PTSD Patrol GIRLS JUST WANT TO HAVE FUN

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
November 6, 2020

These are really stressful times. Between the pandemic and not knowing who are next president will be, or what else will happen in this year from hell, I needed a break. I took the day off to spend some time with friends and had a great time. Which is why the feature video today is, Girls Just Want To Have Fun" from Cyndi Lauper.

Aside from everything else, the extra stress of the election has me getting too little sleep. I am a news geek, so I am up late at night followed by getting up way too early. I know that I cannot control what other people do, or what they think, and that is frustrating. I can only control what I do and how I think.

The same applies to you. You control what you think and what you do. No one else has the power unless you give it to them.

When you have PTSD, you have a choice to make. If you are willing to settle for suffering, then you have already predicted your future. If you decide there a better way to live, then you just opened the door to possibilities. It will take a lot of work and that can be stressful at times. This is why you do need some time to just have fun...enjoy being alive!

I come home in the morning light

My mother says, "When you gonna live your life right?"

Oh mother dear we're not the fortunate ones

And girls, they wanna have fun

Oh girls just want to have fun

The phone rings in the middle of the night

My father yells, "What you gonna do with your life?"

Oh daddy dear, you know you're still number one

But girls, they wanna have fun

Oh girls just want to have

That's all they really want

Some fun

When the working day is done

Oh girls, they wanna have fun

Oh girls just wanna have fun (girls, they wanna, wanna have fun, girls wanna have)

Some boys take a beautiful girl

And hide her away from the rest of the world

I want to be the one to walk in the sun

Oh girls, they wanna have fun

Oh girls just wanna have

That's all they really want

Some fun

When the working day is done

Oh girls, they wanna have fun

Oh girls just want to have fun (girls, they wanna, wanna have fun, girls wanna have)

They just wanna, they just wanna (girls)

They just wanna, they just wanna, oh girl (girls just wanna have fun)

Girls just wanna have fun

They just wanna, they just wanna

They just wanna, they just wanna (girls)

They just wanna, they just wanna, oh girl (girls just wanna have fun)

Girls just want to have fun

When the working

When the working day is done

Oh when the working day is done, oh girls

Girls, they wanna have fun, everybody

They just wanna, they just wanna (girls)

They just wanna, they just wanna, oh girls (girls just wanna have fun)

Girls just want to have fun

when the working

When the working day is done (they just wanna, they just wanna)

Oh when the working day is done, oh girl (girls just wanna have fun)

Girls just wanna have fun (they just wanna, they just wanna)

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Robert Hazard

Girls Just Want To Have Fun lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC 

PTSD Patrol Dance while driving your life toward healing

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
November 4, 2020

This is a strange day. We kind-of know who the President will be...and we kind-of don't know. People are freaking out on both sides. That is why I thought today was a perfect day to have the feature video of I Hope You Dance."

I always find reason to dance. I dance in my car when I'm driving. Getting plenty of strange looks when I stop at a light. I dance at my desk when one of the oldies songs come on reminding me of when I was young and life was less complicated. I don't want to sit out my life now.

No matter what happens, there are reasons to have joy, to be happy and, and yes, even grateful. Your life should be filling up with hope by now. Hope that you can heal and are happier than you were before. Hope that others will help you heal even more...and hope in God.

"I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

Never settle for the path of least resistance

Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'

Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'

Don't let some Hellbent heart leave you bitter

When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider

Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance"

Healing PTSD is in itself a hopeful leap of faith that you took as soon as you decided to try. Don't give up on it because you had a bad day, or some jerk said the wrong thing at the wrong time. The "path of least resistance" was just settling for suffering but that wasn't doing you any good at all.

This is the road you need to be on....remember, its your life....get in and drive it!

Lee Ann Womack - I Hope You Dance (Official Music Video ...

I hope you never lose your sense of wonder

You get your fill to eat but always keep that hunger

May you never take one single breath for granted

God forbid love ever leave you empty handed

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance

I hope you never fear those mountains in the distance

Never settle for the path of least resistance

Livin' might mean takin' chances, but they're worth takin'

Lovin' might be a mistake, but it's worth makin'

Don't let some Hellbent heart leave you bitter

When you come close to sellin' out, reconsider

Give the heavens above more than just a passing glance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)

I hope you dance

I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder)

I hope you dance (Where those years have gone?)

