PTSD Patrol Don't Leave Them Waiting There

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
November 2, 2020

Today the feature video is Paul McCartney, The Long And Winding Road. I chose this song because there are a lot of people who are hurting and giving up on finding hope. You may know someone like that. Someone who has been through a lot in their life, so much so, you have noticed the changes in them. You may see someone who used to be very happy and caring, but after something happened to them, they changed, and this caused you to suspect they have PTSD.

Surviving a traumatic event is the only way PTSD can strike them. Sometimes is hits them fast and hard. Other times, like when they have a dangerous job, it piles up little by little. For others, it comes many years later. 

For many, they spent their lives keeping busy, but when they retire, the extra time to think, allows PTSD to wake up. It isn't as if it just got into them. They have been carrying it for years but "stuffed it" or "pushed through it" yet with retirement, they have nothing else to occupy their minds.

Many times I've been alone

And many times I've cried

Anyway, you'll never know

The many ways I've tried

And still they lead me back

To the long winding road

You left me standing here

A long, long time ago

Don't leave me waiting here

Lead me to your door

Spend some time with them. Listen to them so you can figure out what they need and then help them find it. If they just need someone to talk to, listen. If they need professional help, go online and try to find it for them. Learn what you can about PTSD, what it is and why they have it so they do not feel so hopeless or think they are weak in any way.

Sometimes, just listening to them can make all the difference in the world to them because you let them know they matter and are worth your time.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

The long and winding road

That leads to your door

Will never disappear

I've seen that road before

It always leads me here

Lead me to you door

The wild and windy night

That the rain washed away

Has left a pool of tears

Crying for the day

Why leave me standing here?

Let me know the way

Many times I've been alone

And many times I've cried

Anyway, you'll never know

The many ways I've tried

And still they lead me back

To the long winding road

You left me standing here

A long, long time ago

Don't leave me waiting here

Lead me to your door

But still they lead me back

To the long winding road

You left me standing here

A long, long time ago

Don't keep me waiting here

Lead me to your door

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney

The Long and Winding Road lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC

PTSD Patrol You're Still You

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
October 30, 2020

"Through the darkness I can see your light." Did you know that the origins of that inner light are all still within you? You may think that the darkness you're been living with since PTSD moved in, is something you will never escape and it killed off everything that was good inside of you, but it is all still there.

Today the feature video is Josh Groban You're Still You because that is a message that anyone with PTSD needs to hear. It is something that I told my husband at least a thousand times over the years. He thought it had all died until he started to heal and was able to see himself again.

I often think about why so many events in my own life did not cause the same level of damage in me that he was going through. Mine began when I was so young that it ended up making me even more connected to who I was inside. There were so many times when I allowed myself to be beaten down by what others thought about me, until I noticed that the only power they had over me, was what I was willing to give them. I was still me...only stronger because of it, so I knew he was still him behind that wall of pain he had been building over the years.

All the things that made you "you" are all still there too. You just need some help finding yourself again.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Through the darkness

I can see your light

And you will always shine

And I can feel your heart in mine

Your face I've memorized

I idolize just you

I look up to

Everything you are

In my eyes you do no wrong

I've loved you for so long

And after all is said and done

You're still you

After all

You're still you

You walk past me

I can feel your pain

Time changes everything

One truth always stays the same

You're still you

After all

You're still you

I look up to

Everything you are

In my eyes you do no wrong

And I believe in you

Although you never asked me to

I will remember you

And what life put you through

And in this cruel and lonely world

I found one love

You're still you

After all

You're still you

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Ennio Morricone / Linda Thompson 

PTSD Patrol what are friends for?

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
October 25, 2020

What are friends for? Some people will point to their Facebook "friends" and say they have thousands. Well, I know a lot of people, but I only have a few I would call friend. Most people will say that same thing when they are being honest.

Is a friend someone who will help you move? Or would they say, "let me know what your new address is" because they want to send you a Christmas card?

Is a friend someone who will go to the store for you when you are not well, or do they tell you can get delivery?

Is a friend someone who will spend time with you, listen to you when you are depressed or lonely...or do they tell you to call them when you are feeling better?

So how many can you call friend now? Can they call you friend when they need someone to be there for them? That is what friends are for.

