For this injured veteran, this year’s moose hunt was more than just a hunt
Bangor Daily News
John Holyoke
September 28, 2017
“So I was like, ‘I’ll just keep moving with it.’ I kind of accepted it. And now I have this opportunity. That’s the way I see it. God saved me for a reason. I get to share my story with everybody.” Zachary Stinson
Zachary Stinson of Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, with the moose he shot a on the opening day of the 2017 moose season season in Maine. Stinson, a former Marine, was injured in Marjah, Afghanistan, seven years ago. Gabor Degre BDN
Among the dozens of hunters who visited Gateway Variety in Ashland on Monday morning, one had a story to share that was less about moose and more about life. It was a tale of tragedy, recovery and appreciation. And as Zachary Stinson explained, it’s a story he feels he has learned can make a difference to others.
Stinson is a direct, friendly 28-year-old who drove 15 hours from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, to take part in his own hunt of a lifetime.
Hours after pulling the trigger, Stinson was still excited, eagerly describing the hunt a group of locals helped set up for him. read more here
Meditating through the stress Tribune Chronicle Emily Earnhart September 27, 2017
“We follow up at 3 months, 6 months and a year. I have seen participants look 10 years younger by the end. I have had veterans come in with suicidal ideations that at the end of the course have hope for their futures.” Leslye Moore
WARREN — A dozen local veterans spent Tuesday afternoon breathing and meditating their way through their Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and service-related injuries.
Tribune Chronicle / R. Michael Semple Local veterans, from left, Matt Vadas, Herm Breuer and Michael O’Brien, all of Warren, talk together in a group setting Tuesday while participating in a Power Breath Meditation workshop at the Trumbull County Veterans Services Commission in Warren. The workshop was part of the Project Welcome Home Troops and taught veterans the Sudarshan kriya yoga (SKY) breathing and meditation practice.
Through the Sudarshan kriya yoga (SKY) breathing practice, military members and their families are getting the chance to change their minds and bodies and to heal through Power Breath Meditation workshops brought to Ohio by Project Welcome Home Troops. About 20 veterans involved in the free program are meeting this week at the Trumbull County Veterans Services Commission in Warren for workshops focused on stress reduction and coping skills. read more here
Simple and Easy for You, Not Helping Them Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos July 30, 2017 If working with veterans does not hurt you, then you are doing it wrong and for the wrong reasons. Simple as that. It is one thing that I have dealt with for 35 years. My heart breaks when they are suffering. It shatters when they will not believe that they can heal. My blood pressure rises when they hit their emotional lows, but what consumes my days is knowing what they are like on the other side of their darkest days and trying to get others out of their way. If you have been a reader of Combat PTSD Wounded Times, you know I have no patience for all these stunts raising awareness that veterans are committing suicide. That "effort" does no good for anyone other than the ones seeking attention for what they know nothing about. Helping them heal, changing the outcome, requires dedication to those in need of a reason to stay here.
I had to learn the hard way and for selfish reasons because when I fell in love with my veteran, I had to go to the library to learn why he was so different from the veterans in my family. That was back in 1982. Yep, I'm old but I was in my early 20's back then.
Without the internet, we knew that healing PTSD had to come with an approach of the trinity-mind-body-spirit and we were right. It also requires a great deal of compassion for those working with these veterans but, to tell you the truth, it is all too often coming with a tremendous price we pay. There is no way to do this without getting "air support" through prayer and asking for guidance. To find the right words to use comes with being quiet and listening. To find the will to stop grieving for losses comes with being able to forgive ourselves.
That is something I had to do after my husband's nephew committed suicide after I tried to get him to listen. It still haunts me after all these years, running the attempts through my head and the "would have, could have, should have" questions there will never be any answers to.
Oh, but I can assure you that there is not a day that goes by when I think this is not worth every moment of heartache or floods of tears that flow reading about one more that never seems to be the "one too many" folks keep talking about.
That one too many is the member of a family. He/she is a brother, sister, friend, and they lost their battle while others judge them and those who loved them judge themselves far too harshly.
So, take about half an hour and listen to an Iraq veteran talking about putting the gun to his head one day and the other day when he discovered he was not just forgiven, he had a new mission to save more lives after war.
The VA is paying attention to this aspect of healing.
Treating veterans’ ‘inner wounds’: The role of spirituality Center of Excellence at the Canandaigua VA making strides in mission to prevent suicideDaily Messanger By Julie Sherwood Posted Jul 29, 2017
It’s no surprise that helping veterans find meaning in their lives after military service is crucial. Wounds of war, mental and physical, take their toll — not to mention separation from community and loved ones.
Last month, Gulf war veteran Ken Bardo of Phelps talked about the struggle. So did Vietnam veteran Gene Simes of Walworth. Both men have been in counseling for years, among other treatments, and expect they will need help for the rest of their lives.
“Sometimes we cry because it hurts,” said Simes.
What is surprising to some is how powerful a new treatment — based on an age-old philosophy that spirituality is good for you — could be in helping vets find meaning in their lives and thus help prevent veteran suicide.
