We need a survivor event where veterans can meet survivors of all other events

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 30, 2023

Email alerts on #PTSD fill up a good chunk of my day. Most of the time, I'll read the articles and get depressed. Not for the reason you may think. It isn't because there are so many, but more because there are far too many proving we have not come far enough on the healing side.

These are just a few of the headlines that came in this morning.

“Art for Healing” Exhibition on display through May to benefit PTSD Foundation of America

It is not for everyone with PTSD. It is for veterans and families. Nothing wrong with that since we all know they not only need help, they earned whatever this country can do for them. As a reminder, that would include my husband, and me as his spouse. It would not include me as a survivor in my own life.

Omaha gym hosting yoga classes to ease PTSD for veterans, first responders

Also not for everyone with PTSD. Just veterans and first responders, and yet again, they not only need help, they earned it. The thing is, as the number of civilians joining the club no one wants to belong to grows every year, no one notices that while we paid the price of joining too, we are not welcomed in on any of these efforts.

The rest of them were along the same lines. The rest of us were not included and that was what depressed me most of all while reading about Senior Chief Petty Officer Mike Day. He was a hero, for sure. This is what Ken McDonald wrote about him.

Day spent the next six months recovering at Walter Reed, and when we all returned to the Naval Amphibious Base, in Little Creek, Va. in the fall, he received the Silver Star for “conspicuous gallantry in combat” at an award ceremony attended by just about every one of his Naval Special Warfare brothers and sisters in-port at the time. The ceremony was surreal. Many teammates were killed in action on that deployment and the memories were horribly fresh. But standing in front of them was a guy who had no business coming home. A walking miracle. A hero amongst heroes; reminding them that they survived.

He didn't stop trying to make a difference in this world.

He went on to retire from the Navy in 2008 and was unsurprisingly diagnosed with PTSD and Traumatic Brain Injury. He wrote a book about the experience; Perfectly Wounded: A Memoir About What Happens After a Miracle and worked as an advocate for wounded service members and those suffering with PTSD. Mike Day hanged himself on March 27.

At the end of the article, he wrote this.

I don’t know what needs to be done to make real change, but I’m going to do whatever I can to help. You should, too. Start by doing a buddy check. Make sure they’re okay. Be intrusive. Be a haunt. Be the non-judgmental support network they need. We’ll figure out the rest along the way. The most important and difficult part of recovery is getting on the path. Get them on it. I’ll see you there.

The answer to what needs to be done is not what you expect. The answer is in what unites all survivors. Why? You may be thinking they deserve special treatment. I totally agree with you. You may think they deserved whatever we can do. I agree with that too. What I don't agree with is not telling the people facing multiple traumatic events as part of the jobs they are willing to do, there are millions of us with PTSD after just one event. This is from The National Center For PTSD

Here are the best estimates for how common PTSD is in the U.S. adult population:

Most people who go through a traumatic event will not develop PTSD.
About 6 out of every 100 people (or 6% of the U.S. population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives. Many people who have PTSD will recover and no longer meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD after treatment. So, this number counts people who have PTSD at any point in their life, even if their symptoms go away.
About 5 out of every 100 adults (or 5%) in the U.S. has PTSD in any given year. In 2020, about 13 million Americans had PTSD.
Women are more likely to develop PTSD than men. About 8 of every 100 women (or 8%) and 4 of every 100 men (or 4%) will have PTSD at some point in their life. This is in part due to the types of traumatic events that women are more likely to experience—such as sexual assault—compared to men.
Veterans are more likely to have PTSD than civilians. Veterans who deployed to a war zone are also more likely to have PTSD than those who did not deploy.

When we leave that information out of the conversation, the result is a deadly one. Leaving us out of the conversation, and efforts leave us feeling as if we don't deserve help to heal. Even if we did, finding it is difficult. There are not enough mental health professionals as it is. Charities that could help won't because they have no idea we're out here or how many of us there are. The ones established to take care of veterans and first responders don't have room for us. 

While all this has been bad for us when the veterans and first responders have no clue we exist, they are robbed of the best form of healing they could ever have. These men and women were willing to die for the sake of others. They'd be willing to help us more than they are willing to help themselves. In the process, it would give them a better understanding as to why they suffer from multiple traumas when we are changed by all too often, just one of them.

Right now, they still don't think they deserve help. They still think they should be stronger and see it as a weakness. No matter how many suicide awareness events happen around the country, the event that needs to happen is a survivor event where veterans can meet survivors of all other events. Let them hear our stories of the trauma and what worked to help us heal. If we share the journey from victim to survivor with them, they will see themselves through different eyes!

Kathie Costos Author of Ministers Of The Mystery Series

14,000 male soldiers experience some type of unwanted sexual contact per year

Female Commander Investigated over Alleged Sexual Assaults of Male Subordinates, Pattern of Harassment

Military.com
By Steve Beynon
25 Apr 2023

Male victims account for only 10% of sexual assault cases in the military, according to 2021 data from the Department of Defense. That data estimates roughly 14,000 male soldiers experience some type of unwanted sexual contact per year, though male cases of sexual assault and harassment are likely underreported due to societal stigma.

Lt. Col. Meghann Sullivan takes the 5th Battalion, 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade guidon at Joint Base Lewis McChord, Washington, June 28, 2021. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. Joseph Knoch)

A top officer in the Army's 5th Security Force Assistance Brigade has been investigated following allegations of multiple sexual assaults and a pattern of sexual harassment, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. It is unclear whether the investigation is ongoing, but it comes while another is underway into allegations of toxic leadership by the brigade's commander.

Col. Meghann Sullivan, commander of the 5th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 5th SFAB, faces allegations of assaulting at least two subordinate men and harassing several others, with some of those incidents allegedly tied to alcohol abuse, according to one of the two sources. At least one of those alleged assaults involved forceful kissing and another grabbing a man below the belt without his consent.
read more here

The Scribe Of Salem: viewpoint regarding spirituality is this book’s best asset

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 21, 2023

"As they talk about how all their lives seem to have taken a dark turn, a name was brought up - Mandy. A savior, angel, or witch."

The Scribe Of Salem by Kathie Costos

Some were witnessing the miracles Jesus and His disciples delivered believing they were miracles, yet others believed it was sorcery. After all, how does one explain the ability of other humans to accomplish such things right before their eyes? In our time, many believe miracles stopped happening. The truth is, miracles and miracle workers are all around us every day.

The Scribe Of Salem, as well as The Visionary Of Salem and 13th Minister Of Salem, hold my prayers for you. Far too many survivors of traumatic events walked away from them physically, but could not from the memories of them. The miracle workers we encountered after surviving were the ones that came to help us reach a place where our wounds were taken care of and we felt safe again. Since most traumatic events had a basis in evil acts, the miracle workers proved to us that their goodness conjured the fuel for our healing.  I know because I survived over 10 events and it all came with me. I remember the strangers coming to help me for my sake and they set their own lives aside to help. 

