There have been compelling stories in the past from warriors but few have come close to the vivid imagery conjured up their creators.

From Barnes & Noble


Synopsis

A powerful, haunting, provocative memoir of a Marine in Iraq—and his struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in a system trying to hide the damage done


Marine Sergeant Clint Van Winkle flew to war on Valentine’s Day 2003. His battalion was among the first wave of troops that crossed into Iraq, and his first combat experience was the battle of Nasiriyah, followed by patrols throughout the country, house to house searches, and operations in the dangerous Baghdad slums.

But after two tours of duty, certain images would not leave his memory—a fragmented mental movie of shooting a little girl; of scavenging parts from a destroyed, blood-spattered tank; of obliterating several Iraqi men hidden behind an ancient wall; and of mistakenly stepping on a “soft spot,” the remains of a Marine killed in combat. After his return home, Van Winkle sought help at a Veterans Administration facility, and so began a maddening journey through an indifferent system that promises to care for veterans, but in fact abandons many of them.

From riveting scenes of combat violence, to the gallows humor of soldiers fighting a war that seems to make no sense, to moments of tenderness in a civilian life ravaged by flashbacks, rage, and doubt, Soft Spots reveals the mind of a soldier like no other recent memoir of the war that has consumed America.
Soft Spots by Clint Van Winkle

Thursday, May 28, 2009

A Wound in the Mind

In Print : A novel of turmoil, war, and humanity
By Jack Shea
Published: May 28, 2009
"A Wound in the Mind" by Francis J. Partel Jr. Fiction Publishing Inc. 129 pages. $19.95

The 1960s, particularly the later part of the decade, was a blur of action, events, tragedy, liberation and the emergence of the sex, drugs and rock 'n roll mentality. Recently, personal books about the 60s have been rolling off the presses from Tom Brokaw's bestseller, "BOOM!" to locally authored, "In My Life," by Tom Dresser. Now comes "A Wound in the Mind", a short novel of combat-related stress disorder penned by Chappaquiddick summer resident Francis J. Partel Jr.

For some authors, 60s books may be a way to understand what really happened. Others, such as Messrs. Dresser and Partel, seem to know. Mr. Partel was a young naval officer who served in the Southeast Asian naval theater in which his book takes place.

Mr. Partel's novel reminds us that Vietnam wasn't just a poorly executed war. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an almost invisible pathology in 1968, was also unleashed. As we've since learned, the effects of PTSD are viral, deadly, and continuing.

"Wound in the Mind" has an autobiographical tone. It tells the story of the real-life court martial of a United States Marine corporal Juan Cachora, accused of breaking the jaw of his commanding officer in a spontaneous melee that began after a string of firecrackers exploded behind him when he was on shore leave during the Vietnam War.

He did it, according to witness statements. However, witnesses, many of whom are shipmates, are equally clear that Cpl. Cachora was not drunk or disorderly, nor did he have a grudge against his well-liked superior.

The military disfavors striking officers and the law is clear. Cachora faces five years in brig time. The defense team becomes aware of early research efforts into PTSD and argues that the Marine, who has received The Navy Cross and The Purple Heart, needs therapy, not jail time.
go here for more
A novel of turmoil, war, and humanity

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Shaking your dust off my feet



LUKE 9:5-6

5 And whosoever will not receive you, when ye go out of that city, shake off the very dust from your feet for a testimony against them.
6 And they departed, and went through the towns, preaching the gospel, and healing every where.


I've been doing outreach work with Veterans since 1982, long before some of my readers were born. In 2000, my book, For The Love Of Jack, was finished and in 2001, I tried to find a publisher. This was long before all the press coverage of PTSD. No one was really interested in what Vietnam veterans were going thru, almost as if they had nothing to learn. When September 11, 2001 came, I knew there would be a lot more veterans suffering from PTSD, who up until that point, coped with it. 9-11 brought a "secondary stressor" far too few psychologists address. I gave up trying to find a publisher, realizing the urgency of providing the information in my book, I decided to self-publish. I received very little help but if you look online there are a lot of links to this book still up. The book is online for free from this blog on the side bar. It opens in Adobe.

