Civilians with PTSD SOS call to veterans!

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 24, 2023

(From The Scribe Of Salem) Bill Gibson, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars struggled to heal. His best friend, David MacDonald, a veteran of both wars, struggled to heal. Chris Papadopoulos was just a war reporter and decided to stop struggling, stop trying, and stopped hoping that any day would ever be better than the last worst day he planned on walking up from.

David was saved by a civilian with #PTSD. She ended up saving Bill and the others they served with. They encouraged Chris to meet her so she could save him too. They had no idea he would end up saving millions around the world.

Civilians with PTSD have issued an SOS call to veterans, but they haven't heard it.

This SOS call is not to Save Our Ships but to Save Our Survivors! We need you to be our battle shield in our fight to find peace too!

That was how The Scribe Of Salem began. That was the most important message I had to give. It has been so important that I decided over 40 years to try to deliver it. By the reviews on Readers' Favorite, it looks like I managed to begin to do it.

I am confident I can speak for all survivors of trauma that we need help to heal, just like veterans do. Speaking for myself, I looked to veterans to find hope that I could heal too from the 10 events I survived. I bet you didn't know that when I helped you.

One veteran years ago challenged me. He was angry because I wasn't a veteran and couldn't understand what combat did to him. He was right. I couldn't. What I did understand was what surviving did to him, because I knew what it did to me. Not one to back down from a challenge, I ran down the things I endured. Then I said, "You didn't survive any of that, so I don't expect you to understand what it was like. Can you understand what all that did to me?" He was silent for a while then told me he could understand. He got the point as to how I understood veterans. The truth is, I didn't understand I had PTSD too.

I compared my traumas to what veterans faced over and over again. You are heroes to me and deserve all the help and encouragement I can give. Now I am asking you to train to heal yourself so you can hear the millions of others like me needing you to lead the way for us to heal too.

If you have PTSD, stop pretending you don't. You're sending a message to the rest of us that we should be ashamed if we have it from just one event. If someone as courageous as you, decided that life meant so much to you, that you were willing to die to save us, then fight to heal so you encourage us to do it too!

Who Develops PTSD?
Anyone can develop PTSD at any age. Some factors can increase the chance that someone will have PTSD, many of which are not under that person's control. For example, having a very intense or long-lasting traumatic event or getting injured during the event can make it more likely that a person will develop PTSD. PTSD is also more common after certain types of trauma, like combat and sexual assault.

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

But it isn't just adults looking for you to lead the way. It is kids too!

How I Knew I Had PTSD When you have PTSD, the world feels unsafe. You may have upsetting memories, feel on edge, or have trouble sleeping. You may also try to avoid things that remind you of your trauma—even things you used to enjoy.

The other thing The Scribe Of Salem showed is that spiritual healing is vital to increase recovery. No, I'm not talking about "religious" attendance but I am talking about the spiritual connection we have to others, and to the forgotten messages within the scriptures. If you have been told that faith depends on which church you belong to, then it's a good time to refresh the messages you won't hear in church. They are in this book too.

I hope that after you read it, you'll understand how much power you have, not just in your own life, but how much power you have to save our survivors like me too!

Wish reporters had news alert that PTSD doesn't have to be like this!

I get alerts on #PTSD all the time. Honestly, one of the reasons I decided to stop focusing on veterans with PTSD and turn the attention onto everyone that survived the cause of it. Until reporters get that message, nothing will change and we will continue to lose more survivors after they should have been helped to heal.

This will give you an idea of what my email fills up with.

Iraq veteran says friends call him at 3am 'with pistol in hand' over war horrors - The Mirror The Mirror In the two decades since, many of the soldiers who served have struggled with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). For some this included calling ... 70 ptsd rating reddit - donationsva.it - donationsva.it Former POW Talks About Her Ongoing Battle With PTSD - fashiononashoestring.co.uk - fashiononashoestring.co.uk

Iraq, 20 Years Later: A Changed Washington and a Terrible Toll on America The New York Times ... 300,000 others returned home suffering from post-traumatic stress disorders. ... but what didn't were the PTSD and the traumatic brain injury.

Rosanne Cash performs at Atwood Concert Hall - Alaska's News Source Alaska's News Source ... with Creative Forces for military veterans suffering from PTSD or traumatic brain injury, writing and performing songs as a form of healing.

Deported: The Iraq War veterans denied the right to live in the US - Sight Magazine Sight Magazine But Segovia Benitez fell on hard times when he returned to the United States, struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction.

Erskine veterans share Iraq war experience 20 years on - Planet Radio Planet Radio "I don't think I ever suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) but my wife might say differently because there were times when I was ...

Psychological trauma does not leave the American veterans in Iraq - Globe Echo Globe Echo Like many war veterans, the experience left him with post-traumatic stress disorder and mixed feelings about the war. In an attempt to process his...

Veteran who fatally stabbed his girlfriend in Anaheim convicted of manslaughter New Santa Ana Superior Court jurors that Moseley suffered from PTSD, which stemmed from a traumatic childhood and a tour in Iraq where Moseley, a Navy medic, was ...

There are more on that one email alert but you get the idea. Grammarly freaked out with those headlines and so did my brain.

40 years ago, it made sense that I was reading clinical books in the library about what veterans carried back from wars. After all, the researchers studied WWI, WWII, Korean, and Vietnam veterans because the government funded most of the research. Vietnam veterans pushed for more research and funding so they could understand what was going on with them, as much as they wanted to fight for all generations of veterans.

I grew up with uncles from WWII and my Dad was a Korean War veteran. Later, I married into another family of veterans from WWII and my Vietnam veteran husband. In all the years of research, I never read anything about anyone like me. I was a survivor too, but not from war. I was a multiple survivor of the events that caused it in me, but it didn't dawn on me that was the reason I understood veterans as much as I did.