For many veterans “self-image has just plummeted,” said Canandaigua VA Chaplain Robert Searle, who is behind a research study at the Center of Excellence for Suicide Prevention at the Canandaigua VA Medical Center. The study is about the effect of spiritual care on preventing suicide. Veterans feel guilt, they have “inner wounds,” Searle said. When a person is broken and bruised inside as many veterans are, they need to feel forgiveness and that their life has meaning, he said. read more here
In other words, you fought for those you loved and were willing to die for them. Fight again for those you love and be willing to live for them.
If you are working with a group that is not working for the right reasons, then consider what Jesus told his disciples as He sent them on their way to do God's work,
Matthew 10:14 New International Version (NIV)
14 If anyone will not welcome you or listen to your words, leave that home or town and shake the dust off your feet.
If Mast is serious, all he has to do is contact Point Man International Ministries and we'll be happy to help him do it! Especially since we've been doing in since 1984 for all veterans. Considering 65% of the veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50, it would be a good thing to consider. As for newer veterans, if he reads The Warrior SAW, Suicides After War, he'd find all the documentation he needs to figure out exactly why military suicides went up after other members of Congress decided to do something to "prevent" them from happening. Then again, after I've been doing this work since 1982, no one with the power to change this has listened to me on changing the outcome. I doubt they ever will even though it works!
An oath won't undo the damage done by Resilience Training!
Afghan vet, now congressman, has idea to fight veteran suicide San Diego Union Tribune Jeanette Steels July 10, 2017
U.S. House Representative Brian Mast of Florida and U.S. Marines with Marine Rotational Force Europe 17.1 pose for a photo following a luncheon at Vaernes Garnison, Norway, April 18, 2017. (Lance Cpl. Sarah Petrock / U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Europe)
A U.S. congressman who was wounded in Afghanistan is promoting the idea of a pledge to combat suicide among the nation’s veterans.
Troops leaving the service could take a voluntary oath to “to preserve the values I have learned, to maintain my body and my mind, and to not bring harm to myself without speaking to my fellow veterans first.”
Rep. Brian Mast of Florida is pitching this as an “Oath of Exit” and wants to add the language to the 2018 National Defense Authorization Act, which is being considered in the House of Representatives this month.
The pledge would also commit troops who are being discharged to “continue to be the keeper of my brothers- and sisters-in-arms” in addition to the United States and the Constitution. read more here
Veteran says House in the Woods saved him, hopes it can now help others WLBZ Zach Blanchard July 08, 2017
Lawrence said he was overcome by PTSD after he served two tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. He now credits House in the Woods with saving him and wants to do the same for others.
LEE, Maine (NEWS CENTER) – The House in the Woods, a project aimed at providing military veterans a place of refuge, held its grand opening Saturday.
The project has been the work of the House and Emery families after they both lost their sons in the line of duty.
Sgt. Joel House died in June 2007, and Sgt. Blair Emery died just months later in November. Both served in Iraq.
10 years after their deaths, the families were able to open their facility in Lee thanks to a massive outpouring of local support from individuals and companies.
The lodge-style facility has a large gathering space, commercial kitchen, as well as lodging for guests and staff.
Paul and Dee House founded House in the Woods in the hopes of creating a program that would provide military men and women and their families with a place to escape and experience the outdoors.
“I was lost,” Lawrence McManus said. “It eats away at you.” read more here
It is hard to read the sign in the distance. As you come closer,
the words come into focus and you are more aware of the danger.
Most of the time, it feels like I am driving down the road I've been on for 35 years. I know the road well enough to remember where the potholes are. I know what it is like when the road is slippery and how to control where I am going. I even know how to avoid boulders blocking the road. What I don't know how to do is get bad drivers out of the way!
PTSD Patrol is about taking back control over the road you're on. You have no control over where you have been, any more than you have control over what shape the road you are on is in. No control over traffic or bad drivers getting in your way but you decide how to get to where you want to go.
You can decide if you just pull over to the side of the road for the rest of your life, or find your way out of the valley. You decide what you are willing to settle for and what you finally understand is a possibility of having a much better life.
See, the thing is, while it is painful to live the way you are now, it is familiar. Being in harms way was familiar. Right now you may be too afraid to change direction again, but that is exactly what you've been missing. You can change right now!
If your online with anyone pushing the "awareness" crap, close it because it is nothing more than another closed door in your face. If you want to heal, you have to learn that it won't be easy. A safe bet is that it isn't easy right now.
Here are a couple of videos that may help. Some are about 10 years old, so the numbers have changed since then, but the message is still the same. You can heal!
Former SEAL talks about finding peace Marshall Independent Mike Lamb March 25, 2017
Apparently, Williams has discovered that stability. He is now a sought after evangelist. His book, “SEAL of God,” is a best seller. He is also a frequent guest of CNN News Room, Anderson Cooper 360 and Fox News.
I stood toe to toe with Chad Williams after he spoke during the Promise Banquet at Southwest Minnesota State University Thursday night.
The former U.S. Navy SEAL stood no taller than me. He spoke softly. Just moments earlier, he spoke powerfully to dozens of people who listened to his inspirational speech on becoming a U.S. Navy SEAL and his life after the military.
Like others before him, he came back home to the U.S. with the same type of mental issues that haunt other military veterans. Veterans are returning with serious mental issues. Of the 1.7 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, 300,000 (20 percent) suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or major depression, according to the RAND Center for Military Health Policy Research.