Think about how much this book could have helped families back then, before the media finally decided that it was an important story. 18 years of our life are that book covering how my husband's PTSD was mild when we met, but the secondary stressor sent him over the edge. A secondary stressor is like giving un-addressed PTSD a shot of steroid. It happens that quickly. It also contained 18 years of researching what I had learned. Most of the studies they are doing right now, have already been done. What if the researchers had bothered to check with the families already living with it, coping with it and used their experiences to help the new generation? Think of how many lost years could have been spent on new research.

I am not a powerful person. I am not a rich person. I am just like every other average American trying to make a difference to a lot of hurting people. While I know a lot of powerful people, very few of them had faith in me, my knowledge or my experience. I asked them to help me help the veterans and their families. While they said they would, they never did.

I was asked to become certified with the Association of Traumatic Stress Specialists years ago but I said I wanted to stay right by the side of veterans and their families as one of them. In my mind there were enough professionals at the time but the veterans needed someone to show them the way on a equal level. I knew I would be able to charge people for what I did had I opted to become certified, but that was not what the veterans needed. So I worked a regular job and did the outreach work in my spare time.

As the numbers of veterans were growing and too little was being done, no one with the power to address it was listening to people like me. Letters to Senators and Congressmen were responded to with a form letter telling me they cared about the issue but they did nothing. I was never asked to speak to them, inform them or offer all those years of experience with my own husband and hundreds of veterans at that point. I was screaming about the growing need, but no one heard me.

In 2006 I came up with the idea to reach veterans the way the new veterans where they were, on Google and YouTube. I started doing videos on PTSD, combining music, pictures and a message, so they would not have to read too much but get the point that PTSD is a wound, is a normal reaction to abnormal events and that there was hope in healing if they reached out for help.

Over twenty videos later, thousands of hits on videos covering all forms of trauma, videos for Vietnam veterans, veterans families, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, along with others living with the aftermath of trauma, still these powerful people will not listen. I've traveled with these videos but considering the need out there to share information with the veterans and their families who still don't know what PTSD is, especially the National Guards and Reservists, I've been turned down on doing presentations. People will watch the videos, come up to me and ask me if I would be interested in doing another presentation and when I agree, I never hear from them again. Churches have turned down my offer to help their congregations understand what PTSD is so they can help the veterans and their families.

What I do, which is taking up 16 hours a day, I do for free. I ask for donations but the people who can afford to donate, use my work without feeling any need to donate, yet the people who have very little money will donate what they can. With this, there is no money to spend on advertising my work. I have to trust word of mouth to spread the videos and the kindness of strangers who value it enough to pass it on. I deeply appreciate everyone who has taken the time to help me with this work.

For a long time, I could not understand why the people with the power to help me wouldn't. I've never been wrong because I pay attention to all of this as if my life depended on it, simply because it does. All the warnings I tried to give have been proven to have come true yet leaders of many different groups would not provide me with the time of day to share the information before it all came to pass when something could have been done to prevent the suffering of thousands and their families.

Now I think I finally figured it out. It's not that I don't know what I'm talking about or have trouble articulating any of it. It's not that any of the information is wrong, because it's all supported with research and links. It's because they are blind to it all. The VA only sees what they are shown. They are dedicated people but they will not spend this kind of time researching any of this. They do not talk to people across the country and the world. They only talk to the people who come to them or read whatever the VA puts out. The service organizations also know they have a problem but they are reluctant to act to address it and when it is presented to them, they take offense as if they are being attacked. I've had many arguments with them over the years and when I do, I tell them that what I do would not do anyone any good unless they were there to treat, diagnose and assist the veterans with their claims. I need them where they are but I also need them to open their eyes and know what is coming and what they can do to get ahead of it for a change.