I also remember some people, with no understanding of what came with surviving, saying things to me that made it worse. They tried to comfort me by saying, "God never gives us more than we can handle," as if the event was by His Hand. How on earth would something like that help me if I thought God did it to me? How could I pray for help from Him, if He condemned me and sent me the pain I needed to heal?

The day I turned away from churches is the day I began to be closer to God. I didn't need a building to do it for me. I had a place in my home where I could pray directly to My Father, the way Jesus said I should. I didn't need a group of other flawed humans to decide what message in the Bible I would hear. I was able to discover what the churches never taught as I held the Book in my hands.

That is the difference between being a religious person and a spiritual one. Some religious people are also spiritual. That's not something I have a problem with, since I was the same until I discovered the closer I pulled to the church, the further away I felt from God. That is also why these books are not welcomed by most Christian readers.

This is a new review from Readers' Favorite.

Reviewed by: Risah Salazar
Review Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewed by Risah Salazar for Readers’ Favorite

The Scribe of Salem: Ministers of the Mystery by Kathie Costos finds Christopher “Chris” Papadopoulos trying to nurse a broken heart at The Bishop Hotel bar. He is a complete mess of a man whose marriage and career ended badly. His war veteran comrades appear unexpectedly, one after the other at the bar. As they talk about how all their lives seem to have taken a dark turn, a name was brought up - Mandy. A savior, angel, or witch. No one could pinpoint what she is, but one thing is for sure: she heals. You do not find her - she finds you. Next, he meets a couple - Alex and Mary - who, like Mandy it seems, would also turn his life around for the better. Revelation after revelation makes Chris confused but this huge puzzle eventually leads him to rebuild his faith.

Kathie Costos adopts a conversational tone in The Scribe of Salem. The smooth flow of the story helps with the world-building and characterization. The progressive viewpoint regarding spirituality is this book’s best asset. The text reiterates that being religious is different from being spiritual and that the latter is usually preferable. Costos makes a compelling argument through this narrative that can be appreciated by people from all walks of life. Readers who believe in something will strengthen their faith as they read on, while non-believers will surely discover something interesting, no matter how small.

Let's be honest. We live in a time when far too many people only claim to be Christian. They do not display the qualities Jesus preached about and lived them. They spew contempt, hatred, judgment, and rage fueled by a perverse belief that they are the only ones with moral high ground. We've seen it all before. It was what happened in Salem when "Christians" decided that lying, hating and torture were worthy means to end their enemies.

No one was safe during the witch trials because everyone could find themselves accused of witchcraft. They were tortured. Many confessed to end the torture. Those who refused were put to death. Nineteen by hanging and one by crushing. Contrary to popular belief, none of them were burnt in America. However, some of those found guilty of witchcraft were burnt in Scotland, England, and many others in far greater numbers. The basis for all of it was it worked.

Being evil is easier than trying to live the life that Jesus emulated. It is easier to hate than it is to love. Easier to judge than it is to help. Easier to blame those in need, than it is to help fill the needs they have. I often wonder how anyone claiming to be Christian forgets about what being one requires of them.

Too many settle for showing up at a church, getting water poured on their heads as infants, and then having nothing else to do to deserve the price Jesus paid on the Cross. It is up to them to believe what they want in this country, yet far too many want the authority to control what others choose for themselves. On the flip side, I've also known people filled with love and compassion spiritually while they still attended church services. While we want the ability to choose for ourselves what we believe, the church people should be able to do the same, but not have the power to force others to live by what they believe.

Over the years, far too many years, most of the people I helped spiritually heal #PTSD said they believed in God and Jesus but wanted nothing to do with a building called "church" nor tolerate the manmade rules within the walls. When they discovered they could, and should, go to God directly on their own, they felt empowered and loved. Isn't that what we all want? Isn't that what we all need? To know that we are loved by God when He knows everything there is to know about us and still loves us, is a far greater gift than they ever expected. They are the people whom I wrote the Minsters Of The Mystery series for. There is so much beauty and power within the scriptures of the Bible, but they never heard them in a church.

While there are many parts of the books including scriptures, they are there to support the premises of the promises we all need to know. God does not send evil into your life as a test. Evil sent them. God is there to help you get through what evil is done to you.

God is not flesh but is Spirit and has made us in His image, so if you are judged by what you look like, those judging you do not understand the difference.

God did not seek to control anyone, so He gave us all free will to decide for ourselves. We must remember we have no control over what others do. We can only control what we do.

God forgives and we should too. Not for the sake of those that harmed us, but for our own sake. It is a weight we do not need to carry. For every moment we spend thinking about what was done to us, we cannot spend on what can fill us up with love, joy, and happiness.

In the end, I hope, that readers can see past the noise of the world to the purpose of their lives.

We either choose to act out of evil or to act out of love

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 11, 2023

There comes a time when all of us need to open our eyes so we can see what causes us to believe what we do. That time should come as soon as we are no longer children. We either choose to act out of evil or to act out of love. 

Today I see far too much evil being supported by people I know. I refuse to believe they are evil. I believe they have simply closed their eyes. I do believe that the NRA has been operating for evil purposes, putting profits and power over everything, and everyone else. While they inflict fear into the minds of gun owners that their rights will be taken away, the rest of the people in this country are inflicted with fear that no matter where we go, no place is safe. 

Discover more at Books2Read 

Some friends of mine are turning against all gun owners, even though most of the owners want limits on who should have the right to have them. They wonder why responsible, law-abiding citizens do not stand up and demand members of Congress do something to stop the slaughter of kids going to school, people going to work, and in the community after community feeling as if they cannot even attend events or even houses of worship.

I believe the goodness within gun owners lives within their souls. They just don't know what to do to use the power they have for the sake of what is right.

So far this year, there have been 11,630 deaths by guns. 6,666 of them were suicides. Another 8,895 were injured. There were 146 mass shootings and 14 mass murders. 71 children below the age of 12 are gone and 404 children from 12-17 are gone. You can read more grim facts from Gun Violence Archive.

While we cannot prevent all gun deaths, as long as there are guns, we can reduce the ability to murder as many as possible, as fast as possible.

Kids are supposed to listen to their teachers. They are supposed to be listening to their parents. They are supposed to be listening to their friends. They are not supposed to have to listen to something like this in far too many cases it is the last sound they hear.

How many kids will spend the rest of their lives with #PTSD because of what could have, and should have been prevented, when we can't even manage to take care of adults now?

While non-gun owners no longer feel safe, a lot of gun owners don't feel safe either but they have been convinced that their only solution is to arm themselves. After all, the NRA stops Congress from taking action, and that fear increases gun sales. Having more people with more guns increases gun sales. Causing the thought of fear the owners will have their guns taken away, increasing gun sales, and even more, money going to the NRA so they can support politicians who will serve them.

