Reach Out in the Darkness and Keep a Friend Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos September 1, 2018
Preventing suicide begins when you reach out to those who have lost hope. Not by reducing them down to a number because you think it is easy to remember. They do not need to be made more aware of others who lost their battle.
When people tell me they are spreading "awareness" with a number, that is simply not correct, it is repulsive! This lazy attitude has replaced their commitment to the cause they claim be devoted to. It is not that they do not care. They did not care enough to become aware of facts first.
No one fights alone and the battle for their lives requires us to be aware of truth, not what is sold as a true effort to change lives before they are lost.
Men and women, dedicated to saving lives of others, should never be more fearful of asking for help. They already know how to die, but they do not know how to heal.
If we really honor and remember their sacrifice for the sake of others, then we need to make sure to do the work to help them heal and save their lives for a change. PTSD is something that can be defeated but it requires knowledge first and action afterwards. Not the other way around.
"Reach Out In The Darkness" and you may keep a friend!
Tried to boost this on Facebook but they disapproved of it.
Gee you see the post and it is not political. When will Facebook get this censorship right?
Police Seek Man Caught on Video Using Car to Hit Disabled Veteran Who Asked Him to Pick up His Trash KTLA 5 News BY ERIKA MARTIN AND KACEY MONTOYA AUGUST 30, 2018
Authorities are working to identify a man seen on surveillance video attacking a disabled veteran with his car earlier this week in Gardena, allegedly because the veteran had asked him to pick up trash he threw in the street.
Joshua Byrd, who served two tours in Iraq with the U.S. Army, said he was walking his service dog outside the business complex where he works on the 13000 block of Cimarron Avenue around 6:30 a.m. Monday when he noticed the driver discard garbage from his window.
Byrd said he asked the motorist to pick it up but he didn't respond, so he picked it up and put it on the hood of the man's car.
The driver lingered in the area, and a couple minutes later took the trash off his car and threw it back into the street. Then, he began cussing at Byrd and driving in circles in front of him, the veteran said. read more here
Combat PTSD Wounded Times Kathie Costos August 31, 2018 Tomorrow starts Suicide Prevention Month, but in this video, I used "awareness" instead for a reason. We are about to be seeing even more groups on TV and in the news papers, plus online for weeks! The awareness that needs to be raised is that the one thing that is needed is to be given back some hope and know they matter. Read down to the bottom and see what you can do to change the conversation too! Yesterday my friend Dave Matthews and I went to the Vietnam Memorial park across from Lake Baldwin VA to do a video. Well, actually 2 of them. One was for PTSD Patrol and the other was for his radio show. Yep, multitasking again!
Anyway, sure enough we got into another argument on the need to stop raising awareness on the "22 a day" stunts. This has been going on between us for a long time. During the video, Dave dropped down and did 22 push-ups. I called him an idiot! We had just talked about the fact that no one knows how many veterans are committing suicide and that the gossip was doing more harm than good. It is not helpful at all. What it does is rip the last glimmer of hope from a veteran on the verge of losing their last battle to survive. It turned out that he challenged me to come up with something else to do after I could not get that number out of his head.
Well now you know how hard it is to get that number out of heads! While some things are in the video, here are more thoughts this video spawned. Take 22 friends and go to a homeless veterans shelter to help them for a day. Take 22 friends and go to a VA hospital or clinic and thank the people working there as well as the veterans walking in. Take 22 friends and write positive things about veterans. Take 22 friends and visit veterans in nursing homes. Take 22 friends and write cards to veterans in your area. Take 22 friends and make gifts for veterans. Take 22 friends and make phone calls to your local elected officials to correct a lot of the stuff they got wrong. Take 22 friends and volunteer at one of the veterans organizations that take care of all generations of veterans. The only way veterans will #CombatPTSD and hear they can #TakeBackYourLife is if you show up and show you care.
Iraq veteran finds out VA has declared her dead WLOS News by Raphael Pires August 29th 2018
What she also didn’t expect is having to prove she was alive when she came back.
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — A Candler veteran who was trying to get medical treatment through Veterans Affairs found out the agency has declared her dead.
"I said, 'I look pretty well preserved for being dead for 26 years,'" Judith Herren, an Iraq War veteran, said.
Herren said the problem started back in November when she decided to consider getting treatment at Charles George Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville.
"They couldn't process anything because I was listed as ‘deceased’ in September of 1991," Herren said.
Herren served in the military for eight years -- four in the Army and four in the National Guard, where she found herself in Iraq.
"We were the first units in Desert Shield and Desert Storm, and we really didn’t know what to expect," Herren said. read more here
Judge Guy Williams opens up about PTSD treatment KRISTV 6 News Greg Chandler August 29, 2018 CORPUS CHRISTI – A very different Judge Guy Williams was back in his chambers at the 148th District Court on Wednesday.
Williams recently finished six weeks of treatment for post traumatic stress disorder at Warrior’s Heart in Bandera, a facility specifically for veterans.
The judge, who won a Purple Heart during the Vietnam War, says he’s battled PTSD since his discharge from the Marine Corps in 1970.
“As soon as I got out the hyper-vigilance was there, the exaggerated startle response, the depression, the anxiety,” Williams said. “Nightmares, lack of sleep.”
PTSD continued plaguing Williams during his career with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. He said he hid the problem from co-workers by working 80 hours a week.
“I never got treatment, because I knew once I got treatment somebody would get the medical records and my career would be gone,” said Williams. read more here