When they have PTSD, they are feeling as if they do not deserve anyone to care about them. That feeling grows deeper the longer it goes on and more people turn away from them. Are you reenforcing that by letting their calls go to voice mail? Are you feeding it by telling them you are tired of hearing the same story over and over again and it is time for them to "get over it" no matter what it is?

Real friends are there in bad times, as well as good ones. They are there to make you feel as if you matter to them. If your friend is hurting, then let them know they do matter to you! #BreakTheSilence and tell them you'll be there to help them #TakeBackYourLife for as long as it takes!

And I never thought I'd feel this way

And as far as I'm concerned

I'm glad I got the chance to say

That I do believe, I love you

And if I should ever go away

Well, then close your eyes and try

To feel the way we do today

And then if you can remember

Keep smiling, keep shining

Knowing you can always count on me, for sure

That's what friends are for

For good times and bad times

I'll be on your side forever more

That's what friends are for

Well, you came in loving me

And now there's so much more I see

And so by the way

I thank you

Oh and then for the times when we're apart

Well, then close your eyes and know

The words are coming from my heart

And then if you can remember

Keep smiling and keep shining

Knowing you can always count on me, for sure

That's what friends are for

In good times and bad times

I'll be on your side forever more

That's what friends are for

Keep smiling, keep shining

Knowing you can always count on me, for sure

That's what friends are for

For good times and bad times

I'll be on your side forever more

That's what friends are for

Keep smiling, keep shining

Knowing you can always count on me, for sure

Cause I tell you, that's what friends are for

Whoa, good times and the bad times

I'll be on your side forever more

That's what friends are for

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Burt F Bacharach / Carole Bayer Sager / Burt Bacharach / Carol Bayer Sager

That's What Friends Are For lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc, BMG Rights Management, Royalty Network 

PTSD Patrol Ain't No Mountian High Enough

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
October 15, 2020

The feature video today is Diana Ross song about getting to someone no matter what is in the way. If you know someone who has always been the kind of person to put others first, rush to help them, then you need to know that they could need more help than they will ever ask for.

Over 8 million Americans have PTSD, and most of them were hit after one incident. For the helpers, they have multiple times piled onto their soul and it can crush them. They need to be reminded that there is nothing wrong with asking for help....since they always answered when someone else asked for it. Now it is their turn to ask for help themselves! #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

If you need me, call me

No matter where you are

No matter how far

Just call my name

I'll be there in a hurry

On that you can depend and never worry

You see, my love is alive

It's like a seed that only needs the thought of you

To grow

So if you feel the need for company

Please, my darling, let it be me

I may not be able to express

The depth of the love I feel for you

But a writer put it very nicely

When he was away from the one he loved

He sat down and wrote these words:

No wind, (no wind)

No rain, (no rain)

Nor winter's cold

Can stop me, babe

(Oh, babe) baby (baby)

If you're my goal

No wind, (no wind)

No rain, (no rain)

Can stop me, babe

If you wanna go

I know, I know you must follow the sun

Wherever it leads

But remember

If you should fall short of your desires

Remember life holds for you one guarantee

You'll always have me

And if you should miss my lovin'

One of these old days

If you should ever miss the arms

That used to hold you so close, or the lips

That used to touch yours so tenderly

Just remember what I told you

The day I set you free

Ain't no mountain high enough

Ain't no valley low enough

Ain't no river wild enough

To keep me from you

Ain't no mountain high enough

Ain't no valley low enough

(Say it again)

Ain't no river wild enough

To keep me from you

Ain't no mountain high enough

Nothing can keep me

Keep me from you

Ain't no mountain high enough (no)

Nothing can keep me

Keep me from you

Ain't no mountain high enough

Ain't no valley low enough

(Say it again)

Ain't no river wild enough

To keep me from you

Ain't no mountain high enough

Ain't no valley low enough

Ain't no river wild enough

To keep me from you

Nothing in this world

(Ain't no valley low eno

ugh)

Nothing in this world

Can keep me from you, baby

Just call my name

I'll be there in a hurry

Just call my name

I'll be there

Ain't no mountain high enough

Nothing can keep me, keep me from you

Ain't no mountain high enough

(Say it again)

Ain't no river wild enough

To keep me from you

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Valerie Simpson / Nickolas Ashford

Ain't No Mountain High Enough lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC 

PTSD Patrol Get Together

In 1967 a song came out by the Youngbloods "Get Together" and it filled people with hope. The song was so powerful it never stopped being played. 