"We also have a responsibility to help keep our families and communities safe. Right now, we’re facing a real crisis in America: too many are losing their lives or loved ones to gun violence. But the vast majority of gun owners agree that there are responsible measures we can take to save lives." Gilford's

The 13th Minister Of Salem is about being unwilling to accept the premise that gun owners are all evil. The problem is when evil people get guns to slaughter others because good ones do nothing. A man, who at one time was a good preacher, decided to kill Chris for speaking the truth.  So why was his mind fixed on that instead of leaving it up to God to handle? Why would he be so willing to support a liar, a thief, and a child rapist, that he was willing to kill for him? I wonder why so many good people are willing to support those that do not value life enough to make sure evil people are not able to get their hands on weapons intended to slaughter?

Chris was struggling with writing his new book about kids and gun violence when he was shot because he was hated for doing what he was created to do with love and compassion. He wanted to give hope to others because he knew what it was like to lose all hope until others gave him back more hope than he ever dared to dream of.

Chris's battles were growing. He was learning the hard way to be careful about what he wished for. He became so famous that he had to hire security just to go out in public. After taking down Haman Cain, he was getting death threats from his cult. He hated the fame his books brought him, as much as he hated the changes coming non-stop. The series from his first book, making wedding plans were only the beginning of his torment. He was shot and feared he'd never be able to use his hand again.

Master Ministers were on high alert and ready to battle the dark forces gathering to destroy Chris. The book forces of darkness feared most of all was in his hands.

The worst came when he received a Master Minister of the Mystery warning. "Dark forces are already at work writing your wedding dirge. Your assailant has been chosen but so has your avenger."

That is how the 13th Minister Of Salem begins. It is the 3rd book in the Ministers Of The Mystery series. I wrote them because I am damn tired. Tired of hearing people claim to be Christians when there is nothing they do that proves they follow Jesus. They lie, support, and cover up for other liars. They claim their faith is being challenged because others do not want to have their own faiths controlled by them. They quote scriptures from the Old Testament while avoiding the New Testament which is all about the life and teachings of Jesus. I came to expect no less from the quasi-Christians regarding the Bible as a deli menu, so they can pick and choose what they want to digest while avoiding anything that would leave a bad taste in their mouths.

When they seek to control what others do in their personal lives, that is not what Jesus taught. Screaming and supporting reprehensible people, calling themselves pro-life does not prove they are Christian. It proves they are pro-birth and want the power to control it by taking away the rights of others. Once a birth happens, they have nothing to actually do themselves, other than pat themselves on the back.

The Ministers Of The Mystery series is based on scriptures they ignore because they do not fit into their narrow view of what Jesus taught. Most of the time with the way things have been, I kept thinking about the Salem Witchcraft Trials and how it was caused by pure hatred among those who claimed to be Christian against innocent people. The thing is, Jesus warned all of us that what they say does not prove what they believe. It is what they do that proves it. 

When lawmakers defend guns above the targets of mass murderers, it proves what they are. When they blame people with mental illness, that does not make someone a mass murderer or evil, yet have no problem with letting them get weapons to kill as many as possible, as fast as possible, it proves what they are.

So much has been accepted because people fail to prove what it is they value and love.  So what is it you really value? Are you willing to risk your own children by sending them to school when it could happen to them? Are you willing to risk the lives of your family going anywhere in public? I've heard some say that they want guns to protect themselves. What good is your handgun when you are face-to-face with a murderer with an AR-15 and in full body armor? What good does it do to have a gun at home when your child is in school?

Is your enemy within skin?

The things I survived were bad, but what was worse, was what I did to myself afterward. The things I heard in my head, made me beat myself up more than my ex-husband did. In other words, I did more damage to me long after I got away from him than he could ever do to me. #PTSD is what comes to those who survive and won't give up until we deliver the eviction notice in the form of compassion for ourselves.

This picture is Celia, the witch I think my bad voice in my head looks like. Her smug expression is when I give into whatever horrible thing she says I am as if she won something. The thing is, she may win for a time, and the tears come, but the "win" never lasts long. I refuse to surrender to the enemy within my skin.

This is a good article on what we do to ourselves after others did it first. If you take one thing away from this, I hope you realize that you do not have to surrender yourself to your Celia and have the power within you to heal the wounds created by others as much as you can heal the self-inflicted wounds you carry. 

Silencing Our Inner Critic After Attachment Trauma

How to overcome three common inner critic messages
Psychology Today
Annie Tanasugarn Ph.D., CCTSA
Posted January 28, 2023

KEY POINTS
One of the most common after-effects of childhood attachment trauma is the development of a harsh inner critic.
At the root of self-hate and self-neglect are conditioned beliefs that one isn't good enough to be loved or cared for.
Feelings of self-hate and self-neglect can generalize to self-sabotaging behavior where trauma enactment is likely.

One of the most common after-effects of childhood attachment trauma is the development of a harsh inner critic that replaces a person’s inner voice. By nature, we are hardwired to connect with others, which teaches us how to love and respect ourselves.

However, attachment trauma from abuse, neglect, abandonment, or invalidation forces a child to adapt to punitive environments where their sense of self becomes compromised. Instead of feeling connection and safety with those in their life, they learn survival mode. Instead of learning self-love and self-advocacy from a healthy upbringing, they forgo accepting themselves in exchange for compulsively trying to become what they believe their caregivers will want.

What Is Our Inner Critic?

Anyone can develop negative feelings towards their choices or behavior, especially in vulnerable moments. However, what separates negative feelings from a cruel inner critic is a sense of worthlessness at its core message. Negative feelings based on making a poor choice relate to guilt, whereas the messages connected to an inner critic relate to shame.

Thus, negative feelings associated with guilt may include a person saying, “I made a mistake,” whereas the message received from shame may include, “I am a mistake.”
read more here

Journalists vulnerable to trauma too!

If you are a reporter, this is why the main character of the Ministers Of The Mystery series was a reporter! This job you do is one of the lesser talked about causes of #PTSD and I thought it was time to remind people that reporters are only human too! The Scribe Of Salem is the first part and the eBook is free until the end of January. I hope you find some comfort in it! 

I covered murder-suicides, and learned how journalists were vulnerable to trauma

The Conversation
Norma Hilton
Global Journalism Fellow, University of Toronto
Published: January 25, 2023

The Canadian Journalism Forum on Violence and Trauma looked at the mental health of more than 1,200 journalists in late 2021. More than two-thirds suffered from anxiety, 46 per cent reported depression, and 15 per cent said they had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the past four years.

It never really dawned on me how vulnerable journalists were to trauma until I took a job as an investigative reporter. I spent most of 2021 and 2022 verifying, analyzing and writing stories about murder-suicides.

Every morning, I would make myself a cup of coffee in my New York City apartment, then sit down at my desk to pore over cases of murder-suicides — a total of 1,500 a year in the United States at the time.