Williams admitted during his presentation that he also did not come back home in a good frame of mind. He was drinking until he blacked out, often times with blood on his clothing. He spoke waking up realizing the knuckles on his hands needed stitches.
His mother and father told him not to come to back to their house. They feared him. read more here
Veterans find solace in Israel experience through Heroes to Heroes Foundation The Daily Wildcat Arizona Rocky Baier March 24, 2017
In an effort to spread the word and help other veterans, two soldiers spoke to students at the Hillel Center and the Jewish Medical Student Association about their experiences with post-traumatic stress disorder, a spiritual visit to Israel and the Heroes to Heroes Foundation on March 21.
Heroes to Heroes is a non-profit organization that strives to provide support for veterans suffering from PTSD or “moral injuries”, injuries to one’s conscience. In order to do this, they send veterans of any religion to Israel to visit holy sites for spiritual therapy, and to meet both American and Israeli veterans from the Israeli Defense Force.
Sergio Lopez, one of the veterans who spoke, served as a U.S. Army staff sergeant with the 104 Airborne division from 2003-2010 in Operation Iraqi Freedom. He was injured by an improvised explosive device that exploded underneath the vehicle in which he was riding. From his traumatic experiences during deployment and his injury, he developed PTSD.
According to evidence collected by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, traumatic experiences can lead to diminished faith in religious individuals.
Power to Heal is Already Within You Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos January 15, 2017 Did you know you have the power to heal PTSD within you? How could you know that when the only outcome folks want to talk about is how many veterans they believe are committing suicide? Seems that raising awareness should have started with changing your life instead of leaving you as you were on your worst day.
The only way to have PTSD is surviving a traumatic event. Let's think about that for a second. It did not start within you but happened to you. You survived it. Any shame in that? There are different levels as well as different causes. Civilians can get PTSD and the only way psychologists understood that was after combat veterans were studied. There is a difference between the type of PTSD veterans have, other occupational causes with law enforcement come close and so does the type firefighters get hit with. A civilian can have their life changed with one event. For veterans it was a series of events topped off with the threat of more during each deployment. For law enforcement and firefighters the threat is on a daily basis for year after year. To choose any of these occupations requires many qualities. Courage, dedication and an abundance of love to be willing to sacrifice your own life for the sake of someone else. Any shame in that? What you were willing to do was based on love and faith that you had it within you to endure whatever came with the job. Still, being resilient enough to do your job, did not make you impervious to the pain you would carry within you. None of it was just about you in the moments you were risking your life. The pain you carried away from it was yours but it was also the pain caused to others. Any shame in that? That ability to love others do deeply also came with the strength to grieve just as deeply. When you were last on the list of people to take care of, to help live, it turned into much more than moments. You became unworthy to yourself to help yourself. That's how much you loved. Any shame in that? Maybe it is time to think about things differently. Everything you needed within you to do all that was required of you came with everything you need to recover from all of it. What you have convinced yourself is weakness within you, is actually what is strength and all you have to do is channel into that power. There are many leaders trying to get you to understand that. Military Officers, current as well as retired, have a message for you. They have PTSD too and are unashamed to admit it. You matter more to them than they pride does. They know what you are going through and have come to terms with how to defeat it and win the battle for the brothers and sisters they led. It is what they did for love. Maj. General David Blackledge
"It's part of our profession...nobody wants to admit that they've got a weakness in this area." He went on to say, "I have dealt with it. I'm dealing with it now...We need to be able to talk about it."
Fort Stewart, Georgia - War changes a person. It's a truth Maj. Gen. Tony Cucolo knows all too well from his 29 years of service - and counting - in the U.S. Army.And it's a truth he tries to share with each new man and woman arriving at Fort Stewart to serve in the 3rd Infantry Division he guides."Command Sgt. Maj. Jesse Andrews and I try to speak to each newcomers' group," said the commanding general of the 3rd ID. "We get all ranks - from private to colonel - and in part, we try to impress upon them ... it is a point of moral courage to step forward and say you need help."
So he sought screening for post-traumatic stress and got counseling from a chaplain. That helped him "get realigned," he says."You need somebody to assure you that it's not abnormal," Ham says. "It's not abnormal to have difficulty sleeping. It's not abnormal to be jumpy at loud sounds. It's not abnormal to find yourself with mood swings at seemingly trivial matters. More than anything else, just to be able to say that out loud."
“Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” That is what Jesus said to the Centurion after he humbled himself in front of his men to a member of the people they held contempt for. Remember, this was during a time when Roman soldiers were treating the people of region as if they should be wiped off the face of the earth. For a Centurion to seek out Jesus and then ask him for this tremendous favor took an abundance of courage fueled by love.
The Faith of the Centurion 5 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment. Matthew 8:5-13
Saving the life was so important that he pushed his pride aside for the sake of someone else. There is a lot of that going on in this country right now. Medal of Honor heroes talking about their own pain while wearing the highest honor around their necks because they care about others. The number of officers coming forward, pushing aside their own pride for your sake, it simply astonishing. All they want to do is let you know you have nothing to be ashamed of and follow their example by healing to live a better life after combat. Adm. William McRaven (Ret.), former commander of the U.S. Special Operations Command and longtime Navy SEAL
But in its telling, McRaven was forced to stop in his tracks and take a long pause before he could complete his story. For 10 seconds, the audience sat in silence as he struggled through his own emotions to find his voice. It drove home yet another lesson: No one – not the top warrior nor the highest star admiral - is immune to war’s toll.
