Showing posts with label empowerment. Show all posts
Showing posts with label empowerment. Show all posts

Monday, March 23, 2020

Isolated veterans to have story time on PTSD Patrol

update and confession on the other delay.


update project delay due to camera issues.....

Story time coming to PTSD Patrol


PTSD Patrol
Cross Posted on Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 23, 2020

Four years ago, I wrote Residual War. It was the first fiction book I wrote as a way to tell some stories that were factual mixed with stuff my mind came up with.


Residual War: Something Worth Living For (Volume 1) Paperback – October 2, 2016
Heroes do not think. They react to someone in danger. The Army was Amanda Leverage's life and she was willing to die to save the two lives she ended up blaming for spreading misery and suffering. She never needed to think of why she was willing to die but needed help finding something worth living for. She found it within a group of outcast heroes with their own history of selfless acts being punished for what they did wrong but protected for what they did right. PTSD, survivors guilt, homeless veterans, dishonorable discharges, flashbacks, nightmares and yes, even suicides were part of their lives but so was redemption.
Since I was supposed to be starting an Out Post for female veterans, here in New Hampshire just before the COVID-19 virus hit, it has been very depressing for me. I was offered room at the local American Legion to meet, but it is too dangerous for everyone now.

Experts say that the worst thing a veteran with PTSD can do, is to isolate, but now it is more dangerous for you to be out, and even worse to be in crowds. I needed to think outside the box on this to give you some comfort and fill up some of your time. I'll be reading this book on video, with a bit of a twist to it. I am setting a timer of 3 minutes. Whenever it goes off, whatever word I am on, that will be the end of the video.

We will then play a game as to what that final word means to you. If the word is "and" reply back withy something like "me and" or "and then" or whatever you think about. Should get some interesting replies on that.

It will pick up on the next word in the next video. You can cheat since Amazon has it for free on Kindle and apparently, for whatever reason, you can also read it on their preview page for free.

I am also opening up my YouTube and Facebook pages so you can share your thoughts and to answer questions from 12:00 pm eastern to 1:00 when the first video goes up this week. You can always email me at woundedimes@aol.com too.

Check back tomorrow for the official announcement on PTSD Patrol when the first video will go up!

Please share this since word of mouth has been the only way this site was able to be viewed over 4 million times!

Sunday, March 15, 2020

Retired Mountie speaking out to change the PTSD conversation

A veteran Mountie shares his struggles with PTSD, hoping it will encourage others to seek help


Vancouver Sun
Lori Culbert
March 14, 2020
There were 25 documented RCMP suicides between January 2014 and December 2019, involving 15 active members and 10 retirees, Brien said. Postmedia has reported that between 2006 and 2014, there were 31 suicides by serving or retired Mounties.

It was a warm Sunday evening in April 1979 when John Buis, a 25-year-old Mountie with two years on the job, pulled over a dilapidated Lincoln Continental with Texas plates that had been speeding on Kingsway Avenue in Burnaby.

He radioed in the licence plate number, but it was 8:30 p.m. on a Sunday night and the computer system was slow, so no information was immediately available. Buis and his partner Jack Robinson called for backup before checking the identification of the seven people who spilled out of the messy, dirty car stopped near Imperial Avenue.

After Const. Merv Korolek responded to the scene, the three officers searched the car. They made some disturbing finds among the discarded food wrappers and other garbage: ammunition and a rifle scope in the back seat, and a sawed-off rifle in a plastic bag in the trunk.
He sought help at Vancouver’s Operational Stress Injury Clinic, which caters to police and soldiers, and from there attended a nine-week residential treatment program in Saanich.

He is speaking out today to encourage a larger conversation about mental health among first responders, who are often hesitant to ask for help.
read it here


Thursday, March 12, 2020

Iraq veteran PTSD survivor proud to cry because it helped him heal

This Iraq War Vet Cheated Death 3 Times. He's Proud to Cry About It.


Men's Health
BY LAUREN LARSON
MAR 12, 2020
FitOps, which counts zero suicides among its alumni, cracked Somers open like that first grenade did. For most of his life, he had been motivated by men around him—his cartel-wealthy veteran uncle, or his hardcore first sergeant. In telling his story, and seeing how other people were affected and moved to tell theirs, Somers found his own strong sense of purpose.