I was consumed by my work. I was going through every news story about a specific murder-suicide, checking the accuracy of facts like the spelling of names, ages of the perpetrators and their victims and details of where the events occurred and how the murder-suicides were carried out. "" In one case, I spent a month working out the number of children killed by their parents in various parts of the country. When relatives I hadn’t seen in four years came to visit, I spent most of their trip elsewhere, interviewing with experts on gun and domestic violence.
read more here

Celebrities and veterans are not the only ones with #PTSD

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 10, 2023

This morning my inbox was filled with news that Prince Harry, Hailey Bieber, and veterans are suffering from PTSD. (I had to look up who Hailey Bieber was. How is it that there were at least 50 alerts on her?)

What I didn't see were alerts on what happens to survivors as humans living through something that could cause PTSD. Sometimes I feel as if I am the only one trying to get reporters to pay attention to all of us, since there are more average people of all ages struggling to heal and trying to get some hope they can do it.

Sorry but, that's all I can write on this right now. It's too frustrating to deal with today.

PTSD Demons On Film

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

January 8, 2023

If you have PTSD, then you know how to spot the demon someone else is struggling to get rid of. We can all see that all-too-familiar sadness in the eyes of someone else. Once our own eyes were opened by those that came before us, we begin to notice how it has been inflicting people since the beginning of time. You may wonder, as I do, why others never understand what is right in front of them.

If you look up famous movies about PTSD, you won't find the one playing in your dreams every night or in the flashbacks that come without warning. Sadly, if you look online for a list of movies with characters struggling with it, you won't find as many as there have been because the list makers do not seem to understand that is part of the script even if not overtly so.

Most of the lists I found were the same and I picked this one from Ranker to give you an idea.

"This list answers the questions, "What are the best post-traumatic stress disorder movies?" and "What is the greatest post-traumatic stress disorder movie of all time?"

1, The Deer Hunter

2, American Sniper

3, Fearless

4, Jacobs Ladder

5, Brothers

6, Perks Of Being A Wallflower

7, Ordinary People

8, Taxi Driver

9, The War At Home

10, First Blood

11, The Edge Of Love

12, Grand Toreno

13, Jackknife

14, Red Dragon

15, The Fisher King

My eyebrows are hurting because I kept waiting to see the ones we know. They aren't there. They do not call it PTSD when they show flashbacks, nightmares, mood swings, or emotional turmoil by characters unable to leave the past in the past. Yet, once you read this list, if you come across a movie you have seen, you'll never think of the movie the same way again when you go back and watch it.

The Best Years Of Our Lives

The Robe

The Messenger

Season Of The Witch

It's A Wonderful Life

Jimmy Stewart brought his demon with him into the role after WWII.

EXCLUSIVE: How Jimmy Stewart's agony in It's a Wonderful Life came from extreme PTSD he suffered after he lost 130 of his men as a fighter pilot in WWII

Actor Jimmy Stewart was haunted by his memories from his time in the Air Force and suffered from PTSD when he returned from World War II

Stewart wrestled with the guilt of killing civilians in bomb raids over France and Germany and felt responsible for the death of his comrades

Stewart never talked about his struggles and bottled up his emotions

But they came out when acting parts he chose when he returned to Hollywood

He tapped into his emotional distress during the filming of It's a Wonderful Life, where his character George Bailey unravels in front of his family

Stewart's anguish is laid bare for the first time in Mission: Jimmy Stewart and the fight for Europe by author Robert Matzen (read more here)

I bet there are even more you may be thinking about right now. Any movie with nightmares of things that have been or flashbacks will have a reason for that being in the script. Use your inner PTSD couch critic and let other people you know see what you see, so they will be able to recognize the demons in the eyes of others. Then maybe we can all decide that there is no reason to hide the battles we fight since they are all watching these movies as entertainment.

If you are involved with church people, then read the Psalms with fresh eyes and you'll find it there too!

Kathie Costos Author of Ministers Of The Mystery The Scribe Of Salem

Heroes of January 6, 2021 honored

To see what is happening in the US Capitol today, on this the second anniversary of when our democracy was being attacked, is sickening. That is true. At the same time, what else happened this day in Washington DC is hopeful because people who risked their lives to defend what so many simply take for granted were rightfully honored.

In the process of President Biden listing all the things they went through, he mentioned how #PTSD does not just happen to veterans. Members of the police force, members of the House and Senate, and workers serving the elected are battling PTSD because of what happened that horrible day. Along with them, election workers, simply doing the duty of counting and processing the votes were honored for the price they ended up having to pay because they were lied about and targeted by those who lost.

When you have PTSD, you know that terrors do not end because they come in many different events by many different people, but they do not have to defeat us because other events and other people do things to help us heal!

Among those honored was "Capitol Police Officer Howie Liebengood, who died by suicide after serving on the front lines during the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol" and his widow fought to have the unseen price paid as a price paid in the line of duty.

Widow of fallen Capitol Police officer wants his death classified as ‘in the line of duty’

“That’s not what this is about,” Wexton said of the loss of access to the benefits. “This is more about the principle of their understanding that PTSD and the tragedy that went along with the events of January 6 is real. And that the stigma that follows police officers around after this, and then the reluctance to seek help, is also real.” read more of this here

President Biden awards 12 Citizens Medals on Jan. 6 anniversary

Michael Fanone and veterans uge House to condemn violence

Letters delivered by veterans urge House Republicans to condemn political violence

Los Angeles Times
BY GARY FIELDS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
JAN. 4, 2023

WASHINGTON — Dozens of military veterans on Wednesday hand-delivered letters to top Republicans in the U.S. House, calling on them to publicly condemn political violence as the second anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol approaches.

Former Washington Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone leaves Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s office at the Capitol on Wednesday after delivering a letter urging the Georgia Republican to publicly condemn political violence.(Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press)

Former Metropolitan Police Officer Michael Fanone wrote the letter, which was signed by more than 1,000 military veterans, active duty members, law enforcement officers and military families. Fanone, who was beaten and shocked with stun guns during the attack on the Capitol, delivered a copy to Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s office. While the GOP leadership remains unsettled, the groups behind the effort consider the Georgia representative one of the de facto leaders of the new Republican majority in the House.

Veterans also delivered letters to GOP Reps. James Comer of Kentucky, Jim Jordan of Ohio, Steve Scalise of Louisiana, Elise Stefanik of New York and Kevin McCarthy of Bakersfield, who is trying to become House speaker.

read more here
video from NBC

Did you ever wonder why God allowed it to happen?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 3, 2023

Whatever caused you to have #PTSD, you probably needed to find an explanation as to why it happened to you.

There was real evil in Salem in 1692. It did not live in the accused but in the accusers. They broke most of the 10 Commandments. They murdered innocent people, put another God ahead of God, blamed God by Name for what they were doing, stole, lied, and used the power of faith to corrupt others into the service of the father of lies. They turned against the faith they claimed to have and turned to the lust for power over others. The survivors were left to wonder why it happened to them after they were falsely accused, tortured, and faced death. Then, after they were released to live among their accusers, imagine how they felt. The more I know about PTSD, the more I don't have to imagine what that is like. How many times did it happen to you when you were falsely accused by people you knew because they didn't know any better? If you take nothing else away from this post, imagine how the people at the time had no other explanation for any of it, yet we do. We know that as survivors, there is a reason for the cause of our suffering, just as much as there is a reason for our healing!