Isn't it time for you to use that power within you and around you to heal? You learned how to be a soldier and now it is time to learn how to be a healing veteran.
Preventing Suicides Starts With Your Own
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos December 9, 2016
Preventing suicides is not up to anyone but you. It starts when you save your own life and that is within your own power. Somehow, you got a lot of ideas about PTSD that are simply not true. The term itself has become an issue some folks want to go after, as if the term is more deadly than what it actually means. After over three decades of this advocacy, I can assure you the term is perfect to explain what is going on with you and why you have it. Post, means after something happened. Trauma is actually Greek for "wound" and it means it happened to you. It was not brought on by you. Stress is what came after "it" happened and your body-mind-spirit are under attack. Disorder, that's another word you need to change your thoughts on. Things were "in order" before "it" happened. Then they get out of order because your sense of normalcy ended, propelling you into a strange new reality. But, what happens when something gets out of order? Think of a mess you have with papers all over your desk, or too many things on your computer desktop. You can't find anything you need. You forget about things that mattered to you at one point because they are buried within all the other stuff. Once you decide to tackle the mess, it is frustrating, until it is all rearranged to the make sense again. You get rid of stuff you don't really need and put what you do need in a place where it is all easier to find. In other words, you put things back in order again, but just not in the same order. The same applies to you when you put in the work and you don't have to live like you are in a mess. Military and veteran suicides are higher now after all these years and there is a reason for it. The power you have over PTSD has been removed from your thoughts by well-meaning folks without working on getting to the "well" part. Talking about veterans committing suicide, with all the stunts to raise awareness has helped no one. Telling you that training you to be resilient, ended up sending the message that you were too weak to take it, instead of reminding you that being resilient did not make you impervious. The definition of that word needs to be focused on because it means, "not capable of being affected or disturbed." Resilience means, "an ability to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change." The second after "it" happened, and you got up, carried on, proved that you were resilient simply because "it" did not defeat you, nor did it leave you as a victim. You became a survivor. Ok, so, now you may understand that there is nothing to be ashamed of. Add in that it was actually the strength of your emotional core that allowed you to do what you did in combat for the sake of those you were with. It is that same part of you that makes you suffer so much afterwards. Nothing weak or selfish within you or you would not have risked your life for others. Had you been weak or selfish, you would not have done any of it. So, why did you serve? Why were you willing to die? Safe bet is was for the others you were with. Nothing selfish in that at all and certainly nothing weakness would have allowed you to do. Maybe now you've decided that you were all wrong on what you thought about having PTSD. Maybe now you'll consider that you had to train to become a soldier. That training came with many hardships and so does training to live as a veteran. Proper training in the military saved lives. Proper training after it will save lives as well because as you gain knowledge, you can teach others to heal as well. If you have asked for help but did not get the right help, fight for it. If you turned to a veterans charity that seemed more interested in themselves, expose them. If you turned to groups on Facebook and they helped, pass it on, just as if you discover they were a lot of hot air, expose them to warn other veterans about them. As for the VA, that is actually the best place for you to go to heal. Keep in mind, yet again, you have a responsibility there as well. While OEF and OIF veterans get their first five years out of the military as "free care" you cannot just show up and expect to be seen that day. If you show up after being home for five years, you have to get in line the same as everyone else. Paying for it until you have a "service connected disability rating" is another matter. Unless you cannot pay and fall under category 7 or 8 veteran status, you, or your insurance, will be billed. Once your claim is approved, you will get most of the money back. And no, that is not a new thing. It happened in the other decades as well. What if you can't be seen or afford to pay? Do you give up? Hell no! You get help to file your claim properly. Go to the DAV or the VFW for free help with that. The Service Officers train every year and know how to fill out the paperwork as much as they can tell you what you are entitled to. As for getting help while your waiting, there are over 400,000 veterans charities in this country, all claiming to be helping veterans. Make them prove it. There are also places in your own state helping civilians make ends meet. Look them up and get help from them for now. The thing is, there is so much out there to help you but if you don't think you deserve it, you won't look for it. You sure as hell won't fight for it if you are willing to settle for "no" for an answer. You know what you are going through. You know why you are going through it. You just need help getting from this point to where you are living a better quality of life. Find other veterans and join them in this last battle after war because this enemy can be defeated!
Veteran who lost 3 limbs to flesh-eating bacteria trains to become Crossfit warrior Associated Press
BY LISA MARIE PANE
October 19, 2016
“I’m here for my kids, my husband and I want them to see I can still do things with them.”
DACULA, GA.
A year ago, Cindy Martinez was struggling to walk even just a few feet and lift just five pounds.
A flesh-eating bacteria had ravaged the 35-year-old Marine veteran’s body. She had a grim choice: Amputate both legs, an arm below the elbow, and parts of the fingers on her remaining arm – or face almost-certain death.