I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean

Whenever one door closes I hope one more opens

Promise me that you'll give faith a fighting chance

And when you get the choice to sit it out or dance

Dance

I hope you dance

I hope you dance (Time is a wheel in constant motion always rolling us along)

I hope you dance (Tell me who wants to look back on their years and wonder?)

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Tia Sillers / Mark Sanders

I Hope You Dance lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Songtrust Ave 

PTSD Patrol learning how to cry again

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
November 3, 2020

There is so much we haven't talked about yet on PTSD Patrol. One of them is the why today's featured video is Jackson Browne, Doctor My Eyes. Before you start to heal PTSD, you may have been doing everything you can to numb pain. After all, that is all you end up feeling because PTSD eats away love, hope, compassion, and all the goodness you felt before. Misery exists and you want it to stop but if you have no idea how much better your life can be, that is all you can think of doing. 

When you get numb, all that pain builds up behind a wall. That is not a good thing,

Just say if it's too late for me

Doctor, my eyes

They cannot see the sky

Is this the prize

For having learned how not to cry?

But once you start to heal, the chance of you starting to cry is about 99%. It almost always happens. It can scare the crap out of you. It is not bad! It is a good thing because it means as you heal, the bricks in the wall start to let go and out comes the bad feelings that have been eating you up.

Good feelings finally have room to move in and take the place of bad ones. So if you are crying, then cry, because the more you do, the more you heal.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Doctor, my eyes have seen the years

And the slow parade of fears without crying

Now I want to understand

I have done all that I could

To see the evil and the good without hiding

You must help me if you can

Doctor, my eyes

Tell me what is wrong

Was I unwise to leave them open for so long?

'Cause I have wandered through this world

And as each moment has unfurled

I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams

People go just where they will

I never noticed them until I got this feeling

That it's later than it seems

Doctor, my eyes

Tell me what you see

I hear their cries

Just say if it's too late for me

Doctor, my eyes

They cannot see the sky

Is this the prize

For having learned how not to cry?

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Jackson Browne

Doctor My Eyes lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group 

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 don't belong in the boondocks

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
November 1, 2020

Some people think they have the right to judge you, without even knowing you. They judge you by the way you dress, the type of car you drive, where you live, but other than that, they don't know YOU.

I spent a lot of years with motorcyle charity groups. People judge us and wanted to stay away from us on the road, because we wore leather vests and rode Harleys. We didn't care when they gave us dirty looks when we went in for a meal someplace on the road, because the purpose of the ride was always for chairty. We were doing good but none of that mattered because they usualy just judged instead of coming over to talk to us.

There is nothing you can do to change their minds, because apparently, they do not have the ability to think in the first place. It sucks to be judged but sucks ever more when you are hurting and need someone to talk to. They end up causing you to retreat further into yourself and your pain, instead of bothering to actually get to know you.

That is not your problem. It is theirs. You know what you are like and how much you care for others, so let that feed hope within you. Most of the time you need to talk to someone but are afraid to ask. Ask yourself what you would do if someone needed help from you. Would you judge them or help them? If you decided to help them, would you think less of them because they had to ask or more of them and their trust in you, because they turned to you?

Today the feature video is about being judged. Down In The Boondocks. Don't let people put you down because they never earned the right to.

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Down in the boondocks

Down in the boondocks

People put me down 'cause that's the side of town I was born in

I love her, she loves me

But I don't fit in her society

Lord, have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks

Every night I watch the lights from the house up on the hill

I love a little girl that lives up there and I guess I always will

But I don't dare knock on her door

'Cause her daddy is my boss man

So I'll just have to be content

To see her whenever I can

Down in the boondocks

Down in the boondocks

People put me down 'cause that's the side of town I was born in

I love her, she loves me

But I don't fit in her society

Lord, have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks

Down in the boondocks

Down in the boondocks

One fine day I'll find the way 

To move from this old shack

I'll hold my head up like a king 

And I never, never will look back

Until that morning, I'll work and slave

And I'll save every dime

But tonight, she'll have to steal away

To see me one more time

Down in the boondocks

Down in the boondocks

People put me down 'cause that's the side of town I was born in

I love her, she loves me

But I don't fit in her society

Lord, have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks

Lord, have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks

Lord, have mercy on the boy from down in the boondocks

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Joe South

Down In The Boondocks lyrics © Concord Music Publishing LLC