 

It did not just happen in Salem.

Beyond Salem: 6 Lesser-Known Witch Trials

Lancaster Castle, where all but two accused witches were put on trials. (Credit: Dave Moorhouse/Getty Images)

Pendle: England, 1612–1634

"Required to report anyone who refused to attend the English Church or take communion, the local Justice of the Peace, Roger Nowell, was also tasked with investigating claims of witchcraft." 

People all over the world suffered because of wars, illnesses, famine, and things they could not explain. They had to find someone to blame. Some said God let it all happen. Others said the devil did. They pointed their fingers at others. 200,000 dead. They died because people lied about them and called them witches. They died because some of them were poor. They died because some of them were rich. They died because some of them did the right thing and tried to stand up for them against the false accusations, and ended up being accused too. They died because of greed, power, and hatred. They died in the name of their religion.


Did you ever wonder why God allowed it to happen? He couldn't have been pleased to see His name used to cause all that happened. While we know eventually all the trials ended, we question why they were allowed to happen at all.

Whatever caused you to have #PTSD, you probably needed to find an explanation as to why it happened to you. No matter what it was, it caused you harm and made you fear for your life. When it was over, and your life was no longer the same as it was, either you were grateful you survived, or you took the event itself as a judgment from God.

I know because I did the same thing. I think it can be worse for those who do believe in God than for those who do not. After all, if you believe in God then you know nothing is impossible for Him. So why didn't He prevent it if He didn't cause it?

That is why I wrote the Ministers Of The Mystery Series.

In The Scribe Of Salem, Chris was born and raised in Salem. He always saw the love that conquered the evil done there because people did the right thing even though they had seen others pay the price for defending the innocent people accused and tortured as witches when they too became the accused.

In chapter 2, David was trying to get Chris to seek the help of the woman that healed him five years before. Chris survived all the times he went to Afghanistan and Iraq to report on the wars. He survived a bomb blast that left him covered with scars on the right side of his body. He survived his ex-wife trying to kill him. The night before this conversation, Chris also survived the threat he was to himself as he held a gun to his own head.

“What did all that do to you?”

“You know, with the wars I covered and getting blown up didn’t do as much damage to me as she did. I had nightmares and flashbacks, mood swings off the charts and so filled with anger, I had to go to the gym just to beat up a bag.”

“How did you manage to get the divorce if she didn’t want it to end?”

“I told her I kept the knife with her fingerprints and my blood on it and I’d turn her in for attempted murder if she didn’t agree to it. Then the day of the divorce, she told me I’d never be done with her and I’d always be looking over my shoulder. The thing is, she was right. I left her in LA and came back here, and was still looking over my shoulder, having a panic attack whenever I saw a red Mustang.”

“How long did that last?”

“Strange thing is, until last night when I found out she died. It was the first good night of sleep I’d had. On the way here, there was a red Mustang on the road and it didn’t bother me at all, other than the fact I was shocked I didn’t care.”

“I think you may want to take a trip to Gabriel and see if you can talk to Mandy.”

“No, I’m not a veteran.”

“She helps anyone God sends her. Trauma doesn’t just hit veterans.”

“I don’t have any extra money and besides, I wouldn’t know how to find her.”

“If you’re supposed to find her, trust that and you will.”

Chris shook his head. “You have no idea how strange that sounds to me right now. Up until you guys walked into the bar at 7:00, I would have told you what I thought about God,” he looked down, “that He’s a vindictive son of a bitch playing around with people’s lives and making us suffer for fun. Now I don’t know what to think.”

“You suffered for seven years, so ya, I get how you would feel that way. I did too for a while. The thing is, the explosion happened at 7:00 too, so maybe this time, He’s moving things around so you open your eyes to how wrong you were. Come on Bill is still waiting for us.”

It took his friends and strangers coming into his life to open his eyes so he would see that God did not do anything to him, but tried to prevent it from happening. When He couldn't, He saved Chris.

Chris thought it would have been easier to have not loved God in the first place, so it would have made it easier to walk away from Him. He had to be able to see what God did to try to prevent what happened to him. The same thing He does for all of us, but because we all have the free will to do as we are asked, or guided to do, we are free to dismiss it. Chris dismissed it and then blamed God for letting it all happen to him.

On a personal happier note, I finished therapy today and so glad I did it when I needed it.

If you are contemplating a field in mental health, God bless you

The clock is ticking at worldometers! 8 billion people as of January 2, 2023, at 8:15 on the east coast of the United States. As for the US, "DEC. 29, 2022 — As the nation prepares to ring in the new year, the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the U.S. population will be 334,233,854 on Jan. 1, 2023."

We know that PTSD does not just happen to veterans in the US. We know that it strikes human survivors. And now we know that most of the causes are because of what other humans do. The top five causes are all about other people doing something to cause the trauma.

(Check the link and see where the information came from.)

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Statistics: 2022 Update
CFHA

Report Highlights
6% or 3 in every 50 American adults will have gone through PTSD or post-traumatic stress disorder at some point in their lives [9].
The leading cause of PTSD is sexual violence at 33%, with 94% of rape victims developing symptoms of PTSD during the first two weeks after their traumatic experience [23] [28].
PTSD is most prevalent among American adults between the ages of 45 and 49 years old at 9.2% [12].
Women have a lifetime PTSD prevalence rate of 9.7%, compared to 3.6% in men [17].
Civilian women have a lifetime prevalence rate of 8%, compared to 13.4% among military women [24].
11% to 23% of veterans have experienced PTSD within a given year [2].
About 17.2 veterans die by suicide each day, with veterans being 1.5 times more likely to die by suicide than civilians [2].
3 in 10 or 30% of the first responders have PTSD [6].
6 weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy can help ease symptom severity by about 50% in 21% to 46% of patients with PTSD [7].
People with PTSD who use cannabis for their symptoms are 2.57 times more likely to recover from this condition [3].
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as an intense, uncontrollable emotional and physical reaction to a reminder of a traumatic event or distressing memories [4]. This abnormal response to triggers can last for days and even years after the harrowing incident or traumatic event.

Think about what that all means to people in the US, as well as around the world. For all we know about PTSD and the results of the causes, we will never know how many people have PTSD.  There are far too many that will not be diagnosed and never enough people to be able to diagnose and treat the survivors. As long as we keep doing a lousy job of letting people know what PTSD is, why they have it, and give them hope, as well as a way to heal, we will keep seeing the suffering that does not have to happen.