The amputations saved her life. And after months of hospitalizations and rehabilitation, she finally found herself back home but alone during the day while her young children were in school and her husband was off at work.
“It kind of takes a toll on you mentally, just sitting there after all that I had gone through,” she said.
In the stillness of her home, she fired off an email to a local gym and asked about joining. When they called back later that night, “I told the lady on the phone, ‘well, there’s a twist to my story.’ ”
She soon found herself sitting in a circle surrounded by trainers at Crossfit Goat – with the motto Be Your Greatest of All Time – in Dacula, about 45 miles northeast of Atlanta. She told them her story and began in February to embark on an unusual quest: becoming a Crossfit athlete. Crossfit gyms are known for high-intensity strength and cardio workout, and their members often consider their “box” to be like a family as they bond over workouts-of-the-day that test their strength and resolve. read more here
It is heartwarming to some when you think of all the people out there trying to make a difference in the lives of others. It is depressing as hell to know wanting to do good and doing it are two totally different things.
I'm not going to rehash the numbers not changing on the suicide reports since 1999. (You can look them up for yourself if you haven't already read them here.)
There are things that do work. Trauma hits all of you. Your eyes, ears, nose, throat, heart, nerves, organs and especially your mind. It strikes the part of your brain holding your memories and emotions. All of what makes you "you" is changed in an instant. Healing requires all of "you" to be treated properly. You need trauma expert doctors to care for your mind and help you put it back in balance again. You need help on an emotional/spiritual level to help you heal, which all too often is left out of treatment. You also need physical help because your body needs help to calm down again. When you live through the thing it isn't just "it" but it is also the fear of it happening again. That is why there are higher numbers of veterans with PTSD after multiple deployments. The Army figured that out in 2006 when they studied the effect of redeployments discovering it raised the risk by 50% for each time being sent back.
Reading an article on physical efforts there is a stunning reminder for anyone thinking any of this is new. Veterans share stories of depression, suicide for film is a great example of veterans doing physical "therapy" to keep them going.
Recently, Gaudet was one of many veterans who joined the Visionalist Entertainment Production crew as they filmed a portion of their documentary, "Death is NOT the Answer,"
Also in the article there is a Vietnam veteran participating as he has every day since 1982.
Vietnam War veteran Michael Bowen, who ran the track with the students while carrying a prisoners-of-war flag. Bowen, known as “Flag Man,” runs 5 miles to 8 miles almost every day since 1982 to spread awareness about how veterans are affected by suicide.
Yep, 1982. Over three decades because there were many folks working on PTSD by then. I know because I learned from those out there before me so that I could help my own husband. Experts knew back then that help had to involve the whole part of the veteran so they could change again after trauma but this time, for the better.
"Death is not the answer" after war any more than it was the answer during it. How do they do everything humanly possible to survive during combat but find it is more difficult to ask for help afterwards? Doesn't make sense at all. In combat, you ask for everything you can get when you need it because lives are depending on all the support you can get. After combat, your life depends on all the help you can get to heal so that you can help others defeat their own demons and their lives depend on someone being there for them. So what are you thinking? If you leave this earth because of your own actions, how many lives could you have changed fighting for them instead of giving up on yourself?
PTSD Awareness Not For Tourists Wounded Times Kathie Costos June 8, 2016 War Wounds That Time Alone Can’t Heal, New York Times article by Jane Brody missed a lot of what should have been in this. For starters, there are few remaining serious reporters using "22 a day" when discussing suicides tied to military service. After all, since they are more than "just a number" to be repeated, their lives actually meant something to the family members and friends they left behind wondering so many questions that will never be answered. Anytime I read that number quoted, I take the rest of the article less seriously.
The problem is, too many may in fact take it as fact. Especially this part.
Father Thomas Keating, a founding member of Contemplative Outreach, says in the film, “Antidepressants don’t reach the depth of what these men are feeling,” that they did something terribly wrong and don’t know if they can be forgiven.
That followed a claim that "moral injury is not yet a recognized psychiatric diagnosis" but is has been for a very long time and Dr. Jonathan Shay put a spotlight on it when he wrote Achilles in Vietnam way back in 1995.
An original and groundbreaking book that examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder
In this strikingly original and groundbreaking book, Dr. Shay examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer’s Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written twenty-seven centuries ago it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and experiences of Vietnam vets.
Plus there is the fact that many groups have been dedicated to treating this part of PTSD for almost four decades.
The article went on to point to what veterans did wrong preventing them from seeking help. OK, right and no clue where that came from. They do not seek help because no one told them all the things they need to know beginning with what PTSD and why they have it topped off with the least talked about thing of all and that is they can heal. There is what they think they did wrong and what they actually may have done wrong. Amazing how the mind works trying to sort things out when emotions get stuff jumbled up and twisted around so they actually think it was wrong when the truth is, it was all they could actually do at the time. What was learned over 40 years ago is that the mind, body and spirit have to be treated since every part of the veteran is being slammed by PTSD. It lives in the emotional part of the brain and spreads out from there so if they miss that crucial part, healing does not happen but medications numb them to the point where they just do not want to feel anything. How is that healing them? If they are not treated in the place where PTSD lives, they will not live better lives but they will exist until the day comes when they do not want to spend one more day hoping it will be better than the last day was. There is so much bullshit out there veterans have no clue where to turn and when they finally reach the point when they figure out they will not just get over it, they turn to the wrong people and end up losing hope.