It was a time to chaos and war, protests and peace marches. Families were being torn apart by everything, but the song offered another message of love.

When something happens to us, something so terrible that PTSD begins to take hold, the worst memory of it can become the most predominate one. Yet within that horrible memory, there also other memories of the people who came to help you. We live in very chaotic times now. We are surrounded by hateful, hurtful people who want to make us feel miserable so they feel better about themselves. We have natural disasters all over the country. We have protests and families being torn apart. We also have men and women doing whatever they can to make the road to recovery easier for you. If have said it often that we see what we choose to see. Now I am saying that what we you see is what you seek. Seek what is still good and you'll find it. Seek what is hopeful and you will be filled with it. Seek what is based on love and you will be empowered by it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD.

Love is but a song to sing

Fear's the way we die

You can make the mountains ring

Or make the angels cry

Though the bird is on the wing

And you may not know why

Come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

Some may come and some may

go

We shall surely pass

When the one that left us here

Returns for us at last

We are but a moment's sunlight

Fading in the grass

Come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

Come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

Come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

If you hear the song I sing

You will understand (listen!)

You hold the key to love and fear

All in your trembling hand

Just one key unlocks them both

It's there at your command

Come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

Come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

I said, come on people now

Smile on your brother

Everybody get together

Try to love one another

Right now

Right now

Right now

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Chester Powers / Chester William Jr. Powers

Get Together lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC 

Jesse Colin Young and Steve Miller re-recorded “Get Together” when the world was hit with COVID-19 as a way to help fight hunger and to celebrate the song’s 50th anniversary. With Jesse and Steve on vocals, the lyrics resonate with our current need to help each other through troubling times.

You can help fight world hunger just by listening to this song and other SongAid music on your favorite music platform. Every time the track is played it generates money for Why Hunger's Rapid Response Fund.

PTSD Patrol: Not Giving Up

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

August 18, 2020

Last night I was watching the DNC convention and I was reminded of things I had forgotten about Joe Biden. He suffered a lot in his life, but instead of being limited by the pain he knew all too well, he decided to use that pain to help others heal too.

This isn't political but it is about as inspirational as it gets.

(ABC News 2012)

Vice President Joe Biden today delivered a deeply personal and, at times, emotional address to survivors of slain U.S. military service members, recounting his struggle with intense grief after his wife and daughter were killed in a car accident almost 40 years ago.

"For the first time in my life, I understood how someone could consciously decide to commit suicide," Biden told a Washington gathering organized by the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors (TAPS), a non-profit advocacy group, to commemorate Memorial Day.

"Not because they were deranged, not because they were nuts, because they'd been to the top of the mountain and they just knew in their heart they'd never get there again, that it was … never going to be that way ever again. That's how an awful lot of you feel."

Biden described how he first learned of the accident on Dec. 18, 1972, just weeks after he was first elected to the U.S. Senate from Delaware. While he was in Washington, D.C., his wife, Neilia, one-year-old daughter, Naomi, and sons, Beau and Hunter, were Christmas shopping in Hockessin, Del. Their car was struck by a tractor-trailer. Only Beau and Hunter survived. 

"There will come a day, I promise you, and your parents, as well, when the thought of your son or daughter or your husband or wife brings a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye," he said. "It will happen. My prayer for you is that day will come sooner or later. But the only thing I have more experience than you in is this: I'm telling you it will come."  

Vice president opens up about past grief and thoughts of suicide.

Message to Police Officers....we're praying for you!

Police Officers:Joining Protestors in Prayers

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
June 2, 2020

Grieving hearts do not heal unless what unites you to the communities you serve know you care. Right now, that is exactly what is happening all over the country.

Members of Law Enforcement are showing the protestors you do care about them. After all, they are the ones you risk your lives for everyday. They tend to forget that in times such as these.

When riots started and looters destroyed businesses, police cars were set on fire, it was hard to find anything hopeful. What a few officers did to George Floyd repulsed the nation but what many people did not understand is, it also repulsed most of you.

The vast majority of all of you are stunning! Thinking about what you are facing has some wondering how you do it. How do you keep showing up knowing that you may not make it back home...topped off with the fact that too many in your own community hate you?

Then I think about Jesus. He knew what was going to happen to Him in the end, but He still preached love, compassion and charity. He kept showing up, knowing that dark day would come and He would sacrifice His live for everyone else.