Take the information you just learned and try an experiment on your own. Ask a friend or family member what they know about PTSD. If the response you get is the same one I've gotten for the last 40 years, they will say it is something veterans get. While we know that is not true, we know that they are the only group reporters want to cover. Even fewer reporters want to cover those serving today as if that makes sense to them. Why bother to report on when the events take place?

The clock is ticking around the world on the population of the planet but it is also ticking on the time lost when people survive what others do to them, but they don't have someone doing something for them.

If you are contemplating a field in mental health, God bless you because the world needs more people like you!

Kathie Costos author of Ministers Of The Mystery series

PTSD: The trauma experienced by migrants is typically two-fold

Border crisis complicated by migrant PTSD: report

NY Post
By Jesse O’Neill
January 1, 2023

A Border Protection officer leading zip-tied migrants after they were taken into custody on January 1, 2023.James Keivom

The trauma experienced by migrants is typically two-fold: they are suffering from the memories they left behind while also carrying around mental anguish from their journeys, Byimana explained.

As a surge of asylum seekers overwhelm southern border cities, “most” of the migrants are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder from their harrowing trip into the US.

The migrants’ arduous ordeals are often marred with violence, kidnappings and sexual assaults, according to Dr. Brian Elmore, who volunteers for weekend shifts at a shelter in El Paso, Texas.

“Most of our patients have symptoms of PTSD. I want to initiate a screening for every patient,” said Elmore, an emergency medicine doctor at Clinica Hope.

In many cases, the grueling hardships had been exacerbated by the pandemic emergency measure Title 42, which has been used to expel more than 2.5 million migrants from the US since March 2020, according to the Saturday report by the Associated Press.
read more here

PTSD in Minnesota's Deputy worthy of death benefit

Appeals court rules spouses of officers who die by suicide are entitled to death benefit

KSTP
Eric Chaloux
Updated: December 21, 2022

“They see things regularly that if we saw one of those things in our life time, we’d be affected by it for the rest of our lives,” Cindy Lannon said.

The Minnesota Court of Appeals found that a surviving spouse of a public safety officer who dies by suicide is “entitled to the death benefit for survivors of officers ‘killed in the line of duty’ if the officers death resulted from post-traumatic stress disorder from the job”, according to the court’s opinion.

For more than 30 years, Jerry Lannon protected and served the community, including since 1999, as a Deputy Sheriff in Washington County.

“Jerry always loved his job, he loved going to work, in the last few months of his life, it completely turned, and he was dreading going to work,” said Cindy Lannon, Deputy Lannon’s wife.

58-year-old Deputy Lannon died by suicide in November 2018.
read more here

Hope responds there is no room for that demon in your life

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 22, 2022

PTSD demon tells you that there is no hope for you.

Hope responds there is no room for that demon in your life. You have healing to do.

PTSD demon tells you that you were meant to suffer.

Hope responds that you survived because you were not meant to die.

PTSD demon tells you that you should be ashamed of the voices in your head.

Hope responds that the only voice in your head that doesn't belong there is the demon!

Think about the person or event that caused you harm, and it is still trying to destroy you. Think about the fact that you survived it, and that makes you a survivor, no longer a victim of "it" and it doesn't get to determine the rest of your life.

From The Scribe Of Salem

David Mac Donald strolled into the bar. He was tall, and muscular, with fiery red flowing hair with a scraggly beard. He looked more like an ancient Scottish warrior than he did when he was in the Army with cropped hair. David’s family moved from Scotland when he was starting high school and he joined the Army as soon as he graduated. When he walked over to the group, they all got up out of their chairs and hugged, then he saw Chris. “Oh my God! Nanos!” He walked over to him. As soon as he got a closer look at his eyes, he could see an all too familiar pain the fake smile couldn’t cover up. He gave him a bear hug and whispered in his Scottish accent, “Your demon is in control for now. Time to take back your life as we did.”

David recognized the demon in Chris, because for a long time, he one too. It was clear on the darkest night of Chris's life, the conspiracy was working.

One of the conversations Chris had later was with Ed, his bartender and, as far as Chris knew, the only friend he had for the last three years, showed the plans were starting to work.

“I know I don’t want to live like this anymore. You just gave me a gift I don’t think I’ll ever be able to repay.”

“Then pay it forward to someone else you come into contact with and use your gift as a writer to help them heal too. There are millions of people in this country right now suffering instead of healing because they don’t know what to do to defeat the demons they face. You can help them with that after you heal and get stronger.”

“Do you think that’s what He wants me to do? Why me? People are gonna know what a screwup I am. What qualifies me to write about all these, saintly people doing good all over the place?”

“Because the saints in the Bible were all screw-ups too. We all are. Every single one of them messed up. People forget that part instead of seeing that if God could use people like them to make miracles happen, He could do it with anyone. You have the choice to turn to what is dark in you sent by Satan, or hang on to what is light in you from God, just like they did.”

“So you’re saying people turn to darkness by choice?”

“Yes, but mostly because they think that’s the only road they can take. They can’t pray to God for themselves at the same time they turn away from Him. That’s when other people pray for them because they can’t. Isn’t that what He just laid out in front of you?”

Isn't that what was just laid in front of you too?

Are you the scribe you need?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 20, 2022

The Scribe of Salem is about having PTSD because the people in it survived, questioned God, blamed God, and Chris, he thought God was a vindictive son-of-a-bitch playing around with the lives of people for fun. That is until he realized God was playing but was preparing.

From a few people that read The Scribe of Salem, there have been many questions. The 12 women on the beach, are the Master Ministers of the Mystery. Some think that women cannot be ministers, but the Bible clearly states that they were among those serving God with Jesus.

We know there were 12 chosen, and accepted to serve God alongside Jesus.

Peter; James; John; Andrew; Philip; Judas; Matthew; Thomas; James, Bartholomew; Judas Iscariot and Simon

But they were not the only ones sent out.

Luke 10:1 After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.

And even they were not the only ones.

Acts 1:14 These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren. 15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said, (the number of names together were about an hundred and twenty,)

KJV

15 In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty) 16 and said, “Brothers and sisters, the Scripture had to be fulfilled in which the Holy Spirit spoke long ago through David concerning Judas, who served as guide for those who arrested Jesus. 17 He was one of our number and shared in our ministry.”

And we know why they were brought together. There had to be 12 chosen as leaders.

24 And they prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen,

25 That he may take part of this ministry and apostleship, from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.

26 And they gave forth their lots; and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.

We know that the gifts of the spirit were not limited to them. We also know that "sons and daughters" were to receive gifts.

Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

What are the gifts?

1 Corinthians Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant.

2 Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led.

3 Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.

4 Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.

5 And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord.

6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.

7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal

8 For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit;

9 To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit;

10 To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues:

And we know what those gifts were supposed to be used for. 

1 Corinthians 13
13 Suppose I speak in the languages of human beings or of angels. If I don’t have love, I am only a loud gong or a noisy cymbal. 2 Suppose I have the gift of prophecy. Suppose I can understand all the secret things of God and know everything about him. And suppose I have enough faith to move mountains. If I don’t have love, I am nothing at all. 3 Suppose I give everything I have to poor people. And suppose I give myself over to a difficult life so I can brag. If I don’t have love, I get nothing at all.