I know that if I happened to be a Republican, I would have all the support in the world. This is not a baseless claim. I've seen it when someone will watch one of my videos, call me a hero online one day and then slam me the next when they find out I'm not one of them. I've tried to help out on message boards and get involved with some of the military groups online, but have been turned down.


None of my PTSD videos are political but politics constantly plays into this. I help all veterans no matter what political party they happen to be in because they have my heart and tug at my soul. I fully support them because they are willing to risk their lives for the sake of this nation and it's not up to them where they go. They all need help and to avoid someone who happens to be a Democrat who can help them with this devastating wound is an injury to them. It would be one thing if they disagreed with my political view but supported my work but they will not even bother to notice that when I address PTSD, there is nothing political involved because PTSD does not care what political party they happen to be in.

When I come out and slam a politician it is not because of their political party, but it's because there is an assumption only Republicans support veterans, when their voting records prove that to be a false assumption. I slam John McCain because he claims he supports veterans but his record proves he does not whenever he's had the chance to prove it. He made the claim that he doesn't need lessons on what veterans need because he is such a supporter of them. This claim was allowed to just stand when he has an abysmal record on proving it.

What the Republicans do not see is that I will slam anyone who does not do the right thing for veterans, just as I did when Bill Clinton was president and would not address the backlog of claims or the issue that congress passed a stupid law that allowed the VA to collect for "non-service connected" treatments never once considering that any claim not approved was tagged as "non-service connected" even if the veteran had lost a leg to a bomb. No approved claim meant they would have to pay until a claim was approved. The ramifications of this rule had such far reaching affects that veterans have been suffering not just financially but feeling betrayed by the very same country they were wounded while serving.

As I said, I know a lot of powerful people who will not give me the time of day when it comes to this. They look at me as if I am not worthy of their help to help veterans, as ironic as that sounds. So now I'm shaking the dust off my feet when it comes to all of them. I'm done trying to get them to put politics aside and focus on what the veterans need and what can be done. I'm tired of acting as if they are more important than I am in this just because they have received the support to get them into the positions they are in. When people put politics first someone suffers. The veterans have been suffering needlessly because of this.

I will still go where I'm asked to go, but I'm done trying to be invited. I will no longer send updates on videos that I do to help to organizations who have failed to share them. I will no longer contact anyone or support any organization that cannot put the needs of the veterans above what political party I happen to belong to. I will no longer put up with being viewed as someone who is less patriotic or of lesser value than they are.


Above all I am done being hurt by people who question my faith because I take the words of Christ so seriously that I cannot take the easy road agreeing with people who are not following His word and treating people the way He said they should be treated. I am so serious about being a Christian that I was the head of Christian Education for a church for two years and became a Chaplain so that I could be of service the way Christ was. He helped all people no matter what faith they belonged to. Chaplains are not supposed to be about evangelizing. That is the job of the clergy and it's high time the evangelizing got out of the military and they returned to taking care of the spiritual needs of all no matter what faith they hold or if they hold no faith at all.

This also gets me slammed by the far right as well as other Christians who cannot understand that if one branch of the Christian faith is allowed to evangelize, that leaves them out. Do they ever stop to consider how many branches there are of Christianity? Do they notice that all Christians do not hold the same doctrine? If they noticed these glaring facts, they would have a problem with evangelizing in the military as well. It's also another reason why I'm asked to help a certain group one day and the next ignored.

I know this was a long rant but it's taken me a lot of years of frustration to reach this point. After 26 years doing this, you'd think that I would have had a lot more support than I do and I'm tired of fighting them wasting time I could have been just fighting for veterans.

NOTE: You know who this is addressed to and you have only yourself to blame. You would not help me to get the information I have to the veterans needing it, so all the veterans who contacted me when they are suicidal, remember there are many more who never found my work in time.
Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos


Namguardianangel@aol.com

http://www.woundedtimes.blogspot.com/


Saturday, August 23, 2008

Vietnam Vet Still Recovering Four Decades Later

One more case of a veteran with PTSD being treated for what he did not have and not treated for what he did have. One more case of ending up in jail instead of treatment. One more case of a lot of wasted years suffering. Are we paying attention yet?