When it finally dawned on me, I was furious. I had seen therapists and none of them saw it in me. I knew psychologists and other mental health professionals and they didn't see it in me. I did training with groups and no one saw it in me. Why? Because researchers are interested in studying trauma in survivors of all types of events, reporters are not.

This is one of the biggest reasons why I wrote the Ministers Of The Mystery series. The main character was a reporter. All the main characters are survivors of different events. Sure there are veterans in the spotlight but the attention they get is because they understand it so well, they wanted to pass on the hope of healing and help others along the way. That's how it should be.

The thing that got me about the first book, The Scribe Of Salem, was the reviews. Each one focused on a different genre and took away different messages from the same book.

This was my favorite one, but click the link to discover how 4 other reviewers took away different parts of it while giving it 4 5-star ratings and 1 4-star rating.

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

The Scribe of Salem by Kathie Costos is book one in the Ministers of the Mystery supernatural series. Chris considered himself an expert on the Witchcraft Trials in Salem, but something is about to prove his knowledge wrong. As a newspaper reporter, Chris has traveled the world and seen his fair share of horror, but nothing could compare to what happened next. On a visit to the Bishop Hotel Bar, Salem, a series of events changes everything he thought he knew and turns his life upside down. Chris has been offered a chance to get his life back on track, and he only has to do one thing - meet a Master Minister. When Chris begins to get his life back, he should be happy, right? But he isn’t; he’s terrified. Change has never done him any good before, so why should it make a difference now? God can’t save him – can he?

The Scribe of Salem by Kathie Costos is a great start to a new series. It’s an intriguing story, blending fantasy and supernatural horror as it delves deep into the Salem Witch Trials. Plenty of novels are based on the Witch Trials, but none are quite like this. It goes into great, descriptive detail about the horrors faced in those times and touches on other themes, such as domestic violence and PTSD. It’s also about having faith, not just in God, but in yourself and the power of friendship. It is a story of horror but also a story of pain, compassion, and healing, a gripping tale that will draw you into its tight clutches. It’s clear that Kathie Costos has done her research, and her characters are realistic people, easy to identify with, and infinitely likable. This wonderful story would make a great movie, and I highly recommend this author. I am looking forward to reading book two.

Go here to discover more 

Iraq War 20 years ago-and last night?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 20, 2023

20 years later, the bombs stopped falling, soldiers went back home,but for far too many, it never really ended. It never really does. You can see more photos here

March 20, 2003: U.S. Marines prepare themselves after receiving orders to cross the Iraqi border at Camp Shoup, in northern Kuwait.
Eric Feferberg/AFP via Getty Images

If you have PTSD, it is not too late to get help to heal. Yes, heal! Your life can be so much better once you make the connection between what happened, why it happened, and what you can do about it as a survivor of all of it!

MAKE THE CONNECTION!

Find some great vidoes like this one.

It happened again, Fort Hood Female Soldier found dead

Female soldier found dead at Fort Hood, the same Army base in Texas where Vanessa Guillén was murdered

NBC News
By Marlene Lenthang
March 17, 2023

“For the Army to say no foul play presumes facts that have not yet been brought forth. For the Army to say no foul play would also indicate a tone deafness to the concerns of the father and the mother of Ana Fernanda Basaldua Ruiz who stated that she had been the target of alleged sexual harassment — repeated and consistent sexual harassment by other service members up to and including an immediate superior to who she reported,” David Cruz, the Communications Director of LULAC, said.

Ana Fernanda Basaldua Ruiz.Courtesy Basaldua Ruiz family

A female soldier died earlier this week at Fort Hood, the same Army base in Texas where Vanessa Guillén was murdered three years ago, officials said.

Combat engineer Pvt. Ana Basaldua Ruiz died Monday at the base, Fort Hood said in a news release.

Basaldua Ruiz, 20, who was from Long Beach, California, joined the Army in July 2021 and was assigned to the 1st Cavalry Division since December that year.
read more here

The Scribe Of Salem 5-star review

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

Go here for The Scribe Of Salem

The Scribe of Salem by Kathie Costos is book one in the Ministers of the Mystery supernatural series. Chris considered himself an expert on the Witchcraft Trials in Salem, but something is about to prove his knowledge wrong. As a newspaper reporter, Chris has traveled the world and seen his fair share of horror, but nothing could compare to what happened next. On a visit to the Bishop Hotel Bar, Salem, a series of events changes everything he thought he knew and turns his life upside down. Chris has been offered a chance to get his life back on track, and he only has to do one thing - meet a Master Minister. When Chris begins to get his life back, he should be happy, right? But he isn’t; he’s terrified. Change has never done him any good before, so why should it make a difference now? God can’t save him – can he?

The Scribe of Salem by Kathie Costos is a great start to a new series. It’s an intriguing story, blending fantasy and supernatural horror as it delves deep into the Salem Witch Trials. Plenty of novels are based on the Witch Trials, but none are quite like this. It goes into great, descriptive detail about the horrors faced in those times and touches on other themes, such as domestic violence and PTSD. It’s also about having faith, not just in God, but in yourself and the power of friendship. It is a story of horror but also a story of pain, compassion, and healing, a gripping tale that will draw you into its tight clutches. It’s clear that Kathie Costos has done her research, and her characters are realistic people, easy to identify with, and infinitely likable. This wonderful story would make a great movie, and I highly recommend this author. I am looking forward to reading book two.

It is wonderful when an author receives such glowing reviews. What is even more thrilling is when I hear what readers of Wounded Times think. If you read it, please leave a comment here or review where you received your copy from. It will help other readers know it this work will be something they may want to read too!

You can read more reviews here