4 Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not want what belongs to others. It does not brag. It is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor other people. It does not look out for its own interests. It does not easily become angry. It does not keep track of other people’s wrongs. 6 Love is not happy with evil. But it is full of joy when the truth is spoken. 7 It always protects. It always trusts. It always hopes. It never gives up.

8 Love never fails. But prophecy will pass away. Speaking in languages that had not been known before will end. And knowledge will pass away. 9 What we know now is not complete. What we prophesy now is not perfect. 10 But when what is complete comes, the things that are not complete will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I had the understanding of a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 Now we see only a dim likeness of things. It is as if we were seeing them in a foggy mirror. But someday we will see clearly. We will see face to face. What I know now is not complete. But someday I will know completely, just as God knows me completely. 13 The three most important things to have are faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love.

Chris was given an amulet by Mandy. It is a dove with wings of fire. Some accounts of the Holy Spirit are of a dove and others have it as fire. So yes, it very well could be a Christian amulet, much like the Cross I wear.

Chris begins to see Reverend George Burroughs in a painting of the Salem Witch Trials behind the bar. Why Reverend Burroughs? Listen to this podcast after all the chitchat in the beginning and get caught up in the story of this man.

Also of interest is Witch Trot Road in Maine where Burroughs was taken from Maine to Salem Village...almost a decade after he left Salem! According to New England Folklore, the connection lies in a Puritan minister named George Burroughs. He was recruited to be a minister in Salem, Massachusetts in 1680 but after a falling out with the community, Burroughs moved to Wells, Maine. Years later, the Salem Witch Trials began to send shockwaves throughout New England. Many people, including those in law enforcement at the time, believed the cause of widespread witchcraft in Salem was an afflicted minister. That minister was George Burroughs.

So, there you have scripture supporting this work, and most of it you didn't hear in church. History of people being accused of trying to take down the church when all they wanted to do was serve God as God decided they should. You have spiritual gifts being used to help people. And you see what can happen when human will replaces what God wants.

Maybe you'll see how God tried to prevent all that happened, but people would not listen. Maybe you'll see how God tried to prevent what happened to you too. At least, I hope you see that what you choose to become now, is in your hands. Listen to God's voice and let Him restore hope to your soul. Stop listening to the demon sent to destroy you. 

Sure the series is fictional but the truth is, the power to heal is in you. So, are you the scribe you need for yourself? One last thought on this post is, You are loved and you are not alone!

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

PTSD: 15 million Ukrainians now need mental-health care

No end in sight to war for overwhelmed Ukraine psychologists dealing with the mental health fallout

Toronto Star
By Katharine Lake Berz Special to the Star
Dec. 17, 2022

Beyond dealing with the physical horrors, a mixture of panic attacks, insomnia, flashbacks, anxiety and depression affect majority of patients doctors see suffering from PTSD

IVANO-FRANKIVSK, Ukraine — Susanna Anhelova’s heart aches as she looks out at the 70 somber souls waiting to start the support program for women she is leading in western Ukraine. Anhelova has worked for 25 years with victims of trauma but says this is the hardest work she has ever faced.

One of the women in the room, barely past her teens, stares despondently at her phone. Another bows her head as her child whines. All are looking to Anhelova to help them recover. All have survived unimaginable abuse and torture as Russian prisoners of war.

Anhelova prays the electricity will stay on long enough for her to offer words of comfort and tries not to think of her own children near the shelling at their home in Kyiv.

“I must help these women learn to live again, so we can win this war,” she says.

The war in Ukraine has brought pain and hardship to millions of civilians since Russia invaded on Feb. 24. The European Union estimates that 20,000 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, with many more injured and millions left homeless. An estimated 15 million Ukrainians now need mental-health care, according to the Ukraine ministry of health.

“The devastation of the war is like the rings of a stone thrown in the water,” she says. “Larger and larger circles ripple forever.”

When Anhelova’s waves of memories threaten to overwhelm her, she reminds herself that her work is important.

“This is my front line, my struggle. This is what I can do for our victory.”
read more here

A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

Raised with trauma, Sandy Hook survivors send hope to Uvalde “I think what happened changed my entire life.”

Associated Press
By DAVE COLLINS and PAT EATON-ROBB
September 7, 2022

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — The survivors who were able to walk out of Sandy Hook Elementary School nearly a decade ago want to share a message of hope with the children of Uvalde, Texas: You will learn how to live with your trauma, pain and grief. And it will get better.

They know what’s ahead. There’s shock, followed by numbness. There are struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder. Anxiety. Survivor’s guilt. Anger that these shootings continue to happen in America. Reliving their trauma every time there’s another mass shooting.

They know it will be hard to say they are from Uvalde. That well-meaning adults will sometimes make the wrong decisions to protect you. That grief can be unpredictable, and different for everyone.

Children who survived the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting have grown up reliving their trauma with each new mass shooting in the U.S. Emotions well up especially when the shooting involves another elementary school like in Uvalde, Texas. (Sept. 7) (AP Video: Joseph B. Frederick, Julia Nikhinson)

read more here

But it wasn't just what happened at Sandy Hook that day. It was what came afterward that added to the agony.

Alex Jones trial: Sandy Hook parents have PTSD, live in terror, psychiatrist testifies

Austin American Statesman
Chuck Lindell
August 1, 2022

Criticized by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and confronted by some of his followers, the parents of 6-year-old Sandy Hook victim Jesse Lewis have developed post-traumatic stress disorder and live in constant anxiety and terror, a psychiatrist testified Monday.

Forensic psychiatrist Roy Lubit, a specialist in emotional trauma, said the parents' troubles were not caused by their son's violent death in the 2012 school shooting but by Jones' repeated portrayals of the attack as staged or faked on his InfoWars program.

"It's more than just interfering with healing, it has pushed them back ... into some of their earlier pain," Lubit said in a downtown Austin courtroom.

Later this week, a jury will be asked to determine how much Jones should pay to Jesse's parents, Scarlett Lewis and Neil Heslin, for defamation and emotional distress after repeatedly portraying the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which killed 20 students and six educators, as a hoax meant to justify a government crackdown on gun rights,

Heslin has had bullets fired at his home and car, and people who deny that the Sandy Hook attack took place have made threatening phone calls and sent harassing emails to both parents, Lubit testified.
read more here

But they will not let that defeat the hope that they will heal enough to make a difference in this world to others. That as they still grieve, they do something to make sure others do not grieve alone.

A decade after Sandy Hook, grief remains but hope grows

Associated Press
By DAVE COLLINS
December 13, 2022

NEWTOWN, Conn. (AP) — They would have been 16 or 17 this year. High school juniors.

