PTSD Patrol: Get in and drive your life

Change what drives you
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos 
March 17, 2018

When I was explaining what PTSD Patrol was about to a co-worker, it dawned on me that I never really explained it here.

You may be wondering why it is all related to vehicles. Simply really, everyone understands it no matter what form of transportation it is.

Sometimes we are a passenger. That is what our childhood is like. Our parents are the drivers. They are in control. They decide where we go and how fast we get there.

Then we grow up, learn how to be in control of the wheel, speed and direction we go in. We get a little older and we own the thing, which is our lives. We own what we do with the lives our parents brought into the world.

The engine is our mind. The body of the vehicle is like ours. Everyone can understand you need to take care of your engine and the body of the vehicle. 

Each person picks a vehicle based on many choices. What they can afford and what they like. Sure, some invest the time in learning about the thing before they decide. Some will look for the best deal. No one usually buys it without taking it for a test drive first.

No matter what you get, how powerful it is, the thing won't do anything other than sit there without feeding it gas. 

So look at your life like a vehicle your soul is in. In this case, the gas you put in your tank, feeds your soul. Without hope, you run out of gas.

We are the ones who determine where we go from one moment to the next. Sure, we can get trapped in a traffic jam, sitting there, waiting for others to get out of our way. 

We can get lost trying to get where we want to go. 

We can get behind a driver moving too slowly or have to move out of the way of someone driving way too fast.

We have little control over what others do, but we do control what we do. Same thing with life.

It gets draining just hearing about the bad stuff. I know what that's like since I track all the news stories across the country and my frickin head explodes when I read about someone doing something talking about a number, but never seems to mention what that "something" is or why they didn't even bother to read the report.

So, that is why PTSD Patrol was started. It is about getting in and driving your own life away from the past. No, not forgetting it, but making peace with it. It is about empowerment and fueling your tank without getting too preachy.

Remember, while I am a Chaplain, I am far from the type you may be used to.

Oh, almost forgot. The picture I use is from a trip out to Nevada for a wedding and my daughter is driving. Go figure! She got to drive and I was in the back seat!

On Sunday mornings there are videos going up about what is hopeful and telling you things someone should have mentioned a very long time ago. You can heal and your life can get a hell of a lot better. 


No more excuses. Stop being comfortably numb!

PTSD Patrol, Get Out Of Neutral

PTSD Patrol Sunday Empowerment Zone
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 11, 2018 

Why is it the simplest message can also be the most powerful? Think about some commercials you see on TV and how some will just stick in your head. Now think of all the veterans needing to heal, but only hearing about the worst possible outcome. 

Isn't it a lot better, a lot more powerful, for them to know that from this moment in, they are in control and can choose to take their lives back, instead of taking them?

Yesterday, my buddy Jonnie Rodriguez had something he wanted to share. His simple, powerful message of healing. When he thinks about what his life was like when he had no hope of getting out of the hell he was in, and what his life is like now, he gets angry. Angry that others are settling for being defined by PTSD instead of taking control as a survivor.


The road ahead is yours! Stay in neutral, getting numb, feeling sorry for yourself, or get on the road paved by others who have gone before you.

It is a lot of work, but hey, training was hard work too. Your job is/was hard work. But as with any road trip, you can get help to get to where you want to go.

Think about every road has been laid out by someone looking at a forest and figured out how to connect one place to another. Same thing with healing PTSD. It took someone seeking a better way to get through what was keeping them out of where they wanted to go.

You can do the same thing.

PTSD Patrol Empowerment Zone-Healing

Don't be defined by what is wrong with you!
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 4, 2018

Yesterday I went to an event for this fantastic veteran!

Kelly Smith will not let anything stop her. You can see the video from the event on Combat PTSD Wounded Times later today.

For now, we need to talk about some of the conversations going on at the event. It was more about a veteran worried about another veteran, than anyone talking about themselves. AND THAT IS THE POINT MOST OF YOU MISS!

No one is in this after combat alone! The same people you would have died for, the same ones who would have died for you, still care! What the hell makes you think they wouldn't listen to you if you need them? What stops you from talking to them if you think they need help?

This video also introduces Murray! It is a glorious morning here in Florida and he wanted to get some fresh air. 
Don't settle for the way thing are today! TAKE YOUR LIFE BACK!

PTSD Patrol Sunday Mornings Empowerment Zone

PTSD Patrol Fuels Hope
Kathie Costos
February 25, 2018

We need to talk! How many times have you heard those words and thought, oh crap, bad news coming? This time, it is good news!

Starting today, PTSD Patrol is going to be changing the conversation from suicide to healing. We need to face the fact that we will never know how many took their own lives but we do know why they did it. They lost hope that the next day would be any better for them.

We're going to be changing that conversation and start giving them reasons to hope for a much better life even with PTSD.

Scream about healing...not suicides

I can't think of a better day to do this than Valentine's Day. It is the reason our veterans and military members risked their lives...for love. They loved so much, they were willing to die for someone else. 

That is the reason why they hurt so much afterwards. The depth of their emotional core is so strong, it caused them to want to serve in the first place, yet is also so strong it is trying to destroy them.

That is where PTSD lives. While there is no cure for PTSD, there is plenty of healing that is possible. They can live a better quality of life with the right help.

Join the fight to help them take back control over PTSD. After all, they defeated it when they survived the thing that started it, but no one told them that what they stopped being a victim and became a survivor!

From now until the end of February, there is a  campaign for this cause to go to Point Man International Ministries. It started back in 1984 working with veterans and families with Christian based support. We're not about raising money but about raising healing with peer support.

After the campaign is over, if you have a charity, I want you to take the design you see above and use if for your own campaign. The message needs to be spread out across as many places as they can find it!


Here is the link to the campaign page


Take your cell phones out, set it to video and start screaming about healing! Yell "defeat PTSD and fight to take your life back" or hold up a sign. Then add in whatever message you want them to know.

Contact me through any of those links and send me a link to your video or link it yourself if you can.

It is time we changed the conversation and put a new voice in their heads!
cross posted from Combat PTSD Wounded Times