Did you ever wonder why God allowed it to happen?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 3, 2023

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

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

 

It did not just happen in Salem.

Beyond Salem: 6 Lesser-Known Witch Trials

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

Pendle: England, 1612–1634

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

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


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

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

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

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

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

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

“What did all that do to you?”

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

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

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

“How long did that last?”

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

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

“No, I’m not a veteran.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kathie Costos author of Ministers Of The Mystery series

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

Border crisis complicated by migrant PTSD: report

NY Post
By Jesse O’Neill
January 1, 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ukraine's children fighting PTSD--teaching all of us how to heal

Providing Psychological Support to Ukrainian Children

United Help Ukraine Through a unique international collaboration, United Help Ukraine is sponsoring and raising funds for the Hibuki Therapy Project. “Hibuki” means “Open Embrace” in Hebrew.

First developed by Israeli child psychologists in 2006, the Hibuki intervention uses a specially designed toy dog to support the mental health and recovery of children impacted by war trauma. Now we are bringing Hibuki dogs to Ukraine and countries of relocation to help countless children who have experienced the unimaginable.

This play-based intervention brings comfort and helps children share their emotions, which are often hard to process or communicate to adults who can – and want – to help. Hibuki dogs and therapy are provided to all families free of charge through a network of specially trained mental health professionals.

In Ukraine, children are one of the most vulnerable groups and are severely impacted by the ongoing crisis, and UHU is committed to providing psychological aid through the Hibuki Therapy Project.

All of the Hibuki toys and therapeutic support is provided to Ukrainian children free of charge through a network of specially trained volunteers and mental health professionals.

Israeli innovation helps Ukraine's PTSD-afflicted children

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Published: DECEMBER 6, 2022

Kinder Velt Child Trauma Center in Ukraine

(photo credit: Courtesy)

The children's trauma center in Ukraine draws on experience from another country that knows war and terror too well: Israel.

As war rages on in Ukraine and a season of bitter coldness and erratic electricity commences, a center started by an Israeli-Ukrainian is administering developmental and psychological therapies to the nation's children.

“When we began seeing how deeply the children were suffering, we resolved to take action,” said David Roytman, who splits his time between Israel and his native Odessa, and founded the Kinder Velt (Children's World) Center nearly three years ago.

Roytman, an internationally-acclaimed artist and multimillionaire whose luxury Judaica company earned him the reputation as the ‘Jewish Louis Vuitton,’ is familiar with anxiety and trauma from war.
read more here

From me,

We learn how to heal after others did so we can learn from them. We can learn from their mistakes and pass on their successes. The most important thing we gain from listening to other survivors battling PTSD is hope! Our world may be dark one day but does not have to stay dark forever. Their struggles shine a light on the way to healing.

Christian religious leader from 7th century was a woman!

U.K. archaeologists unearth 7th century treasures owned by a woman who may have been Christian religious leader

CBS News
DECEMBER 6, 2022

"We are now looking at places we would never typically have looked at, and as a result, we are finding genuinely unexpected things." Simon Mortimer

Liz Barham, senior conservator of the Museum of London Archaeology, displays an early medieval gold and gemstone necklace during a photo call, in London, Tuesday, Dec. 6, 2022. KIN CHEUNG / AP

The Harpole Treasure – named for the village where it was found, about 60 miles northwest of London – was unearthed in April by archaeologists working with property developer Vistry Group on a neighborhood of new houses.

Researchers say the burial took place between 630 and 670 A.D., the same period as several other graves of high-ranking women that have been found around Britain. Earlier high-status burials were mostly men, and experts say the change could reflect women gaining power and status in England's new Christian faith.

The Kingdom of Mercia, where the Harpole Treasure was found, converted to Christianity in the 7th century, and the woman buried there was a believer, maybe a faith leader. A large and ornate silver cross was placed on her body in the grave. It is adorned with tiny, astonishingly well-preserved likenesses of human heads with blue glass eyes, who may represent Christ's apostles. Clay pots from France or Belgium, containing residue of an unknown liquid, were also found.

Remember the Bible passage about women should be "silent" in church? The following is from 1 Corinthians 14

34 Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience as also saith the law.

Or how they left out women who also had the gift of prophecy?

14 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.

2 For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.

3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.

4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.

Yet also in 1 Corinthians 14, there was this.

10 There are, it may be, so many kinds of voices in the world, and none of them is without signification.

The truth is, there were many women with Jesus and thought history, as the ancient woman above, that were leaders in Christianity. Never, ever, doubt the gifts of your spirit are of any lesser value just because some think it is.