Too many folks think they can just pluck out some nonsense out of the air and walk away patting themselves on the back as if they actually did something, but for other folks living with this, it is not something we can ever walk away from. We live with it. It is our life on the line along with everyone we care about. So please go on thinking that you can give a veteran a service dog and everything will be ok even though he may not be able to feed himself. Go on and take them on a sporting trips so they can spend the day making you feel good about giving them a nice day out and then they go home to be alone with the same problems they had the night before. Keep complaining about the VA the same way we have been complaining for decades because nothing has changed. Get upset and then believe you made a a difference because what you leave behind is more heartache because the politicians you listened to just fed you another load of crap with the same worn out speeches they gave when they first got into office. Write your stupid articles quoting something that was never true and had you actually read the report you would have known the truth. It is only 59 pages long but too long for anyone playing tourist in our world. Where are all these folks when families are freaking out because someone they love survived combat but is on the brink of being buried here at home and they do not have a clue what to do or how to help? Where are you when there is a veteran in crisis and they need someone to talk to? What are you going to do? Look up a phone number online they could have found all by themselves? Or will you know what to say or even be able to just listen to them? We cannot walk away. If we do, then we are walking away from veterans who only want to heal from where we sent them. So, no, time alone cannot heal this wound especially when it was not time well spent. Had time been spent actually learning any of this, then maybe there would be more veterans alive this year. As for PTSD Awareness Month, that started in 2010 when the problem was so bad congress pushed for it. The same year that limited data from just 21 states was collected and put into a report in 2012. Too bad they missed reporting going on all over the country that veterans commit suicide double the civilian rate, most over the age of 50 and that there are over 41,000 Americans a year killing themselves leaving over 70 veterans dying by their own hand everyday. After all, it is just too damn easy to reduce them all down to a number that is easy to remember.
Fueled By Compassion to Do More Than Care Wounded Times Kathie Costos May 29, 2016 Sunday morning before Memorial Day got me thinking about all the things no one seems to have much time to talk about. Why do veterans commit suicide? After all, considering the numbers have not gone down, it seems like a logical question to ask. You'd think that finding the answer after all these years and billions failing to keep veterans alive, it would have been figured out by now, but no one seems to want to talk about that. How does a man or women decide life matters so much they are willing to die to save someone else turn into someone not able to find a single reason to live one more day?
When they asked for help during combat, they knew it was the right thing to do to save lives. So why is it so hard for them to know it is the right thing to do because their life is on the line because of it? They grieve. They get confused between witnessing evil and thinking they have become it. They question why they survived when others did not. Then when things fall apart, they wonder what all of it was for, what they are worth now that their "brothers" are not counting on them as they did in combat. What was all of it for? They lose hope that tomorrow will be any better than the last day was. After reading about a veteran surviving combat and attempted suicide this morning, it got me thinking about all the conversations I've had over the years when veterans were twisting things around, forgetting how much good they did and what they did it for. They see such horrible things. Things that civilians see in a movie but their movie is played over and over again streaming from their memories. They can hear the sounds, smell the pungent aroma of death and destruction and feel everything reawakened within them. One veteran really stands out in my mind right now. He kept asking where God was when kids were being killed. He saw so many horrible things in combat that he blamed God for all of it. "A loving God would not just sit back and let all that happen." Actually God didn't. The veteran was there to help along side of his brothers because they cared. Evil people do not grieve for someone else. Evil people do not risk their lives for the sake of someone else. The courage they had was fed by love and compassion. That came from the same soul that gave them the courage to do more than just care. The bad memories become so powerful they block out all the good that happened and all the moments when compassion surrounded the veteran. He forget when his buddy shoved him to the ground so he would not be hit by a bullet. He forgot when he got a letter from his girlfriend saying she found someone else and his unit comforted him. Of the times when he and others risked their lives to save the wounded and grieved for those who perished. For all the talk about raising awareness, it is reprehensible to repeat a number as if their lives didn't matter enough to do more than read a headline. To ignore what they need to know has been deadlier than combat itself. State after state put the number of committing suicide is double the civilian rate. The Center for Disease Control said there were over 42,773 Americans committing suicide in 2014. That means there are actually over 26,000 veterans committed suicide. Really disturbing when you acknowledge the fact veterans, unlike civilians, put their own lives on the line, were prepared to endure any hardship, did everything possible to survive, then come home and take their own lives. Even more disturbing is the other fact no one talks about. The vast majority of those veterans were over the age of 50. They are the largest population of veterans in this country and the largest percentage of suicides. That study found US Suicide Rate Increases 24 Percent Over 15 Years.
Suicide rates for middle-aged women between the ages of 45 to 64 increased greatly, rising from 6 suicides per 100,000 women in 1999 to 9.8 per 100,000 -- a 63 percent increase. For men, suicide rates were highest for those over 75, with approximately 38 suicides reported for every 100,000 men in 2014, according to the report.
However, middle-aged men between the ages of 45 to 64 saw the greatest rise in suicide rates among males. That age group saw a 43 percent increase, from 20.8 suicides per 100,000 men in 1999 to 29.7 suicides per 100,000 men in 2014, according to the study.
