PTSD? Time to see a mechanic

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

June 23, 2020

When your vehicle isn't running right you take it to a mechanic. They put it on the diagnostic testing to figure out what is going on. Go to a trauma specialist to figure out what is going on with you. #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Building your monument moments healing PTSD

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

June 22, 2020 

There is a huge debate going on in the country about taking down monuments. Some are painful reminders of events. Some are good ones. Much like you are a monument of moments in your own history. Traumatic events are painful, but you can make peace with those moments in your history. You can also build you life's joyful moments because you are doing more than just believing you can. You are taking an active part in defining yourself as a survivor. #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

PTSD: Not making it harder on your road crew

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

June 21, 2020

This was a hard one for me to do, but it is important. It explains how we are not in any of this alone. We have family and friends, who care about us. When they do not understand what is going on, they assume the worst. Usually they blame themselves.

We make it worse if we cannot explain it to them. Gain as much knowledge as you can about PTSD and then help them understand so that all of you can heal together.

Something happened when I was just 5 years old. It nearly destroyed my family but I was too young to understand it myself. It is explained in this video.

When you are fighting PTSD, it is important to choose your team and accept the help from them. Race car drivers do not get out and change their own tires. This is about how people can effect the whole family and how important it is to recognize how we impact them. #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Do not drive them away when you need them

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

June 20, 2020

With everything going on in this country and chaos in communities, many people who have dedicated their lives to those communities are being torn apart. 

Healthcare workers are panicked because the pandemic is spreading faster than they can keep up with. They want to be able to breathe again but when they ask for people to wear a mask and social distance to stop the spread of COVID-19, they get harassed.

Police Officers are being threatened, attacked and condemned for what a few bad ones did, plus facing losing their jobs with the push to "defund" the police departments. Yet these same officers turn around, show up for their shifts, put their lives on the line all over again every day. 

Protestors are pushing for change, and rightly so, but in the process, they are opening the way for looters and rioters to destroy the communities...the same cities and towns that lost police vehicles.

Everyone else is either fighting over doing things for the sake of others, or whining about wanting to go out and have fun again.

It's a mess! If you do not have PTSD yet, many of you will if you do not take action now.

If you are one of the people serving your communities, facing all of this, you need to remember that those you serve with, are in it for the same reason. Trust one another and stop pushing them away so that they can help you heal...and then you can help them heal too!

If you made it your job to save other people, then shouldn't it also be your job to let those you serve with save your's too? Wouldn't you do it for them? Then instead of driving them away, let them know you need their help to stay. #BreakTheSilentService and #TakeBackYourLife

The best way to begin a healing road trip is with your family

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

June 19, 2020

The best way to begin a healing road trip is with your family, or those who support you. That way, they can be your co-pilots instead of just watching you drive away.

Let them know what is on your mind. Let them know that you are doing this for them, as well as yourself.

Here is the first post from 2017.

Reminder, up until this month, my work was focused on veterans. Please substitute whatever caused your trauma whenever you see "combat" or "veteran" metioned.

From 2017

Welcome to PTSD Patrol! It is May 1st, and Military Appreciation Month. I couldn't think of a better day to start this site.

Have you ever heard the term "MAYDAY-MAYDAY-MAYDAY" and right away acknowledged someone needed help? Do you think the one calling it out is too weak to take care of themselves? Or do you think they need help? Ok then WFT is your problem being on the other end of the help line?

WARNING: I am a Greek/Scottish/Chaplain originally from the Boston area, hang out with veterans and bikers, plus I drink, smoke and swear. If you're looking for spiritual healing, you'll find it but keep all that in mind. I don't mess around with words. I've been doing this work for over 3 decades, so don't be shy about using the words around me either. As we go along, this site may have to be member only, but we'll see how it goes. I work full time but will try to do something everyday on here.

Up to this point in your life, you've heard a lot of the tragic outcomes of suicides connected to service. Bet they didn't tell you exactly how tragic it is when we're talking about folks putting so much value on other lives they were willing to die for their sake.

Yep, that came with the jobs all of you had. No matter what price you had to pay, the hardships and endless hours, you were willing to do it. Sure other humans get hit by PTSD by one single event, but your risk came with your job.

From this point on, the direction of your life changes to forward because we're going to get you to stop looking back. It isn't about forgetting what happened, as much as it is making sense out of it and making peace with it.

What is PTSD?
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder seems like a bad term but when you break it down, it actually makes perfect sense.

Post means after something. Trauma is Greek for wound. So far you have experienced something that changed your life and left a wound. The event caused your whole body to go into stress mode. Everything you thought, felt and what was "normal" in you got out of order. See the hope there?

Ok then, try this. It means you survived "it" and all wounds can heal with the proper treatment. Stress does not last forever and for the "disorder" part, it means that it can be put back into order again. Nothing fell out of you even though it fell out of place.

The "you" you always were is still in there. With a lot of work, you can change how you are living and stop suffering as much as you are. There are things about PTSD that cannot be reversed but you can lean how to cope with them. The even better news is that you can actually come out on the other side better than before.

PTSD is change. Basically, you can change again.

The most important thing of all is understanding what it is and why you have it. It is not a mental illness. It is not even considered an anxiety disorder anymore. It is all by itself because the only way to get hit by PTSD is after trauma slams into you. It does not begin in you but invades you.

It has nothing to do with being weak at all but more about the strength of your emotional core. You carried away your own pain but the pain of others as well.
v Starting today, take back control over your life.

A wise Marine veteran said, "PTSD does not have to control you. Just because you have PTSD it does not mean it has you!"

No doom! No gloom! No bad news on this site! Just a reminder of this simple fact. This second onward is within your control!

Starting today, we're going to be changing the conversation from suicide to empowerment. The only way to change the outcome, is to help veterans find hope again. They need to know what PTSD is, why they have it, but more than that, they need to know they can take back control of their lives. Lot better than taking their lives isn't it?

February 2018
Starting today, we're going to be changing the conversation from suicide to empowerment. The only way to change the outcome, is to help veterans find hope again. They need to know what PTSD is, why they have it, but more than that, they need to know they can take back control of their lives. Lot better than taking their lives isn't it? Check back on Sunday mornings for more. If you have one of those groups "raising awareness" then please stop talking about what veterans already know how to do and start helping them learn what they need to know, how to #TakeBackYourLife

From March 2018

Getting out of neutral Sunday morning empowerment zone features Marine veteran filmed yesterday at the Orlando Nam Knights bikeweek party. His simple message is empowerment! Take control of your life from this moment on. It's up to you where you go from here!