"Our veterans and first responders need help, and they need to be heard" and so do we

Hundreds turnout to run for first responders, veterans and law enforcement officers

ABC Action News
By: JJ Burton
Oct 22, 2023

“Our veterans and first responders need help, and they need to be heard,” she said. “Seeing how much this event grows every year just shows how much noise is being made for a cause that needs more concern.”

Hundreds showed up at Madeira Beach for a very important race, the Legends Never Die 5K. For the people racing, winning wasn’t the goal. “We are here to raise awareness about PTSD and mental health for first responders and our military,” said Fire Chief Clint Belk.

MADEIRA BEACH, Fla. — Hundreds showed up at Madeira Beach for a very important race, the Legends Never Die 5K.

For the people racing, winning wasn’t the goal.

“We are here to raise awareness about PTSD and mental health for first responders and our military,” said Fire Chief Clint Belk.

The department started the race three years ago with just their firefighters. Now, it’s grown to more than 300 people running with them.

“It’s great,” Kaylee Turner said. “This event means so much to me and my family.”
read more here

This is a good thing to do. Not trying to take away from helping them at all. It just makes me wonder what if they do something for everyone with #PTSD to show that if civilians can get hit by PTSD by just one event, those subjecting themselves to events all the time, can learn just how human they are!

"Countless veterans can experience delayed #PTSD" and so can everyone else

Countless veterans can experience delayed PTSD, showing signs months to years after traumatic incident 

KETV News

Rob McCartney Anchor/Reporter

October 20, 2023

"Trauma is not like wine. It doesn't age well," said Jason Kander.

OMAHA, Neb. —
There are countless veterans walking around with no idea their lives might change because of what they've seen.

They may have something called delayed post-traumatic stress disorder.

It can hit years after they go through an incident.

But they can get help from people who really know what they're going through.

Steve Kane is a financial expert, helping people and businesses.

Life was good until he started getting unwanted callbacks from his past.

"It was great until I walked out that door," Kane said.

That's when he was jumped by five guys and beaten badly. "I ended up having a broken vertebrae in my back, broken bone in my face," he said,

The attackers also tried to break him psychologically.

"Had me call my parents tell them that this was the last day that I was going to be on this earth, and they stuck a gun to my mouth and pretty heavy stuff," Kane said.

Afterwards he went to the doctor who told him he'd be fine.

"Just take it easy, you know, you'll heal up. You should be ok," Kane said.
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I hope you paid attention to the last part of that. His traumatic event happened after a party. The headline directs the information to "veterans" but the truth is, the rest of the report shows that any survivor of events like his can, and all too often does, get hit by PTSD.

Most of us have received rotten advice at one point or, many after surviving. Hopefully after reading this site, you've discovered that there is a lot of great advice out there. Knowing you're not alone is a blessing but the greatest one is discovering no one is trapped with PTSD and you can heal. Remember, the causes of our traumas are different however, one thing unites us. WE'RE SURVIVORS!

Firefighter gets justice after being fired for seeking help to heal #PTSD

Frisco firefighter fired while on medical leave wins workers' comp case

Dallas Morning News
By Susan McFarland
October 14, 2023

After the case was heard by the Texas Department of Insurance, a judge ordered the city of Frisco to pay back lost income.

Cameron Kraemer, a firefighter who worked for the city of Frisco for 27 years and was fired while on medical leave, won his workers’ compensation case before the Texas Department of Insurance, and now the city must pay accrued unpaid income with interest, according to the Frisco Fire Fighters Association.

Kraemer, an assistant fire chief, was in the midst of a workers’ compensation appeal for PTSD when, on May 1, Frisco fired him.

He was undergoing treatment for long-term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition he has been dealing with since 2020 and has been getting medical help for.
read more here

Israel and Gaza should be preparing for a tsunami of mental health crises

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 14, 2023

When responding to your citizens being slaughtered by terrorists is being protested, this world has gone insane.