Somers after joining FitOps, which helped him discover a new way to cope with PTSD and his harsh upbringing.
BENEDICT EVANS

FROM ABOVE, YOU WOULD have seen two battered Humvees streaking down a rutted freeway, one behind the other in the center lane, surrounded by miles of Iraq’s parched terrain. As they approached an overpass, one moved into the far-left lane and the other moved far right. Afterward, the trucks weaved back into the same lane.

It was July 2003, and trucks were getting blown up every day in Iraq—insurgents often dropped grenades from overpasses. Bobby Somers, a 23-year-old specialist in the U. S. Army, sat behind the wheel of the second beat-up Humvee, fondly code-named Bertha. Clad in tan fatigues, he had one hand on the wheel, the other on a machine gun pointed out the window. A tiny earbud snaked into his left ear, pumping 50 Cent’s Get Rich or Die Tryin’ album from a CD player tucked beneath his seat. Somers had driven thousands of miles like this without incident, and he felt invincible.
After both attacks, Somers was offered a medical discharge, but he stayed. “I remember when I got back into that truck, I was crying,” he says. “I didn’t want to drive out the gate. But I was more scared to let people know I was scared.”

Which brings us to another time Somers nearly died, years after he’d finished his tour, while at his home in Texas. He went into his bathroom, put a gun in his mouth, and almost pulled the trigger. Fate had intervened twice to save Somers’s life. Now he would need a different kind of help.
read it here

Monday, March 9, 2020

Decorated UK War Hero Fighting For Better Care After Attempted Suicide

War hero demands better mental health services for veterans after PTSD caused breakdown


The Express UK
By MICHAEL KNOWLES, DAILY EXPRESS SECURITY CORRESPONDENT
Mar 9, 2020
“I could go and see the doctor, for six months, if I was lucky and she could fit me in once a week. But that was only four sessions a month, so 24 sessions in total. That doesn’t even get through all the trauma of one tour.”

Ex-Colour Sergeant Trevor Coult and his son
(Image: https://twitter.com/TrevorCoultMC)

He witnessed numerous friends get killed or sustain horrific injuries during a brutal three tours in Afghanistan. Mr Coult was awarded the third-highest military honour for bravery for fighting off suicide bombers and gunmen who ambushed his convoy in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2005.

Mr Coult then survived eight bomb blasts and 76 enemy engagements during three operational tours of Afghanistan.

But he attempted to kill himself by driving his car into a wall.
read it here

Friday, February 14, 2020

Mike Damon outlined his steps toward healing in Transition Guide For Veterans

How to #TakeBackYourLife in 6 steps

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 13, 2020

Dave Matthews of Remember the Fallen interviewed Mike Damon of Vetunite about a training manual he has on how to heal.


Vetunite.org "Mike Damon" aka (GodFather)




Mike Damon outlined his steps toward healing in Transition Guide For Veterans, as well as how first responders can heal!

Self Care
Service members need to learn how to take care of themselves!

Training
Learn how to use what you have and speak up about what you need.

Mentorship
As you learn how to heal....help others learn too!

Peer support
Be around people who understand you and the culture you lived in.

Service to others
You risked your life serving others. You were willing to pay that price for doing that job that served others. You can continue to serve others by helping them heal too! Top that off with the fact it feeds your soul when you do!

Develop a new purpose
He talks about "team mission" and that is something that all responders need to hear. When you are doing your job, you depend on your team members, and they depend on you. It is the same way when you are paying a heavy price for doing your jobs. Your team members are counting on you and you need to count on them too. You never know how many are suffering too.


"Wicked frickin awesome!"

Never Forgotten Memorials and Vetunite endure reciprocity with collaborating resources to assist veterans with the Invisible Wounds of War "PTSD"

Thursday, February 13, 2020

It it time to stop thinking about taking your own life and know about #TakeBackYourLife

#TakeBackYourLife and Stay Alive


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 13, 2020

How many times do we have to read about a veteran suffering with PTSD taking his or her own life instead of healing before we actually change the outcome?

Iraq veteran, 35, struggling with PTSD 'took own life' in children's park


Mirror UK
ByLuke Traynor Matthew Dresch
13 FEB 2020

In a moving post on website Go Fund Me, a close family friend said: "As with many serving and veteran soldiers, Wes had struggled with PTSD and on the 26th January 2020, he succumbed to those demons of PTSD, sadly taking his own life, at the young age of 35.

Wesley McDonnell has been described as 'one in a million' (Image: handout)

An Army veteran was found dead in a children's park after battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Wesley McDonnell, from St Helens, served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Kenya, Canada, Germany and the Falkland Islands during his distinguished career.