Vietname Vet Still Recovering Four Decades Later
By Cheryl Bentley The Suncoast News

Published: August 23, 2008

The fall into a rice paddy from an Army helicopter left Eugene Hairston's body intact, but 40 years later, his spirit is still recovering.

Hairston's story, as told to Dunedin resident Susan Adger, has been recounted in "A Quiet Voice," published by iUniverse, an online service for self-publishers. The two will have a book signing from 1 to 3 p.m. today, Aug. 23, at Oak Trail Books, in downtown Palm Harbor.

Sitting in a Dunedin cafe with Adger, the deep-voiced Hairston emits an aura of strength and serenity that belies the trauma that has dogged him throughout his life.

He has suffered from alcohol and drug abuse and post traumatic stress disorder, a condition of severe anxiety caused by emotional reaction to past traumatic events.

In Hairston's case, PTSD developed in 1968 in Vietnam after he tumbled 120 feet from a helicopter that had deliberately been tilted to make him fall. Terrified, Hairston hid in the jungle several days before an Army unit accidentally discovered him.


But he was not diagnosed with PTSD until 1998 after almost three decades of being in and out of prisons for armed robbery, larceny and drug dealing and stints of living on the streets. He had previously been treated several times at veterans' hospitals for drug and alcohol addiction but never before for PTSD. Once medical personnel learned of his addiction, they did not probe deeper for the cause of his problems because they assumed they were the result of his addiction, he noted.

But the PTSD treatment seemed to touch deeper causes the previous therapy had not. Coupled with support from the Department of Veterans Affairs, Hairston said, it enabled him to turn his life around. "It was the same government I had hated for years that saved my life," he acknowledged.
go here for more
http://suncoastpinellas.tbo.com/content/2008/aug/23/pi-that-quiet-voice/

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Those with PTSD try to restore normalcy

J.L. is a friend of mine. A few years ago she contacted me about what happened to her and her deep desire to help others. Her book, Severed Soul is not just a story about trauma and aftermath but it's what she did with all of it. She decided to help others and has been very active with veterans.

J.L. sent me the article that appeared in a local paper and it's very well done. It says a lot about what people can do when they have suffered. We either feel sorry for ourselves and focus only on ourselves, or we can reach back to help others stand next to us. It's a choice we all face. J.L. held onto God's hand and with her other hand is reaching out to pull people out of the depth of despair.

Seeking answers, they find no easy ones
Those with PTSD try to restore normalcy

By Daniel Kittredge - News Staff Writer
Published On Thursday, August 07, 2008



(Editor’s note: this is the first in a two-part series on post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD)

GARDNER — For those who live with it, post-traumatic stress disorder is an experience virtually impossible for others to understand.

The form the disorder and its symptoms take varies from person to person, but the initial traumatic event that causes it always involves death or violence — be it a near-death or violent personal experience, bearing witness to the death or physical injury of another or learning of the sudden or violent death of a loved one. It affects soldiers and civilians, men and women, children and adults, and spans generations..

And while each experience is different, the questions those living with it ask themselves are the same.

“When will the fear stop?” writes local author J.L. Vallee in “Severed Soul,” an account of her own struggles with the disorder. “Could it be when heaven calls my name? ... Please, someone understand and help! I feel numb! I feel dead!”

“You don’t meet many people that really get it,” said Ms. Vallee. “You never get over (the disorder), no matter what.”

Invisible

One of the walls in the main lobby of the Montachusett Veterans Outreach Center Inc. on Central Street is adorned from top to bottom with photographs of soldiers. Many of the young men and women shown in the images are young — some look like teenagers — and they are often shown smiling, displaying a visible pride in the uniform they wear and the service they are providing to their country.

The photographs serve as an instant reminder of the center’s purpose — reaching out to those who went off to war young and untouched by its horrors, but returned with memories, injuries and demons that never allowed them to truly come home.

