PTSD Patrol hope on a tank full PTSD Patrol Kathie Costos July 1, 2018
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Romans 15:13 New International Version (NIV)
Yesterday out at the Orlando Nam Knights, Tony "NK Jeans" Johnson wanted to know why I was so against the "awareness" raisers. The answer is a simply one. It does not give hope to those searching for it.
When people say "it is just a number" they show they did not take enough interest to know, the known number represents people and were not just a number that is easy to remember. We need to change the conversation into what will stop them from being stuck with an empty tank of hopelessness and fill them up with hopefulness!
I explained the difference between what is actually known and what is just assumed. The point of this effort is to change from awareness that people are committing suicide into what will help them want to live! That begins with knowledge of what PTSD is, what being a survivor is, and the power behind the simple fact that they can heal if they work at it! Tony is a Gulf War veteran and has been working hard to take control over his life, but has also been reaching out to help others fill up with hope they can do it too!
PTSD ROAD CREW CLEARING THE WAY PTSD Patrol Kathie Costos June 30, 2018
You can follow the road to hope! The concept of PTSD Patrol Everyone can understand the vehicle they drive without knowing how it all works. Too many do not understand the vehicle they live in (our body) and even less understand how it works. We need to know how to drive it so we can get to where we want to be. The concept is about taking control of your life from this moment onward. It is all drive related so you can drive your life from hopelessness into hopefulness. Much like trying to get from one place to another on an empty tank of gas, into a full tank that will get you where you want to be. The goal is to change the conversation into what all survivors of trauma need to hear. They can take control of their lives again! After all, I did!
Nothing is impossible! ScoutPreacher: Me. Others mapped out and road, smoothed the surface and paved it before I even knew what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder was. I have been up and down on this roadway for 36 years now. Many came afterwards, but I learned from the pioneers so I could lead my husband out of the darkness and be able to co-drive our future. One early morning at work, waiting for the coffee to brew, (I get in a little after 5 am) I was sitting outside when it was about 70 degrees here in Florida, but was snowing back in New England. I thought about how my husband used to go out ahead of everyone else to plow the streets. Then I thought about how no one goes anywhere without someone clearing the way first. My friend Kimberley Lewis and I were trying to come up with a logo for this site, but had not been content with anything until I told her I wanted a plow. After all, I'd been clearing the way for a very long time. This is Kimberley Lewis and the design she worked very hard on.
This is not about me making any money at all on this! After all these years, I have proven that it does not cost much money at all to change a life. It takes knowledge, training, time and compassion. PTSD Patrol Empowerment Zone videos The veterans you see in the videos and friends who care enough to get hope in to help, deserve a lot of credit. I can tell you first hand how much courage it takes to be on that side of the camera! To be able to talk about what they went through, requires even more. The T-shirt is a way to thank them for those efforts and they should not have to pay for them. They are the road crew! You can be on it too. ROAD CREW Want to do a video? If you are local, I can film it for you. If you want to do it on your cellphone, that is OK too. Just send me the link and I'll add it to the Facebook PTSD Patrol or this site if you do it on YouTube or Vimeo. REQUIRED: Has to be empowering, inspirational and related to something you drive, car, motorcycle, truck, fire engine, police car and yes, even plows! No doom and gloom on these since the goal is to fill them up with hope. One friend told me that her son stole her shirt and was wearing it out when someone in a group asked him about the shirt. When he explained what it was all about, the person told him that he is a veteran and they talked. Yep! The veteran talked about what he was going through. If you want to just do that, then, you get a shirt and my business cards so that you do not need to struggle with more than you can do. Have them contact me and I can explain more or find someone in their area to help them. If you want to just wear this, then that is fine too. It is also OK if you just want to donate and then you are giving 2~ You do not have to be a veteran or family member. This is for everyone who has survived something that could have killed them or someone who is grieving for someone they loved.
This is a BOGO deal! Buy one, give one! I have them priced at $25. That covers you getting a T-shirt, giving one and being able to mail out what I have to. If you want to change the outcome we have to change what we put into it! Best way to donate is to send checks to Point Man, PO Box 196992 Winter Springs FL 32719 and take the tax deduction. Just let me know what you want and if you want a shirt, what size. Email me and I'll let you know other ways. woundedtimes@aol.com
I just picked up the T-shirts from Hittin Skins an they did a fabulous job!
Friends on Facebook donated to help me out so that when veterans do the videos they receive a free T-shirt to say thank you for helping clear the way for other veterans to heal. It takes a lot of courage to be able to even go on camera, but it takes a great deal more to be able to talk about some of the things they went through. This is all about empowerment and getting rid of the stigma of PTSD once and for ALL VETERANS and anyone else who survived trauma.
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If you want a T-shirt email me woundedtimes@aol.com or go to Facebook PTSD Patrol and let me know.
I cannot think of a better day to explain why I do what I do. I am a survivor! Not once, twice or even five times, but this will give you an idea of why I work as hard as I do, devoted so much research and get so pissed off! It is the reason for this site, Combat PTSD Wounded Times, all the books, videos and articles, training, research and yes, my marriage that has lasted over 3 decades! If you have PTSD, no matter what caused it, you need to hear this. If nothing else, this is the one message you need to get today of all days, because all the bullshit out there has been blocking what could change your next day.
Got your headlights on? PTSD Patrol Kathie Costos June 24, 2108 When most people are still sleeping, I am on the road at 5 am, heading into work. Most of the time I am thinking of what it is going to take to get you guys to turn on your own headlights and see more clearly. Friday, I decided to take my camera and show what it is like on the road before most people wake up!
Considering how my life has been that way, wake before most people on PTSD, the road was basically mine. There were people on the road before me, but we had a better chance of getting people to follow us than we do now. Back then, they could see us easily. We had our high beams on to show the way out of darkness. Now it is like there are way too many people congesting the road and leaving us trapped behind them. It is too hard to see where you are going, depending on the lights in your rearview mirror to show you the way. It is too hard to see when you have someone driving toward you with their high beams on and blinding you from seeing what is in front of you. Anyway, you have control over your own headlights. Not the ones on your dashboard, but the ones in your own head. Why drive in darkness? If you do not know what PTSD is, then that is exactly what you are doing. Sure you can move from one place to another, but do you ever find where you want to be? You can drink or do drugs, but that only gets you numb. You can stop talking, stay in the house and keep to yourself, but that leaves you alone. This is your battle now but just like in combat, you do not have to face this enemy by yourself. Really strange thing happened with this video. I had the radio on and the Eagle "Take It Easy" was playing. Sure enough, right where "flatbed Ford" came in, so did a flatbed pulling off the on ramp.
