Kathie Costos
June 22, 2021
Last year I went to the New Hampshire veterans cemetery for the first time on Memorial Day. As I walked around, I thought about all the veterans in my family who passed away, as well as the two veterans I was walking with. My husband and his best friend are both Vietnam veterans.
When I came upon this memorial, I had to catch a couple of tears falling. The empty place where the service member is saluting, got to me.
It was around that time when I was debating about giving up working with veterans. No matter how hard I tried, or how much I knew, it seemed as if I was fighting everyone I knew in the veteran community. Most of them were latched onto the slogan of "22 a day" and wouldn't let go of the notion that suicide awareness was a good thing to do. How could they believe that letting suicidal veterans hear about others giving up would offer them anything but more despair?
It was too late to change their minds and I had been doing this work for too long to be able to deal with the deadly results of ignorance. My heart was being ripped out every time I read another report of another suicide.
No one wanted to hear what needed to be done, anymore than they wanted to hear about the decades of failures to address the oldest pandemic this nation has ever seen...suicides carried out by those who valued the lives of others so much so, they were willing to die to save them.
I got into all of this in 1982 and focused on Vietnam veterans with PTSD, but the truth is, they had only become the latest generation to join the others going back to when this nation began. What I didn't know back then was there would be more wars.
It felt as if I was fighting this one all alone as soon as people started to read news reports in 2012. Soon after that, the awareness groups started popping up and eroding the ability for veterans to find people like me.
And now, maybe you'll understand why I gave up on what I had dedicated my life to almost 4 decades ago.
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That was what they needed to hear, but I guess I stopped being good enough to get them to hear me.
I fought them until last year and then I opened this up to anyone with PTSD. If you are in the military, a veteran, or a member of any of the responder positions, this work is for you too. No matter what caused PTSD in you, you are still only human like the rest of us.
Today the featured video is Neil Diamond, He Ain't Heavy because helping people with PTSD heal should not be a burden for any of us.
Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD
He Ain't Heavy, He's My Brother
Neil Diamond
The road is long with many awaiting turns
That lead us to who knows where,
Who knows where
But I'm strong,
Strong enough to carry him
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
So long we go
His welfare is my concern
No burden is he to bare, we'll get there
For I know
He would not encumber me
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
If Im laden at all,
I I am laden with sadness that
Everyone's heart isn't filled with the gladness
I am alone for one and other
It's so long long road
From which there is no return
While we're on the way to live why not share
And the load doesn't weigh me down at all
He ain't heavy, he's my brother
He's my brother
He ain't heavy
He's my brother
He's my brother
He ain't heavy
He's my brother
Source: Musixmatch
Songwriters: B. Russell / B. Scott
He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother lyrics © Music Sales Corporation, Music Sales Corp.
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