“There’s a lot of people with (the disorder) out there,” said Darrell P. Keating, the center’s executive director. “We’re trying our best to find them.”

The number of veterans in the greater Gardner area struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder is hard to state definitively, said Mr. Keating. The center keeps state-mandated statistics regarding its in-house and referral services, which range from a food pantry to housing assistance to counseling, and in 2007 roughly 48,000 such services were provided.

The last 1-1/2 years have seen the center grow markedly, said Mr. Keating, particularly through the addition of an outreach coordinator to its staff who works actively to seek out veterans at churches and support groups.

Despite those efforts, however, he said there are many veterans who continue to struggle alone.
“It’s invisible in today’s society,” Mr. Keating said of post-traumatic stress.

Robert Stair, a counselor with the center, said many will not seek help until they’ve reached a breaking point, often in the form of a job being lost or a relationship being broken because of substance abuse. Most of the veterans that the center deals with, he said, have a history of post-traumatic stress — beginning either during or after their time in the service — and have as a result had issues with substance abuse.

“Just about every person’s got a different kind of story,” he said. “Unless you’ve gone through it, you really can’t understand.”

A disorder that does not discriminate

For years, Ms. Vallee wondered what was wrong.

Her life, as documented in “Severed Soul” — through the character of Amy Howard — has been filled with traumatic experiences. Her brother drowned when she was a young girl, and as medics took him away she caught a glimpse of his feet hanging from a body bag. Later, she lived through two serious car accidents — one in which she was hit by a semi-truck, and another on Route 140 in which a boulder rolled down a hill and struck the van she was driving.

“I thought I was going to die,” she said of the second crash.

After that second car accident, said Ms. Vallee, something changed. She was “always on guard” — jumpy, afraid and unsure of why. Then married to a man she describes as distant and emotionally abusive, she found little sympathy among many family members and friends.

“I knew something wasn’t right,” she said, describing the feeling as a numbness, a fog that led her to withdraw and isolate herself. “They look at you like you have three heads. They think you have a flaw.”

Ms. Vallee was eventually diagnosed as having post-traumatic stress. Initially caught off guard — having thought the disorder was exclusive to veterans — she decided to become involved with local veterans groups in hopes of learning more. Since then she has further branched out, writing “Severed Soul” and seeking out others that have touched by the disorder.

“It’s not just a vet thing,” she said, noting that victims of sexual assault and trauma often develop post-traumatic stress.

Available statistics indicate the diversity of those living with post-traumatic stress. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 7.7 million Americans are affected by the disorder.

Women, according to the institute, are more likely than men to be affected, and while it is most prevalent among adults it can also affect children.

Carrying visions

In a military context, post-traumatic stress has been known by many names throughout history.

During the Civil War era, it was known as “soldier’s heart,” while it was dubbed “shell shock” after World War I. Veterans of World War II were described as having “combat neurosis,” and after Korea it became “combat fatigue.”

Mr. Stair began his work as a counselor in 1983 while still an active member of the Air Force. At the time, he said, his goal was to help make sense of why so many fellow servicemen had difficulty readjusting to civilian life after Vietnam.

“There wasn’t any means of getting support,” he said, noting the lack of resources available to those veterans.

Most of the veterans Mr. Stair deals with in his current role served during the Vietnam era, and most have carried the pain and trauma of their experiences through the years without seeking help.

“It takes a long time for them to come forward,” he said, noting that men especially “try to handle things on their own.”

Most members of the newest generation of veterans — the men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan — who suffer from post-traumatic stress have largely yet to come forward, said Mr. Stair. While awareness of the disorder has grown vastly since Vietnam, the intrinsic value military culture places on strength and self-sufficiency still serves as a deterrent for those in need of help.

Additionally, said Mr. Stair, many of the newest returning veterans are far from the breaking point that lead many from the Vietnam generation to finally seek help.

“They haven’t identified themselves,” he said, although — like their predecessors — “they carry around a lot of these visions.”