Last week people in Israel were minding their own business when they were attacked, dragged out of their homes, gunned down at a music festival for peace, and children were decapitated. It has been reported that the terrorists were ordered to target schools to kill as many children as possible.

The people of Gaza did not order it but the terrorists running their country did. Israel responded by targeting places they knew were occupied by them and those places included being among civilians. Many of the innocent people have been killed in the process of killing the terrorists.

The people of Israel want to live in peace. The people of Gaza want to live in peace. Their leaders have to defend their people. So what is the answer when it is not an army against an army? No one knows.

Israeli people cannot allow what happened to them to be forgotten about because it was committed by terrorists. Yet the people of Gaza should not be punished for what the terrorists did. What's the answer?

No one knows what the right answer is unless it is finding a way for both to be able to live in peace but hatred has taken over too many. The terrorists are like well-armed bullies intimidating everyone else to the point where they fear standing up to them.  The terrorists are outnumbered but the citizens do not have the weapons to fight against them. What's the answer?

When you live in constant fear, can you heal from the terror you've already survived? How do you heal when the threat never ends? How do you heal when you've spent your entire life living with it? If you have #PTSD you don't have to wonder too hard because you know what the result can be like. For me, I was only able to heal from the worst that was done to me when the threat died. The only way for the people of Israel and Gaza to begin to heal is to have the threat to their lives die. The problem is hatred does not die. It spreads. It doesn't have to be allowed to spread unchallenged if people refuse to surrender to it. If they find enough hope for peace, they will refuse to give up on achieving it. Who can deliver it when both sides want vengeance?

This is happening in Ukraine too. We cannot forget about what they're going through. What happened here on September 11 only lasted a day but what if it kept on happening? We responded by starting a war in Afghanistan that lasted 20 years and another one in Iraq. Our military was responding with the rules of warfare while they were playing by their own rules. The terrorists did the act but the people of the nations paid the price. It was not military against the military but with terrorists living among the people. Our response did not work. How does the Israeli government think it will work in Gaza?

No matter how it ends, Israel and Gaza should be preparing for a tsunami of mental health crises that will vastly outnumber the number of wounded bodies.

UPDATE

The Scribe Of Salem nominated for People's Choice Award

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
October 4, 2023

It is a thrilling experience to finish a novel. It is amazing that people like it. What blew my mind is that The Scribe Of Salem has been nominated for a People's Choice Award!

You can vote here with a Google account.

Stunning to read this!

"This historical supernatural suspense story is a thrilling work filled with fantasy, magic, secrets, and the brutal and needless violence of the Salem Witch Trials from an interesting new perspective."

You can read reviews of The Scribe Of Salem on Readers' Favorite. On BookTrib here

You can find your favorite bookseller here.

It is spiritual-supernatural to explore the power within us. You never know what you're capable of until you find what is inside of you--a power you were born with!

Don't call The Scribe Of Salem a Christian book. Sure it is based on scriptures but not what you'd hear in your church on Sunday. That's because when Jesus talked about "church, " he spoke about an assembly of people. Much like the people He preached to, outside and in direct contact with His Father.

He was not preaching about religion but about how His Father was a spirit; that is how we should pray, without a middle man but in direct contact with our Creator.

Christians are not all the same yet are told their branch of the faith He started is the only right one. The thing that gets missed is that He was not "Christian" but Christ, the Messiah. As for religion, the religion He was born into wanted Him dead.

When you think about all He taught, it is easy to see that our connection to God is much different than we are told when we attend church.

My message in this work is that the world around us is not as simple as we wish. There is a power inside of all of us. When you discover what your power is, it can be frightening. Yet the spiritual power is there and it is a force that will lead you if you allow it.

The other thing is writers are told to "write what you know" and #PTSD is something I know all too well. It is terrifying. The thing is, it doesn't have to be.

When we forget about what we think we know and open our eyes to what has been there all along, that is magic!