So how does that happen? While they found reason to live during combat, it was usually about those they were with and not about themselves. The birth of the pain begins but they do not allow themselves to feel it. They push all of it to the back of their mind so they can do their jobs. Others depend on them. It is not until they return home and everyone is safe, they feel all of it. Some get really busy working on their transition to living with civilians again while no longer being one of them. The title of veteran stays with them the rest of their lives. They go to college, get jobs, start families and for a while, they are able to ignore the pain they just don't have time to feel. If they have mild PTSD, that is easy to do for a while but life happens and other bad stuff happens. PTSD gets worse. It gets worse into middle age when life changes yet again. Kids are on their own, retirement changes their lives, health issues, loss of family members and friends, all major life changes that are traumatic even for civilians carry more seriousness for a veteran especially when he/she has lost the ability to ignore what they carried home with them. Curing PTSD is impossible. Healing PTSD is possible with the right information and the knowledge they need to have to know why they have PTSD and they can stop blaming themselves for it. Believing it is any type of mental illness or because they are weak is the only reality they know because no one told them it hit them because they have such a strong emotional core, they felt it all more. PTSD is not a wound caused by what is within but what entered into it. It is caused by traumatic experiences and not what is considered part of normal human life. Combat is not normal. No traumatic experience is. Human reaction to surviving it is normal. No one is ever the same as they were the second before but just as trauma changed them, they can change again and, most of the time, end up being a better person with the proper help to see things differently. It was all based on a courageous love they were willing to die for.
John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Deadly Ignorance on PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos April 24, 2016 While national media reporters have been interested in are easy stories to report on, the truth on combat and PTSD is still true but they prefer to sit back and let veterans fall off the face of the earth instead of telling them what they need to hear. When the earth was still round, some folks thought it was flat. It didn't matter that others knew our planet was round and the masses were wrong. It was what it was while most just believed what they wanted to. Wounded Times has been up and running since August of 2007. 26,246 post later I was reading a headline from Canada about how we fail our service members and veterans. "U.S. ignores trauma of returning soldiers at its peril, warns PTSD specialist" and it sounded familiar. The words "warn" and "peril" smacked me in the head, so I started to search for had been posted. I found it within the list of posts from the first month Wounded Times published.
Repeat Iraq Tours Raise Risk of PTSD, Army Finds By Ann Scott Tyson Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, December 20, 2006; Page A19 U.S. soldiers serving repeated Iraq deployments are 50 percent more likely than those with one tour to suffer from acute combat stress, raising their risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the Army's first survey exploring how today's multiple war-zone rotations affect soldiers' mental health........
Searching for quotes for a new video, I kept finding the report of the increased risk associated with redeployments missing in action. Why? How could a report like this drop off the reports on PTSD when so many of them are coming out? Is this no longer important to the media considering some are on their fifth tour right now? How could they just drop this from their attention? Easy. It does not fit in with the illusion of the "all volunteer" Army, the Marines, the Air Force or the National Guard. Think about it. Bush keeps saying "well their all volunteers" and this paints a picture in our minds that these men and women have no issues about going back over and over again. It paints a picture of everyone happily carrying out his orders. We are sending back seriously wounded people. We need to remember they are people. Humans not machines of war. What do you see when you look into their eyes? If they have PTSD, you see a person haunted. It is deeper than being tired. Deeper than being homesick. Deeper than personal issues back home. All of these things are insignificant to what is behind those eyes. It is not something to mess around with. It is not something to ignore any more than it is something to treat with some pills, pat them on the head and send them back to be traumatized all over again. They may have walked away from the first deployment without PTSD. They may have walked away from the second. Perhaps even the third but the odds are a lot greater they brought the combat back home with them as surely as they did their duffel bag. They are being forced to play a game of Russian roulette with their minds and their lives. Every time they go back, the risk of PTSD is 50% greater to them. Yet as the media have been reluctant to report on this crisis, the report drops off to the distant memories of the people getting the air time on cable news. You certainly won't hear any of the people supporting Bush's delusion discussing it. The next time you hear any more figures, usually low balled, remember why the numbers are going up and then keep in mind, sometimes they won't show signs of PTSD until years later. Where will the reporters be then? Remember when they came home from Vietnam and the media ignored their problems. Less than ten years later, local newspapers were reporting on them in the obituary pages and the crime logs. Twenty years later they were reporting still in these sections but then occasionally finding the compassion to report on the homelessness of Vietnam Veterans. If we do nothing right now, if we do not keep the attention of the media right where it needs to be so that they are taken care of, how many of them will they be reporting on in the obituary pages and the crime logs ten years from now? Five years from now? Later on this year? How many families will pay the price as they watch someone they love helplessly fall apart and die a slow death? How many of them will come home one day and find they were actually a fatality of combat long after they stopped wearing their uniform? Kathie Costos Namguardianangel@aol.com http://www.namguardianangel.org/ "The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington ***I'm posting this on both blogs since the media stopped reporting on this someone has to.***
The national press is still doing a lousy job of reporting. They allow the DOD to make any claim they want to instead of asking them questions to prove what they say is true. Failure to know the facts before reporters conduct interviews has perpetuated the anguished outcomes of millions of veterans. What makes all of this worse is the simple fact that as the number of civilians committing suicide in the US has gone up, the "efforts" to prevent them among service members has failed. These same people were were willing to die for someone else yet cannot find the one single reason to survive as a veteran after surviving combat. U.S. suicides have soared since 1999, CDC report says was the headline on LA Times. There are two parts of this that need to be considered.