Friends say the 35-year-old soldier 'succumbed' to his demons and 'took his own life', with one saying 'stand easy, warrior, your duty is done'.

In a cruel twist, Mirror Online revealed how police misidentified Mr McDonnell and ended up wrongly telling another mother that her son had died.

Relatives said Mr McDonnell, stationed with the Duke of Lancaster Battalion, had suffered with mental health worries, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder, the Liverpool Echo reports.
read it here

If you actually think about what "suicide awareness" has achieved, it has delivered the message of other veterans giving up. If you think about what healing awareness does, it delivers a message of hope that they can heal too and their lives can be so much better.

When you hear that the stigma of PTSD is still strong, think about why it is still so powerful when all the evidence has been out there proving there is nothing to be ashamed of as a survivor of something that could have killed you.

Watch this video and you will know what works to support you to #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife.
Marine Veteran Mike Damon owned his PTSD. He is using what he learned in his journey to create a guide for anyone to use to conquer their inner battles. The guide is written like guides in the military are written. The principles are easy to understand and implement. Listening to Mike talk about his vision and intent for what he is trying to do makes me believe that there is truly a way to go to 0 for Veteran Suicide.
He is talking about what he went through to take back his life, how he is not only happier, he is helping veterans like you discover what is possible for you too!

Mike,"The Godfather" Damon of Vet Unite

UPDATE
Suicide rates for younger veterans doubles in NYS
There are alarming new numbers about suicide rates among younger veterans. A new report issued by the New York State Health Foundation says rates for those 18 to 34 has more than “doubled” in the state.

7 Eyewitness News met with a war veteran who leads a counseling program at the Veterans One-stop Center of Western New York.

“You feel like you are living on the other side of a pane of glass, like you’re watching everyone around you,” reflected Alyssa Vasquez, program manger, Veterans One-stop Center of WNY.

Saturday, January 25, 2020

And for more on what healing is like...read the lyrics and know that rainbow is out there.

Time to see clearly what PTSD can be like


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 25, 2020

I listen to oldies...since that is the music I grew up with. The song I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW came on, and I thought about doing a video on it, since it is perfect to explain what it is like to heal with PTSD. As I went to find the lyrics, I came across a video that was already perfect.

With all obstacles out of the way, you can see that your life can be a lot better than you thought it could be. First you need to stop seeing what others think PTSD is, and actually know what it is.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event.

It is natural to feel afraid during and after a traumatic situation. Fear triggers many split-second changes in the body to help defend against danger or to avoid it. This “fight-or-flight” response is a typical reaction meant to protect a person from harm. Nearly everyone will experience a range of reactions after trauma, yet most people recover from initial symptoms naturally. Those who continue to experience problems may be diagnosed with PTSD. People who have PTSD may feel stressed or frightened, even when they are not in danger. National Institute of Mental Health

In other words, something you survived caused it.

You need to know that you are not alone.
Anyone can develop PTSD at any age. This includes war veterans, children, and people who have been through a physical or sexual assault, abuse, accident, disaster, or other serious events. According to the National Center for PTSD, about 7 or 8 out of every 100 people will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. Women are more likely to develop PTSD than men, and genes may make some people more likely to develop PTSD than others. National Institute of Mental Health

You also need to know that most people heal, with the right help. That can only begin when you get all the roadblocks out of your way and know that you stopped being a victim of whatever "it" was and became a survivor when you walked away after it tried to kill you.

And for more on what healing is like...read the lyrics and know that rainbow is out there.
Johnny Nash - I Can See Clearly Now - YouTube
www.youtube.com
Lyrics
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
Oh, yes I can make it now the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
Look all around, there's nothing but blue skies
Look straight ahead, there's nothing but blue skies
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Here is that rainbow I've been praying for
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
Bright (bright) bright (bright)
Bright sunshiny day
It's going to be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It's gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
Source: LyricFind Songwriters: Johnny Nash I Can See Clearly Now lyrics © Nashco Music, Inc

Saturday, January 11, 2020

UPDATES on veterans with PTSD

Crime and just punishment
Police Chase Armored Vehicle Stolen From Virginia Military Base | NBC Nightly News 2018
An M577 armored personnel carrier was stolen from Fort Pickett, leading police on a 75-mile chase. 1st Lt. Joshua Yabut was charged with driving under the influence of drugs and eluding police in connection with the incident.