He said, "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13)

But you are willing to do it for strangers too! That requires courage, obviously, but it also requires love.

You are all paying the price for what a few officers have done to betray the badge they wear and that is a shame but I wanted you to know that most of us are grateful for your service. 

If you need more assurance of this, then read some recent news reports and the response from your communities. Know that you are not their enemy and noticed that they are not yours because of the actions and compassion you have shown!

WZZM 13 News

NewsBreak

WFLX News

Lexington Herald Leader

USA Today

You are in my prayers as well!

World responded to dying wish of 11 year old boy

Miracles followed because 11 year old boy made a wish

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
May 15, 2020

Post from Wounded Times On 11/9/2008

Brenden Foster said he wants to be an angel so that he can help the homeless from Heaven. Get ready to cry for this sweet child when you watch this video. He's proof there are angels here on earth already. He's one of them.

LYNNWOOD, Wash. -- Doctors gave 11-year-old Brenden Foster two weeks to live.

Those two weeks were up on Wednesday. On Friday, he shared his last wish.

Not yet a teenager, Brenden's time to die has come.

"I should be gone in a week or so," he said.

Brenden was the kid who ran the fastest, climbed the highest and dreamed of becoming a marine photographer. Leukemia took away all those things, but not his dying wish to help others.

A comment was left on the post from a family friend saying that Brenden's family needed help with his burial.

This is how fast he inspired the world...posted on 11/15/2008

BOTHELL, Wash. -- The local boy whose dying wish to feed the homeless inspired thousands across the world has taken a turn for the worse.

Brenden Foster is growing weaker, but his message is growing stronger.

His body is failing, his skin yellowing. His mother is trying to decide on the wording for his grave marker.

"B-Man is his nickname, or Mr. B. But most people call him B-Man," said Wendy Foster.

The end is near, and Brenden has one question for God.

"Why at so young an age? I could have done more. But if it has to be now, it has to be now," he said.

On 11/21/2008, sadly I had to post the update that he passed away in his Mother's arms.

Then Brenden's last wish took on a life of its own.

A TV station in Los Angeles held a food drive. School kids in Ohio collected cans. People in Pensacola, Florida gathered goods.

And here in Western Washington, KOMO viewers from all over took part in the Stuff the Truck food drive in Brenden's honor. Hundreds with generous hearts donated six and a half huge truck loads of groceries and more than $60,000 in cash to benefit Northwest Harvest and Food Lifeline.

Brenden touched hearts all over the world. His wish came true, and he lived to see it.

"He had the joy of seeing all of the beautiful response to his last wish," said his grandmother, Patricia McMorrow. "It gives him great peace and he knows that his life has meaning."

"He's left a legacy and he's only 11," said his mother, Wendy Foster. "He's done more than most people dream of doing just by making a wish."

He opened the eyes of the world to care for the least among us. By November 28, 2008 his last wish raised over $95,000 in cash plus truck loads of food. But the miracles continued.

December 2, 2008, a Christmas party for hundreds of homeless kids was going to be canceled because Pastor Bruce Kaar had cancer...then he heard about Brenden and was inspired to do all he could to take care of the children.

Soon afterwards we received word that Bruce's tumor was shrinking.

On December 7, 2008, I had to post that Brenden was laid to rest, but the lives of others were changed and miracles happened because this little boy, had compassion for others and he moved the hearts of millions to do the same.

PTSD Patrol: When your ride is a pink scooter

Pink scooter fueled by love

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
December 30, 2018

Every once in a while, I am inspired beyond what words I can add to a topic. In one of those moods, where words just did not come, I searched some of my older videos. It came on a pink scooter. 

I was thinking about a lot of miracles that still happen and remembered the story of a homeless veteran. It is one of those stories that you think cannot be true. But it is. I know because I was at his funeral.

Thursday, March 25, 2010


Vietnam Vet Andrew Elmer Wright found a home as a homeless vet
A simple casket with an American flag for Vietnam Veteran Andrew Elmer Wright.

A simple bouquet of flowers was placed with a simple photo a church member snapped.

By all accounts, Andrew was a simple man with simple needs but what was evident today is that Andrew was anything but a "simple" man.

A few days ago I received an email from Chaplain Lyle Schmeiser, DAV Chapter 16, asking for people to attend a funeral for a homeless Vietnam veteran. After posting about funerals for the forgotten for many years across the country, I felt compelled to attend.