All told, some 42,773 Americans died of suicide in 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That made suicide the 10th leading cause of death for all ages.
And then there was this part.
Among all women younger than 75, suicide rates grew across the age spectrum. But in the age of greatest vulnerability--women between the ages of 45 and 64--the rate of suicide in 2014 vaulted 80% higher over 1999's rates.
Some are already pointing out that civilian suicides have gone up so suicides tied to military service going up is just a reflection of society in general. Simple logic however far from an informed conclusion. Since 2007 the military has been claiming they have been training service members in preventing suicides. After spending billions, suicides have increased yet when asked to explain, they never seem to mention how their "efforts" have failed. They simply point out the civilian rates, totally ignoring their own mental health failures. Breaking it down, we have pre-enlistment evaluations. Recruits have to be physically fit as well as mentally fit. When you read the DOD saying that most suicides occurred without deployments, that actually translates to a massive failure in the testing. If the testing isn't good enough to spot mental illness, then how good can their psychological treatments be? With all the training all the recruits get on "prevention" if it has not worked to prevent them from committing suicide, then how did the DOD expect that training to prevent service members with multiple deployments from ending their own lives after surviving combat? We see what happens when they leave the military but the DOD has not had to answer for anything that happens to veterans. Not that they would be prepared to even acknowledge the fact they were trained to live by them. The VA gets all the blame but no one is looking at the original source of the suffering within the DOD. The CDC report also stated that suicides are more tied to depression. You can't get more depressed than to have risked your life in the military, then end up being told you are mentally weak if you are suffering for it.
Middle-aged women, between 45 and 64, had the highest suicide rate among women in both 1999 and 2014. This age group also had the largest increase in suicide rate: 63%, from 6 to 9.8 per 100,000. The 45-64 age group also had the largest increase in suicide rate among men: 43%, from 20.8 to 29.7 per 100,000.
Men 75 and older had the highest overall suicide rate, even though it decreased from 42.4 to 38.8 per 100,000 between 1999 and 2014. The total number of suicide deaths was much greater in middle-aged men than this older group because the population of middle-aged men is so much larger, Curtin said.
Young veterans, trained to stay alive ended up becoming the focus of efforts
Then we have that simple fact all the "awareness" folks avoid mentioning. Most of the civilian suicides are among seniors and that includes veterans. Almost every state is reporting veteran suicides are double the civilian rate, so when you read the staggering numbers, consider that simple fact, especially when you hear the number "22" reported as if they have a single clue because they have failed to read the report from the VA to begin to understand that number made a great headline but left out far too many suffering. That report was up to 2010 with limited data from just 21 states. With all that out of the way, here is the article that stared all that this morning. Not a good way to walk up but shows it is past time for this country to wake up. The report came out of Canada.
U.S. ignores trauma of returning soldiers at its peril, warns PTSD specialist Veterans have higher rates of suicide and PTSD and few employment prospects, says Bessel van der Kolk CBC News Posted: Apr 24, 2016
Dr. Bessel van der Kolk shakes his head when he hears U.S. presidential candidates trying to out-pledge each other in hunting down ISIS militants. His response is as simple as it is heartfelt: "Oh, no. There's going to be more war and more trauma."
U.S. soldiers serving in Afghanistan and other conflict zones return home with significant mental and physical trauma, which often goes untreated. Psychiatrist says the U.S. has not faced up to the damaging toll this trauma takes on the nation. (Shamil Zhumatov/Reuters)
Van der Kolk is a psychiatrist and the medical director of the Trauma Center in Boston, and the bestselling author of The Body Keeps the Score. He believes there's a growing crisis in the United States that warrants a broad public debate, but he knows it won't happen.
"It's very painful to hear what's not being talked about," he said. "You need truth in packaging before you send people off to war."
Van der Kolk says the prospects for Americans coming home after serving in Afghanistan, Iraq or other conflict zones are grim.
A large proportion of them are unable to work, and rates of post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide among veterans are worrying. Many returning service members end up drawing their families into their own trauma, but the military has little in the way of support for those relatives, so the cycle of trauma continues.
Van der Kolk calls it a national crisis that the U.S. is not willing to face.
"It has certain implications of taking care of hurt and wounded people that would involve some societal transformations which America is not ready for — yet," he said in a three-part series on CBC's Ideas. read more here.
The truth is, they can heal but first they need to know a few things, much like the earth is round. Many veterans know healing first requires an understanding of what PTSD is and why they have it. Then they need to know it begins in their emotional core. The stronger that is, they more they feel. The very thing that allows them to risk their lives for others is where PTSD strikes. The more they are able to feel, the more they are feeling a deeper level of pain. Yet with all we've known over the last 40 years, far too many still believe PTSD is a sign of some sort of weakness instead of the strength within them. That simple fact is just about as important as telling the truth the earth is round when faced with foolishness.