UPDATE
Soldier who drove armored vehicle from Fort Pickett to downtown Richmond given conditional release (ALI ROCKETT Richmond Times-Dispatch)
The first lieutenant told psychologists after his arrest that he believed he had been given orders to carry out a “confidential mission,” Watrous told the court. Yabut believed that Fort Pickett military personnel and state police were “all part of the ruse,” the prosecutor said. Records showed Yabut has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.
Determination and Redemption
Marine crawls over line to finish Boston Marathon he ran to honor his fallen comrades (Liz Roscher, Yahoo Sports Apr 16, 2019)
Micah Herndon, of Tallmadge, Ohio, crawls to the finish line in the 123rd Boston Marathon on Monday, April 15, 2019, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
Running the Boston Marathon can be a punishing but uplifting experience. And now Micah Herndon can talk about that experience firsthand.

Herndon, an Ohio native, ran the marathon on Monday, but his body began to give out as he approached the finish. With just a few feet left, he fell to the ground, unable to get up.

But he didn’t give up. Herndon decided to crawl the final feet of the race, crossing the finish line on his hands and knees.
UPDATE
Marine who crawled over Boston Marathon finish line set to return, ready for ‘redemption’ (Ryan Young Yahoo Sports Jan 10, 2020)

Micah Herndon’s body started to give out as he approached the finish line at the Boston Marathon last year, forcing him to crawl across the finish on his hands and knees.

Now, nearly one year later, the Marine veteran is ready to give it another go.

Herndon announced on Twitter on Friday that he will compete in the Boston Marathon on April 20th with a single word: ‘Redemption.’
Herndon was injured during an improvised explosive device attack during his tour in Afghanistan in 2010. He runs now to help cope with post-traumatic stress disorder from his time in Afghanistan, and to honor two of his best friends, Mark Juarez and Matthew Ballard, and British journalist Rupert Hamer, who all died in the attack.

Friday, January 3, 2020

PTSD Victim-less More Survivor

Courage to change the things you can


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 3, 2019

Before you wonder, that is not me in the picture. Erica is my favorite boss from Fidelity National Title, when I lived in Florida. She surprised me by taking my T-shirt to Peru and climbed to the top of Machu Picchu wearing it. Erica is one of the most wonderful people you could ever meet. No matter what happens, she accepts what she cannot change while being determined to change what she can.

Most of us think that people like Erica are happy because they have been blessed with an easy life. We never seem to wonder why someone who is miserable became that way. We just assume they were born with a terrible attitude toward everyone else.

The truth is, no one is born miserable and very few actually are born blessed. What they become is determined by what they are willing to accept, as much as what they are willing to expect.
God, give me grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Living one day at a time,
Enjoying one moment at a time,
Accepting hardship as a pathway to peace,
Taking, as Jesus did,
This sinful world as it is,
Not as I would have it,
Trusting that You will make all things right,
If I surrender to Your will,
So that I may be reasonably happy in this life,
And supremely happy with You forever in the next.
Amen.
Reinhold Niebuhr
When you have PTSD, you have it because of something that happened to you. If what happened was because you decided to risk your life for the sake of someone else, the origins of that pull on your soul was based on having a courageous love.
If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.
1 Corinthians 13:2

Most of the time, you had no control over any of it. What you do control is what you do as a survivor of it. Do you stay stuck as a victim of "it" or do you move forward as a survivor of it?

Isn't it time that someone reminded you of that choice you have? Isn't it time that you became less of a victim and more of a survivor? Why accept the limits others placed on themselves? Why not expect that you can live a happier life by breaking the boundaries you put

You control what came after "it" happened. You are the one who has the power to define your own future. The "it" that happened, or the many "its" lost because you lived, thus you became victorious. Why surrender to something that already lost?

Stop and think about what it took to walk away from "it" and notice the courage you had to move one foot in front of the other. Acknowledge what strength it took to utter the first words from a grateful voice instead of a bitter heart.

You can become "reasonably happy" in life, as long as you seek to change what you can about how you choose to live. That begins when you decide that you are done with being miserable and be willing to take the next step toward becoming hopeful.

Do not turn from God as if He is punishing you. He is the One who put it within you to cause you to be willing to serve others.
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 New International Version (NIV)

If He put the strength and courage within you to do your job, He also put what you need to heal from what that doing that job did to you. Trust in what you knew to be true before "it" happened, because it is all there. There is nothing that is, or has to be, lesser about you, other than your suffering. Time to become victim-less and more survivor. You can get up there from here, if you have the courage to try to change how you define yourself.

