PTSD Patrol, daily messages to help you get out of your garage

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

July 5, 2020

We have been spending time with family and friends the last few days, practicing social distancing...which is extremely hard on a hugger like me. I was telling a relative why I switched to working with anyone with PTSD, instead of just focusing on veterans. With over 8 million people living with PTSD, plus everything else going on, those numbers are expected to grow. Then the question came up about why I do most of the videos in my garage.

A long time ago, there was a veteran I was having a hard time explaining what PTSD was and why it did what it did. He was running out of hope and so was I. We were near my car when it dawned on me that he understood his car better than he understood himself.

That was when I used "vehicle" as a metaphor for how to get from one place to another. It is easier to understand that we determine where we go, how to get there and how fast we travel, than it is to understand that the "vehicle" you live in, is really not that much different from the vehicle you drive. Basically, we're all in the garage.

The vehicles we live in (our bodies) face the same conditions the vehicles we drive do. There are road blocks, traffic jams, detours, other drivers, breakdowns and accidents. There are parts of our engines (our minds) that need to be serviced after diagnostic testing to see what needs to be repaired by a mechanic (mental health professional) who is trained to repair it. 

As for the journey itself, (our spirits) we need to be able to find the right road to get us where we want to get to (a happier life) with the vehicle we control. 

The logo is of a snowplow because no one get anywhere in a snow storm until the plows go out to clear the road, and that is my job. 

I survived things that could have killed me, statistically proven to cause PTSD, over 10 times. I had all the symptoms of post-traumatic-shock, which can develop into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Some factors that increase risk for PTSD include:

• Living through dangerous events and traumas
• Getting hurt
• Seeing another person hurt, or seeing a dead body
• Childhood trauma
• Feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear
• Having little or no social support after the event
• Dealing with extra stress after the event, such as loss of a loved one, pain and injury, or loss of a job or home
• Having a history of mental illness or substance abuse

****There are other causes that you may have experienced, but not on the list. ****

This is where #breakthesilence comes in!

• Some factors that may promote recovery after trauma include:

• Seeking out support from other people, such as friends and family
• Finding a support group after a traumatic event
• Learning to feel good about one’s own actions in the face of danger
• Having a positive coping strategy, or a way of getting through the bad event and learning from it
• Being able to act and respond effectively despite feeling fear
• You can heal if you know how to get there. Step by step, like following your GPS, you will get there on the easiest roads!

Everyday, until I run out of things to say, there will be daily messages to help you get out of your garage and back on the road to recovery so that you can #takebackyourlife from #PTSD

PTSD Patrol: Declaring Independence From Its Oppression

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

July 4th 2020

Reading Thomas Paine The Crisis it is easy to see that "tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered" but we know it can be.

"THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated." 

Today, July 4th, this nation celebrates the freedom that was obtained by those who risked their lives and paid the price on the battlefields across this land and all those who we willing to pay the price so that it could be retained. 

 

"We hold these truths to be self evident...." in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence, and very true words when applied to the "pursuit" of your happiness. The Declaration of Independence was the beginning of the fight for freedom from oppression. Achieving it did not happen over night.

The dream of freedom began long before July 4th 1776 when the document was established. The war did not end until the British troops were removed in 1782. There were 213,000 in the Continental Army.

The Declaration of Independence 

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." 

Your "self-evident" truth is that you are endowed by your Creator with everything you need to live a happier life and pursue a better future.

Abraham Lincoln called The Declaration of Independence “a rebuke and a stumbling-block to tyranny and oppression.” Now you are building a future when you can be independent from PTSD controlling your life.

The Declaration of Independence 

"...Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world..."

Declare this day as the day you begin your fight to be free of the oppression of PTSD. 

"And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor."

 You cannot cure it but you can defeat it and it will remove forces that had been controlling your life! Remove this yoke and lighten the load you are taking on your journey. 

Begin this day with getting the burden off your back, and learn how to forgive. Healing is a time that does not have to try your soul!

PTSD Patrol changing what you can

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

July 3, 2020

Part of healing PTSD is picking your battles and learning to breathe before you say something you will regret.

PTSD Patrol wisdom to know how to change

Today we are talking about the spiritual side of you and how you can find the serenity to make peace with what you cannot change, change the things you can and the wisdom to know the difference! #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

PTSD Patrol What were you designed to do?

PTSD Patrol

Kathie Costos

July 1, 2020

Every vehicle on the road was designed for a specific purpose. A race car was designed to go fast and it was built that way. Construction equipment was designed to do a specific job and was built to do it. Plows were designed to clear things out of the way, and they were also built to do it. So were you!

If you are in any type of service to others, no matter what it is, you were tugged to do it because that is what you were designed to do. The wondrous thing is, you were also built to do it and endure whatever hardship came with what you were designed to do. It is all there, included in the plans for your purpose by design.

Jeremiah 29 11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.
12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
14 I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity.

You will begin to learn how to connect what was included in your design to prosper, have hope for your future and be brought out of the captivity of PTSD.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Every vehicle was designed for a specific purpose and was built accordingly. So were you. Everything you needed to do what you were designed to do is all there.