Leslie Lightfoot, CEO of Fitchburg’s Veteran Homestead Inc., agreed that emotional or mental issues continue to carry a serious stigma in military culture. “That’s not changing,” she said, noting she has heard similar sentiments from her two daughters currently serving in the military.

She also agreed that post-traumatic stress among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans remains hidden, for the same reasons cited by Mr. Stair.

“The drug and alcohol thing is down the road (for them),” she said. “Sometimes it takes years and years and years.”

Statistics show that post-traumatic stress has affected the newest veterans, and in substantial numbers. A 2007 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that of 103,788 veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom surveyed between 2001 and 2005, 13,205 had PTSD — a figure comprising more than half of the veterans with a mental health diagnosis and 13 percent of all veterans surveyed.

The numbers also show that the new veterans are not coming forward. The New England Journal of Medicine in 2004 released a study showing that only 24 to 40 percent of service members in need of mental health services pursued that help, largely because of fears of being stigmatized.

Another, more disturbing trend among both service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan and veterans of earlier conflicts has emerged in recent years — an increase in suicide rates. A 2007 CBS News investigation found that in 2005, approximately 20 veterans per 100,000 committed suicide, with a higher rate among those aged 20 to 24.

CNN reported in February that 2,100 soldiers tried to commit suicide in 2007, up from 350 in 2002. The suicide rate among active soldiers, CNN reported, was 17.5 per 100,000 in 2006 — less than the civilian rate, but a drastic increase from previous years.

Suicidal tendencies, said Mr. Stair, mark the point at which groups like his can step in and force a veteran to receive treatment. While he described the problem of veteran suicide as limited in north central Massachusetts, he said the focus both regionally and nationally must be on finding ways to help before a veteran’s post-traumatic stress causes him or her to reach that point of despair.

“Even one’s too many,” he said.

dkittredge@thegardnernews.com
http://www.thegardnernews.com/index.aspx

Post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD)

• 7.7 million Americans are affected by PTSD, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). The disorder is more likely to affect women than men, according to the institute, and while it is most prevalent among adults it can affect people of any age, including children.

• A 2007 study in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that of 103,788 veterans of operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom surveyed between 2001 and 2005, 13,205 had PTSD — a figure comprising more than half of the veterans with a mental health diagnosis and 13 percent of all veterans surveyed.

• According to a 2004 study that appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, only 24-40 percent of service members in need of mental health services pursued them because of fears about being stigmatized.










J.L. Vallee

Westminster Info Press

PO Box 62

Westminster, MA 01473

JLVallee@SeveredSoul.com


www.severedsoul.com


http://www.myspace.com/author_jlvallee
part one of two

Thursday, July 24, 2008

NIMH has booklet on PTSD

While this is very easy to read, it depends on the reader if it leads them to want to know more. I hope it does.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
By National Institute of Mental Health(National Institute of Mental Health) An easy-to-read booklet on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) that explains what it is, when it starts, how long it lasts, and how to get help.
Table of Contents
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
What is post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD?
Who gets PTSD?
What causes PTSD?
How do I know if I have PTSD?
When does PTSD start?
How can I get better?
How PTSD Can Happen: Janet's Story
Facts About PTSD

Contact us to find out more about PTSD.

Friday, November 2, 2007

"Tell Them I Didn't Cry" by Jackie Spinner

"It's not a hero's story!" said Jackie Spinner about her book "Tell Them I Didn't Cry," which relates the nearly two years that she spent in Iraq as a journalist for the Washington Post. The book was a main topic of conversation during the convocation that she gave on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, as defined in the fourth edition of "The American Heritage College Dictionary," is a psychological disorder of individuals who have experienced profound trauma, such as torture, marked by recurrent flashbacks, nightmares, eating disorders, anxiety, fatigue, forgetfulness, and withdrawal.

When Spinner spoke with the Honors 190 class, she explained that her five-year-old nephew Aiden summed PTSD up by saying, "It is where someone has seen so many sad things that they forget how to be happy."