Wednesday, January 1, 2020

There comes a time when we get sick and tired of being left behind

Leaving behind being left behind

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 1, 2019

There comes a time when we get sick and tired of being left behind. We see others being crushed by circumstances or moved passed the masses as if blessed by a force beyond reason. What do those left behind do when they are not so blessed? Do they stay where they are, as sadness overcomes them, or do they make their own path forward?


We make our own path forward if others will not help us or get out of our way, and then lead the way for others.

My Mom always told me the surest way to get me to do something, was to tell me I could not do it. She was right. I could not look at life as if it was determined by gender. If my two older brothers could do it, so could I.

There was a time when I was about a year old that I thought I would grow up to become a boy.
My Mom took a picture of me in a dress with a football helmet and holding a football. Safe bet I had shinny shoes and lacy ankle socks on instead of cleats. I had no clue girls were not supposed to do something like that.

For the last 37 years working on researching and healing PTSD, I competed in a male dominated field. I worked with veterans, mostly males, even though I am not a veteran. Most say it has been OK since I talk like them. Yet those with the power to help me get the message across, would rather use what I could do for their own benefit, or just take it from me. Much like the football, I have a tight grip on what I want to do and will not let go.

So, here we are in a new year and I found my way to do what I was meant to do because some males finally believed in my ability to do it.

The group that has supported me for over a decade, Point Man International Ministries, decided it is time for me to lead the way for female veterans to begin to heal in their own group. We couldn't wait any longer for this to happen, so when I announced my husband and I were moving to New Hampshire, it was to begin this ministry.

Before I decided to do it, I needed to talk to a few female veterans I knew and they agreed I should do it. Then the hardest challenge was to present the idea to a group of veterans on Rally Point. I was again supported by males. They said as long as I was clear that I am not a veteran, they will take what I say based on my background, which includes being an Army brat and spouse of a veteran. Basically it is in my blood.

While I do not know what it is like to risk my life for someone else, or endure what military women go through, I can understand what it can sometimes do to them. If you read FOR THE LOVE OF JACK HIS WAR MY BATTLE you can catch up on that part.

When we consider that women have done many things they were not supposed to do because they are women, we need to look at the beginning of this country and how they have served in every war, including the Revolutionary War.
"Left to support herself alone, Corbin struggled financially. After she recovered, Corbin joined the Invalid Regiment at West Point, where she aided the wounded until she was formerly discharged in 1783. Then, on July 6, 1779, the Continental Congress, in recognition of her brave service, awarded her with a lifelong pension equivalent to half that of male combatants. Congress also gave her a suit of clothes to replace the ones ruined during the conflict."
After all these years and rich history, one would think, had it not been for women doing things they were not supposed to be able to do, we wouldn't leave any female veteran behind. Well, more and more are deciding they are also leaving behind being left behind, and forging ahead.
Marines have to be able to carry one another if necessary. USMC Cpl. Gabrielle Green hefts a fellow marine as they ready for deployment on a Navy ship at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Of the 38,000 recruits who enter the corps each year, about 3,500 are women—or, in USMC phrasing, “female marines.”
Want to be part of this moving ahead place and time? Contact me at 407-754-7526. Yes, I know that is a Florida area code, but I am not changing my number after all these years. I am just changing the focus from mostly male veterans to females.

If you find a great story on females in the military or in the veteran community, email the link to me woundedtimes@aol.com and we can share more of their stories!

Sunday, December 15, 2019

If you are right, giving up is wrong


If you are right, giving up is wrong


PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 15, 2019
“Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.” ―Dale Carnegie

When you know you are right about something, you fight to prove it. You do not give up on what is important to you. At least that is the way it is supposed to work, but sometimes, no matter how hard or how long you try, fighting can drain whatever hope you have left. But fighting is what keeps us moving forward.

When I moved to New Hampshire, I brought a truckload of misery with me. I did not notice I packed every rotten thing that happened there 1,600 miles away.
read it here

Wednesday, June 19, 2019

“Voices of Service” send message to troops and veterans with PTSD...RISE!

Caps anthem singer Caleb Green’s military quartet was a hit on ‘America’s Got Talent’


The Washington Post
By Scott Allen 
June 19 at 4:00 PM

Caleb Green, a regular singer of the “Star-Spangled Banner” before Capitals home games for years and a well known face to D.C. sports fans, burst on the national scene this week with a stirring performance on NBC’s “America’s Got Talent.”