As I drove to the Carey Hand Colonial Funeral Home, I imagined an empty room knowing how few people would show up for a funeral like this. All the other homeless veteran stories flooded my thoughts and this, I thought, would be just one more of them.

When I arrived, I discovered the funeral home was paying for the funeral. Pastor Joel Reif, of First United Church of Christ asked them if they could help out to bury this veteran and they did. They put together a beautiful service with Honor Guard and a 21 gun salute by the VFW post.

I asked a man there what he knew about Andrew and his eyes filled. He smiled and then told me how Andrew wouldn't drink the water from the tap. He'd send this man for bottled water, always insisting on paying for it. When the water was on sale, he'd buy Andrew an extra case of water but Andrew was upset because the man didn't use the extra money for gas.

Then Pastor Joel filled in more of Andrew's life. Andrew got back from Vietnam, got married and had children. His wife passed away and Andrew remarried. For some reason the marriage didn't work out. Soon the state came to take his children away. Andrew did all he could to get his children back, but after years of trying, he gave up and lost hope.

A few years ago, after going to the church for help from the food pantry, for himself and his cats, Andrew lost what little he had left. The tent he was living in was bulldozed down in an attempt to clear out homeless people from Orlando. Nothing was left and he couldn't find his cats.

Andrew ended up talking to Pastor Joel after his bike was stolen again, he'd been beaten up and ended up sleeping on church grounds in the doorway. Pastor Joel offered him the shed in the back of the church to sleep in so that he wouldn't have to face more attacks.

The shed had electricity and they put in a TV set, a frying pan and a coffee maker. They wanted to give Andrew more but he said they had already given him enough.

Pastor Joel told of how Andrew gave him a Christmas card with some money in it one year. Pastor Joel didn't want to take money from someone with so little, but Andrew begged him to take it saying "Please, don't take this away from me" because it was all he had to give and it meant a lot to give it to the Pastor. Much like the widow with two cents gave all she had in the Bible, Andrew was truly grateful for what little he had been given from the church.

What was soon made clear is that Pastor Joel gave him even more than he imagined. Andrew took it on himself to be the church watchman. While services were going on after Andrew greeted the parishioners, he would travel around the parking lot to make sure the cars were safe. At night he made sure any guests of the church were equally watched over. Pastor Joel not only gave him a roof over his head and food, he gave him something to make him feel needed.

More and more people came to the service and there was a lot of weeping as Pastor Joel spoke. What was very clear this day is that Andrew was called a homeless veteran but he was not homeless. He found one at the church. He lost his family and his children, but he found a family at the church.

From what was said about Andrew, he was a Vietnam veteran with PTSD and he wanted no help from the VA. Too many of them feel the same way and they live on the streets, depending on the kindness of strangers to help them out.

Andrew wasn't one of the panhandlers we see in Orlando. He refused to beg for money and he wanted to work for whatever he was given. His health got worse but he still did what he could. Right up until March 16, 2010 when Andrew passed away, no matter what happened to him during his life, Andrew proved that this veteran was not hopeless, not helpless because he found the fulfillment of hope in the arms of strangers who took him in and he found help as he asked as well as gave.

The legacy of this homeless veteran is that he touched the lives of so many hearts and will never be forgotten.

Behind this church, in a tiny shed, Andew spent his last hours on this earth. Born in Riverside Park NJ on November 5, 1938 he returned to God on March 16, 2010.

John 14:2-3
In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.

Matthew 25

35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in,

36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

This video tells the rest of the story. If you want to believe again people can make a huge difference in the lives of others, watch it. If you want to believe that God is still interested in all of us, watch the video. 

Rev. Joel and this church touched me so much I had to do the post on what they did for Andrew. 

Because God tugged at them to help and tugged at me to get the story out, a Dad's love for his children was finally known.

First United Church of Christ proved that miracles can still happen. They took in a homeless Vietnam Veteran, gave him love and gave a family closure. His son was serving in the Marines when he found out what happened to his Dad. A simple casket with an American flag for Vietnam Veteran Andrew Elmer Wright.

So there you have it. How many lives were changed? Because a homeless veteran found a place where he could call home, and where he was loved. Children discovered why they were put up for adoption and that their Dad did not give up on finding them. All because people put #LoveInAction and created the miracle that grew.