According to Spinner, that is a very accurate definition. "You have to learn how to live again." For many, that is hard to do.

As a journalist, words are Spinner's life. Of the time she spent in Iraq, Spinner said, "I fought with my pen."

However, when Spinner returned home she was unable to find any words that expressed what she experienced. Therefore, Spinner turned to art therapy.
click post title for the rest


A five year old can understand what PTSD but too many in this country can't or won't. For some with PTSD, they feel they do not deserve to be happy either.

Monday, October 22, 2007

PTSD becomes a For Dummies book

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder For Dummies
By Mark Goulston
ISBN: 978-0-470-04922-8
Format: PaperPages: 384 PagesPub. Date: October 22, 2007
A plain-English resource for people suffering from the aftereffects of a traumatic experienceAn estimated five percent of Americans-over 13 million people-suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) at any given time, and approximately eight percent will develop it at some time in their lives. Written for PTSD sufferers and their loved ones, this practical guide gives people the lowdown on symptoms, details today's various treatment options, offers practical coping strategies for day-to-day life, and even shows how to help children with PTSD. For the 12 to 20 percent of returning combat veterans who suffer from PTSD, the book offers real-world strategies for dealing with flashbacks, nightmares, and disruptive thoughts.
click post title for link

Dealing with this for over half my life, it does not surprise me one bit this became a FOR DUMMIES book. I think it's great that a book has come out in plain, simple terms because this wound is very complicated. It's been very hard for the general public to understand.

I think back to when I was trying to explain this to my family and friends. Most of the time their eyes would glaze over and the subject was changed. Just when I thought they understood it, they would say something totally off the mark. These are smart people we're talking about and not "dummies" unable to understand the science of it.

While veterans are a reflection of the general population, having all sorts of characters among them, they are far from the general population. Combat is not part of normal daily life. They come in all shapes, sizes, colors, religious beliefs and yes, even attitudes. There are some alcoholics serving today, just as there are some alcoholic veterans. There are some drug addicts. There are some criminals, abusers and rapists among them. There should be no doubt that they are just as human as the rest of us. What sets them apart is their service to this country and the fact they are expected to be willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation.

When we read news reports about a combat veteran on trail, some point to that as evidence only criminals use PTSD as an excuse for what they did. When we read reports about homeless veterans, we tend to think they want to be that way. As if being homeless is a choice.

Although I do know of one case of a veteran with PTSD who decided to live in his car, even that was not really a choice when you look deeper into what was behind his choice. He felt as if he didn't deserve to live in a home with his family. PTSD made that choice for him. Imagine feeling unworthy of living with your family, unworthy of having a roof over your head, and then maybe you can understand how even this was not really a choice.

The vast majority of combat veterans are not criminals, not drug addicts, not alcoholics, abusers, or even violent. The vast majority of veterans with PTSD are drained emotionally along with the host of other issues they have to deal with. They just want to be what they were before they went into combat. The earlier the wound is treated, the better the chances are of restoring them to the lives they had before the trauma hit them, just as surely as a bullet hits others. It can be done with early intervention. Why wouldn't this be a top priority for all nations involved in combat?

Think of the aftermath of this. Taking care of them now will save money in the long run, which realistically has to be a motivation for the governments. It will save their own financial futures as they are restored to being capable of working or returning to their duty in the military. It saves marriages and it saves the relationships with children. It can, will and already does save them from turning to self-medications like alcohol and drugs, which usually adds in drunk driving and illegal drug activity. This will also reduce the veterans being incarcerated for related crimes which include domestic abuse. All this can be accomplished with a war attitude of defeating PTSD before it claims more of their lives.

As for the older generations of PTSD combat veterans, they need to seek treatment even after all these years of suffering in silence. My husband came home from Vietnam in 1971, was not diagnosed until 1990, not treated by the VA until 1993 and his claim was not approved until 1999. Even after all those years lost, when treatment began he stopped getting worse. It was too late to restore his life to where he was before and he is chronic, but he is living a life again and we have adapted to what is "normal" for us in this marriage that has lasted 23 years. It is never too late to seek treatment but the sooner the better the recovery.