Green’s a cappella quartet, “Voices of Service,” which is composed of veterans and active duty service members, delighted the studio audience and all four celebrity judges with its rendition of Katy Perry’s 2016 hit “Rise” on Tuesday’s episode of the popular talent show competition, now in its 14th season.

“The song, your voices, your ability, I can’t thank you enough for all of it,” judge Gabrielle Union said after the group received an extended standing ovation. “Thank you.”
read more here

Voices of Service: Military Members Cover Rise by Katy Perry - America's Got Talent 2019

America's Got Talent Published on Jun 18, 2019 Wow! The singing quartet of veterans and active duty service members perform “Rise” by Katy Perry like you’ve never heard it before.

Sunday, June 9, 2019

PTSD Patrol For The Love of Jack

PTSD Patrol post went up late today because I was being interviewed for my book, For The Love of Jack.

If someone you love needs you to fight for them, this is the way to start being able to do it!

When your battle begins after their battle was supposed to end


PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 9, 2019

The PTSD Patrol video is late today because I was doing an interview with Sgt. Dave Matthews for KLRN Radio show Remember the Fallen. It is heard on Thursdays at 8:00 pm eastern time.

We were talking about my book FOR THE LOVE OF JACK. This is part of the interview. If you want to hear the rest, you'll have to wait until  Thursday.

Next week, I'll have more of this.
go here to see the video

Sunday, June 2, 2019

Be encouraged by what you imagine to be possible with PTSD

You can break through to the other side of PTSD


PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 2, 2019

It seems as if the stigma of PTSD is still being passed on to the point where veterans still do not understand it.

You are limited by what you imagine to be true instead of encouraged by what you imagine to be possible.

Imagine having a happier life! That is possible.

Imagine being able to overcome all the negative thoughts you have and replace them with achievable goals. 

It takes work but that work will only begin when you understand what PTSD is.

Post means after.

Trauma means wound.

Stress comes after surviving the shock of what happened.

Disorder comes when your mind and body are trying to adjust afterwards.

Any shame in surviving something that could have killed you?

No one walks away from that kind of trauma unchanged. The secret is, that you can change again. YEP! You are only stuck where you are because no one told you that you are in control over where you go. 

Just like getting into the vehicle you drive, (or getting on if you have a motorcycle) you control where you go from this point on.

You chose the destination and how you get there.

#BreakTheSilence comes when you are able to finally figure out that there is nothing within you that caused PTSD. IT HIT YOU! Any shame in being hit by a bullet? Any shame in getting blown up by a bomb? NOPE!

Time to stop finding all the excuses for using your right to remain silent because all that does is keep you suffering instead of healing.

Let's put it this way. Would I still be doing this after 37 years if I was ashamed of any of you?
read more here

Sunday, April 28, 2019

Looking back instead of new direction is pointless

At the crossroad?


PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
April 28, 2019

Acceptable stigma attached to PTSD is, the fact that whomever told you to be ashamed...is one hell of an idiot!

I'm going to let the post I put up last night fill in the gaps on this one. "War is bad for the brain" Two sides of death

read the rest here

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

PTSD Patrol 2 years of giving the keys to hope

PTSD PATROL 2nd anniversary


Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 23, 2019


Getting road hogs with high beams off the road, was behind the creation of PTSD Patrol two years ago. It is one of the reasons why this post is not going up on PTSD Patrol. Doom and gloom needs to be left off there.

A group of us like minded workers of the harvest were tired of other people taking the attention away from healing so they could keep talking about failing.

That is exactly what raising awareness that veterans are committing suicide is doing. Talking about what failed for more veterans than they can even imagine.

The proof was right before their eyes, but they did not bother to even look. They did not bother to read the report they found so important they began countless fundraisers after snagging a headline.

The report they claimed was so important stated clearly that it was limited data from just 21 states...worse than not even half, because the states that were not counted, were among the largest veteran populations.

California and Illinois passed legislation to track veterans committing suicide long after the report was issued. Arizona will start to do it. 

The followup report with "20 veterans a day" was almost as useless. While the VA stated it involved all 50 states, including statistics from the CDC, the CDC reported that it did not have total numbers from states like Texas and Florida. 

As for the VA itself, less than half of the veterans in this country have sought benefits from the VA. The VA and states do not count veterans without "honorable discharges" as veterans, leaving them out of reports.

Now that you have a better idea of what is not known, add in these parts;
➣The majority of known veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50.
➣The known number of veterans committing suicide was 20 a day back in 1999 with 5 million more veterans alive at the time.
➣The percentage of known suicides has risen, in the veterans population as well as those currently serving this country.
According to the Department of Defense there were 504 service members who committed suicide in 2017. As of the 3rd quarter of 2018, there were 375. The total report should have been released the beginning of April, but as of this morning, it has not been released.

Recent news reports have revealed an increase to a ten year high.

Raising awareness about a subject they know very little about, has become a business. People making a great living off veterans no longer wanting to live. Worse is, they seem to find it acceptable to be profitable while "having fun" at the same time.

Road hogs with their high beams on endanger those behind them by clogging up the way for others to pass them by. They blind those coming the opposite way. Collisions occur because they want all eyes on them instead of on what will get other drivers on the right road to be glad they survived what caused PTSD in the first place.

This is my 37th year on this road. I had to learn how to read the road maps to know the way out, just as I had to learn the rules of the road. Along the way I encountered those who were prepared to lead and those who just getting in the way.

All of this matters because it is my life. It is all personal to me and that is how I started out. I needed to know for the sake of my family. Once I learned, I knew there were even more just as lost as I was. That is why I share the knowledge gained the hard way.

Much like a moped is different from a Harley, that is the difference between raising suicide awareness and actually doing the work to prevent them from happening in the first place.

Lives can be changed when we, not only offer hope, but give them the keys to use it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Do you know the worth of your vehicle?

Are you worthy?

Wounded Times and PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
April 21, 2019

(cross post today)

Today is Easter. The day of a life rising from the dead. A life given, so that others may live and be made worthy by faith in Jesus.

The night before, the people who heard the voice of Jesus must have been wondering why they thought He was telling the truth, when His life ended the way it did. They must have been crushed.

Yet the truth was known by a cave left empty and all He said was once again believed.

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile."
Albert Einstein

He died for others, but He also lived for others. He did not just come to die and rise, but to lift us up and know, that we were loved. God knew we were here and in need of help, as much as we were in need of hope.

Jesus did what He was sent to do. Did you? So many times we think maybe we were wrong about what we were sent here to do. We appear to be failures to others, yet, no matter what others think, we rise and do it all over again.

If you are struggling between what other say you should do, and what you know you need to do, I have something that may help encourage you to stay true to what you were created for.

"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. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."
Jeremiah 29:11-13 New International Version (NIV)
I made the choice to follow where I was being led. I knew it would not be easy, but I did not know it would be so damn hard.

When I was training to be a Chaplain with the IFOC, David Vorce said that Satan was busy when we run up into road blocks. I just never thought those road blocks would be laid by people who were supposed to be "friends" of mine.

While I left the IFOC, I have not left the mission that I was prepared to do. I focused on first responders and veterans. I still do. After 37 years, it is in my DNA, so there is no getting away from it.

A few years ago, someone I thought was a friend, stood up during a large gathering after one of the members had committed suicide. She made this announcement. "22 veterans a day are committing suicide and I'm gonna do something about it."

It was almost as if she just woke up one day and decided that she suddenly had the power to do what I had been doing for over 3 decades. You know, like I had done nothing. Sick to my stomach, I could not even listen to the rest of what she had to say.

What I did hear, was an impassioned plea from one of the other members. "Please stop talking about it. It hurts my heart." She was a friend of the member who took his own life.

Well that caused the woman to become enraged and she snapped back at the grieving friend.

I drove home in tears. I couldn't figure out why that "friend" had not just dismissed my work, but pretended I was not even worthy of her learning anything from me.

The next day, I called the President of Point Man, Dana Morgan, and told him what happened. My heart was being ripped out, my ego was so beaten down that I doubted all the work I had done, but the worst thing was, my soul was so crushed, I was not sure if I was supposed to keep doing it or not.

It was hard enough to fight this battle, mostly alone, but it had been one betrayal too many for me.

Dana said he would ask the other leaders of Point Man to pray that I find the answer.

The next morning I felt a little better but, still unsure, I asked my boss at work if she would have her prayer group help me find the answer.

As I was talking about my own pain, I cried. When she started to ask me questions about veterans, I stopped crying. When I explained to her how they can go from being willing to die for the sake of others, to not wanting to be here anymore, that soul crushing feeling started to lift.

By the time I got home, the weight was gone.

I called Dana and told him that I had my answer. Thinking about myself, caused me great emotional pain. Doubt caused by someone else left me believing I was wrong to even try. Doing what I had done for so many years, filled me with peace. I knew that whatever would come, would be OK, because as long as I knew what God wanted of me, I could deal with it.

"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called." Ephesians 4:1
Dana asked me if I told my boss yet. I told him I would in the morning.

When she came in, I started to explain what happened, but she started laughing. The look of puzzlement must have been clear because she responded. "You don't get it. As soon as you started talking yesterday, I started praying."

I got my answer. No matter what comes, I know I am doing what I am supposed to do. While it would be so much easier to receive more help than I am getting, it does not stop me from doing it.

Maybe the lack of help I receive is so that I can share this extra burden with those who are going through the same type of thing.

It is really hard to see so many others beating their own chest and getting attention for a bunch or words that mean absolutely nothing.  They are all about themselves and not the cause they claim to be invested in.

When the end result is a worse situation for those they claim to want to help, it is then others figure out that they came to this "ministry" unarmed and their foolish ways were discovered.

Well, a few days after that encounter with the woman who almost made me give up, a younger veteran was struggling. He needed my help. I gave it and he started to heal.

Another veteran needed help. A wife of a veteran needed help. A wife of a firefighter needed help. More and more needed help and I was able to be there because people were praying for me and the mission I was put into position to do.

I am doing what I can with what help I have been given. Sure, I get upset knowing I could be doing so much more if I did receive help but that is not the reality I live with. 

We understand that it is hard to go without help, so we understand those seeking it from us. I know the worth of my vehicle even though others think it is a worn out antique.

We know what it is like to find the courage to ask for help, as well as, what it is like to not often find it for ourselves. We know what hardships and struggles are, what doubt feels like and above all, we know what would comfort us, what words would help us find relief.

That is the lesson I have a hard time remembering during times such as this, but I've been on this road to long now, that I can also remember what it was like when someone did show up to help me out, offer comforting words, or let me know I was there when they needed someone the most.

Know that whatever you do, you are doing if for the right reasons and the price you pay, helps you do it far better than if you had it all handed to you on a silver platter.



Any crown I've ever worn
I lay it down
Any praise I've ever gained
I give it all to You
For there's nothing in this world
That can compare
For You alone are worthy
You alone are worthy
You are near to all who call
Upon Your name
Ever giving, ever loving
You remain the same
For You open up Your hands
And satisfy
I give You all the glory
Give You all the glory
You are worthy oh Lord
Of all honor
You are worthy to receive
All praise
In Your presence I live
And with all I have to give
I will worship You
Honor You
Glorify Your holy name
I will worship You
Honor You
Glorify Your holy name
Songwriters: Darlene Joyce Zschech You Are Worthy lyrics © Music Services, Inc

Sunday, April 7, 2019

Kansas National Guard Captain quit in protest for more to be done on preventing suicides!

This is the kind of Captain the military needs to keep because she cared more about those she was leading than her career! Captain Fields YOU JUST MADE A DIFFERENCE BY TAKING A STAND LIKE THIS!


Kansas National Guard Captain Submits Resignation in Wake of Suicides


Topeka Capital Journal
By Katie Moore
Posted Apr 6, 2019
When Fields tried to elevate concerns, she said she felt like addressing suicide wasn’t a priority for guard leadership. And while she said she doesn’t want to play “the female card,” she believes being vocal as a woman isn’t always well-received.

Fields said by speaking out, she has a lot to lose, but hopefully something will be gained.

“We have to hold our organization accountable,” Fields said. “We are not doing right by our soldiers.”

A captain in a Kansas National Guard brigade that experienced several suicides in six months said she has submitted a letter of resignation after concerns about the issue weren’t taken seriously enough by leadership.
The National Guard has a higher suicide rate than other branches of the military, including active-duty soldiers, a report from the Department of Defense said. However, the Kansas National Guard has a lower rate than guards in many other states, said Maj. Jason Davee.

Maj. Gen. Lee Tafanelli said the Kansas National Guard has had nine suicides in the past five years, three of which were in the past 18 months.

Additionally, a civilian who worked in the guard’s behavioral health department died by suicide last summer, and a man who had just been discharged died earlier this year. Their deaths weren’t included in official numbers, said Capt. Tara Fields.

Fields has served 12 years in the military, eight on active duty. She joined the Kansas National Guard just over a year ago as a behavioral health officer.
read more here

If you want to know why there has been more military members committing suicide...it is because leaders like her are not being heard! They hear her now! Pass this on and make sure other units hear her too!