The children killed at the Sandy Hook Elementary School on Dec. 14, 2012 should have spent this year thinking about college, taking their SATs and getting their driver’s licenses. Maybe attending their first prom.

Instead, the families of the 20 students and six educators slain in the mass shooting will mark a decade without them Wednesday.

December is a difficult month for many in Newtown, the Connecticut suburb where holiday season joy is tempered by heartbreak around the anniversary of the nation’s worst grade school shooting.

For former Sandy Hook students who survived the massacre, guilt and anxiety can intensify. For the parents, it can mean renewed grief, even as they continue to fight on their lost children’s behalf.

In February, Sandy Hook families reached a $73 million settlement with the gunmaker Remington, which made the shooter’s rifle. Juries in Connecticut and Texas ordered the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones to pay $1.4 billion for promoting lies that the massacre was a hoax.
read more here

PTSD in Salem "It’s hard to make that diagnosis 300 years in the past."

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
December 12, 2022

If you listen to people talking about PTSD, you'll often hear the word "demon" used. It is almost as if the person has been invaded by something evil and what is good within them is battling it on a daily basis.

an evil spirit or devil, especially one thought to possess a person or act as a tormentor in hell.
a cruel, evil, or destructive person or thing.
reckless mischief; devilry.
a forceful, fierce, or skillful performer of a specified activity. (Oxford)

Since trauma has existed since the beginning of time, while the term PTSD is relatively new, what survivors dealt with afterward, is far from new. Considering what the people survived in the time of witchcraft trials, here, as well as in other parts of the world, it is easier to understand how they would not be able to grasp psychological reasoning, and jumped straight into possession and Satan,

A Storm of Witchcraft: The Salem Trials and the American Experience (Pivotal Moments in American History)

Historians have speculated on a web of possible causes for the witchcraft that stated in Salem and spread across the region-religious crisis, ergot poisoning, an encephalitis outbreak, frontier war hysteria--but most agree that there was no single factor. Rather, as Emerson Baker illustrates in this seminal new work, Salem was "a perfect storm": a unique convergence of conditions and events that produced something extraordinary throughout New England in 1692 and the following years, and which has haunted us ever since.

 

The theory that may explain what was tormenting the afflicted in Salem’s witch trials
Boston.com

Baker says it’s possible that a few of the accusers were purposefully faking their symptoms. However, he says that his ultimate conclusion after years of studying the events is that they were actually suffering from psychological ailments.

Foremost among them is something called mass conversion disorder, a psychogenic disorder that — ironically — made a suspected return to the Salem area more than 300 years later.

“People are in such mental anguish, for a variety of reasons, that literally their minds convert their anxieties to physical symptoms,” Baker told Boston.com.

“They’re not faking it,” he said. “They don’t know what’s going on. If it happens to people, they’re terrified that it’s even happening.”

From there, the “step from affliction to accusation was a short one,” Baker writes in his book about the trials, A Storm of Witchcraft. While societal scapegoats have evolved over time, he writes that “in 1692 the omnipresent threat was witchcraft.” And those identified in Salem were either marginalized members of the community or enemies of the powerful families leading the witch hunt.

Baker acknowledged that the conversion disorder — a term introduced by Sigmund Freud and otherwise known as mass hysteria — is “still kind of a controversial diagnosis today.”

“It’s hard to make that diagnosis 300 years in the past without the person right in front of you,” he said, adding that it’s possible that a combination of psychological elements played into the girls’ odd behavior.

When you think about what life was like back then, it is easy to think that the Puritans would have little knowledge of what trauma did to them, or what they were doing to others.

PTSD in the Massachusetts Bay Colony
Historic Ipswich
by Gordon Harris

From the founding of the colony, the Puritans were highly selective of who they allowed to live with them. In the first year of its settlement, the Freemen of the Ipswich established “for our own peace and comfort” the exclusive right to determine the privileges of citizenship in the new community, and gave formal notice that “no stranger coming among us” could have place or standing without their permission. Beginning in 1656, laws forbade any captain to land Quakers, and any individual of that sect was to be severely whipped on his or her entrance, and none were allowed to speak with them. Newcomers who were unable to support themselves and their families were “warned out.”

Think about what the survivors were dealing with.

In Salem Village in February 1692, two prepubescent girls Betty Parris (age nine) and her cousin Abigail Williams (age 11) began to have fits, complained of being pricked with pins and accused their neighbors of witchcraft. Some of the afflicted girls had been traumatized after losing one or both parents in King William’s War. The afflicted girls routinely described the Devil as a “dark man.”George Burroughs, the unpopular predecessor to Rev. Parris in Salem Village, had come from Maine, and returned there when the parish refused to pay him. Only five weeks before the accusations began, Indians had burned York Maine, 80 miles north of Salem, killing 48 people and taking 73 captives. When one of the accused confessed that the Devil had tempted her in Maine, Reverend Burroughs was arrested, charged with witchcraft and encouraging the Indians, and was hanged on Gallows Hill.

Think about what Reverend Burroughs went through. The arrest warrant was issued ten years after he left Salem Village and was in Maine. He lost everything, including his first wife, whom he couldn't afford to bury and had to borrow money. The villagers refused to pay his salary and he had to leave for the sake of his family. The hatred from the people of Salem Village was so powerful, they were out to get him no matter how long it took to do it.

The Witchcraft Trial of Reverend George Burroughs
History of Massachusetts
Burroughs encountered the same problems as his predecessor as well as hostility from Bayley’s friends and supporters, according to the book Salem Witchcraft by Charles W. Upham:

“Immediately upon calling to the village to reside, he encountered the hostility of those persons who, as the special friends of Mr. Bayley, allowed their prejudices to be concentrated upon his innocent successor. The unhappy animosities arising from this source entirely demoralized the Society, and, besides making it otherwise very uncomfortable to a minister, led to a neglect and derangement of all financial affairs. In September, 1681, Mr. Burrough’s wife died, and he had to run in debt for her funeral expenses. Rates were not collected, and his salary was in arrears.”

By now I hope you see that PTSD is not new. People accused others because they did not know what was causing everything they were dealing with.  Over the years, I've learned that those who claim PTSD is not real, have never survived something, or are under some delusion that they may also have it. I remember one veteran many years ago, attacking me for posting on PTSD and claiming that it was not real. It took him a while before I received an email apologizing and he admitted he had it but fought for years to bury what it was doing to him, instead of trying to recover and heal.

We cannot do anything to educate those who do not want to learn. We cannot do anything more than learn what we can so we can be happier in our own lives and then reach out to others fighting their own demons.

We live in a time when we know there are psychological as well as spiritual aspects to what makes us, us. No human is designed to endure trauma over and over again without paying some kind of price. We also know that the price does not have to take over our lives. It does not have to destroy us after we survived what caused it. We are survivors! Say that to yourself over and over again until you finally realize that and then, be empowered to heal so you can rejoice as one. 

Kathie Costos author of Ministers Of The Mystery Series.