For this new generation there is a great deal of hope because of the attention paid to this finally. There will be a refocus on treatments and studies. There is also greater understanding toward PTSD that never happened before. Sadly there is still a lot of bad attitudes directed toward those who have PTSD even though we already know PTSD strikes humans of all walks of life.

There are many web sites still dismissing PTSD as if there is something to be ashamed of. They deny the release of data and figures of those coming back with PTSD and even go so far as to suggest that it is not as bad as reported. The problem is, it is in fact a lot worse than is reported. We need only to look back at the Vietnam veterans to see this is only the beginning of their wounded minds. 148,000 Vietnam veterans recently sought treatment for PTSD from the VA. The biggest barrier preventing them from seeking treatment before was the lack of knowledge, not the lack of suffering. Many of the new wounded will not acknowledge their wounds are getting worse until much later on in life. The lack of knowledge also allows the stigma to prevent them from seeking treatment. It allows the stigma to live in the minds of society. There is a saying that knowledge is power. In this case, knowledge is healing a life.

For some, PTSD effects will be mild. For others it will be sent into overdrive when a "secondary" stressor strikes. For others they show signs early enough that the changes are obvious and cannot be overlooked. It cannot be stressed enough that the re-deployments of the men and women in the military increases the risk of developing PTSD by 50% and this is based on an Army study that vanished from the media's reporting on PTSD.

PTSD can be defeated but only after the dummies get out of the way.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Military PTSD support for spouse on line


Spouse Calls
Stripes columnist Terri Barnes offers advice and an understanding ear to her fellow military spouses.
EMDR treatments for PTSD

Posted August 19th, 2007

by Terri Barnes
in

A Spouse Calls reader who suffered from PTSD wrote recently to tell me that she had found relief from her debilitating symptoms through eye movement desensitizing and reprocessing (EMDR). She had been following the Spouse Calls blog regarding PTSD, and wondered if her experience could help others.


A story by Steve Mraz in Stars & Stripes details how medical professionals at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany are being trained to administer EMDR to returning veterans. The treatment has been around since the late 1980's.
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If you have a family member in the military or veteran, go there and find some support. You need it as much as they do.

If you want some help understanding that what you're going through is not just you, click the link on this blog for the free book. It's about 18 years of our life together. My husband is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD. The book is For The Love Of Jack His War/My Battle. It opens in Adobe. I've been doing outreach work ever since the day I fell in love with him and my father said he had "shell shock"

As you read it, keep in mind one really important thing to find some hope. This month we've been married for 23 years.

The videos I've done are also here whenever you need them.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Home From War by Patience Mason

Home from War
By patience mason(patience mason)
Shrinks and family members tend to see the symptoms of PTSD as the problem. Not me. I see war as the problem and the symptoms of PTSD as solutions to the problem of war, something right with you, not something wrong with you. ...
Patience Mason's PTSD Blog - http://patiencemason.blogspot.com/


I remember when very few of us were working on ending the stigma of PTSD because of Vietnam Vets, Patience was one of the few voices being heard. This was when most of us were still dealing with what was happening to our husbands and in turn, our families as well. While I was writing local newspapers, Patience was already on the net doing everything she could to catch the veteran's falling through the cracks. Back then I was still trying to figure out how to use a mouse. She already had a web page and a very large readership.

The early writers were Patience Mason, Mary Beth Williams, Aphrodite Matsakis and Jonathan Shay. In all the years I was researching PTSD, their's were among the best written on the subject. They were easy to understand and got into the personal side of PTSD along with how the families were also paying the price. I suggest reading all their works. Most of what I've learned came from them and heavy research into clinical books but left me feeling as if I were chewing on an emery board trying to get through those. If you really want to understand PTSD there is a wealth of knowledge out there from people who have been dealing with it since the term was coined following the Vietnam war.

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington