Hope drug works

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
Feburary 10, 2021

If you have PTSD and are in treatment, then you may be given some drug...or drugs. If you are not, then your drug of choice is whatever you decide to self medicate with. Then there is another type of drug that works better to offer a happier road ahead.

If you are on medication, it may not be working as good as it should or you are having a hard time with side effects that come with it. Someone you know may be doing great on it, but you're not. That's OK. You are not your buddy. You doctor needs to know how you are feeling so they can change what you are on. That is why there are many different drugs for the same condition...no matter what it is.

If you are not in therapy, then you may be self-medicating. Using street drugs or alcohol to get numb, high or pass out because you cannot sleep. All that does it cost you a lot of money, cause trouble with every part of your life and may even shorten your life. It is not making you happier or healthier. Most of the time it may even be making you more miserable, especially if your drug of choice is alcohol. That is one of the biggest reasons you are told to stop drinking if you are on medication for PTSD.

The other type of drug is natural. I call it the Hope Drug and it works. When you have hope that you can be happier, it lifts you up. You have a reason to get up in the morning. That is what we're doing everyday on PTSD Patrol.

Knowing that it will be OK to actually feel things again is a head rush. It won't be just feeling miserable and you'll look forward to actually feeling good things again...because you know you can.

That is why today the featured video is Huey Lewis I Want A New Drug. That is why I am prescribing hope for you today...and everyday!

Remember it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

I Want A New Drug

Huey Lewis

I want a new drug, one that won't make me sick

One that won't make me crash my car

Or make me feel three-feet thick

I want a new drug, one that won't hurt my head

One that won't make my mouth too dry

Or make my eyes too red

One that won't make me nervous

Wonderin' what to do

One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you

When I'm alone with you

I want a new drug, one that won't spill

One that don't cost too much

Or come in a pill

I want a new drug, one that won't go away

One that won't keep me up all night

One that won't make me sleep all day

One that won't make me nervous

Wonderin' what to do

One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you

I'm alone with you, baby

I'm alone with you, baby

I want a new drug, one that does what it should

One that won't make me feel too bad

One that won't make me feel too good

I want a new drug, one with no doubt

One that won't make me talk to much

Or make my face breakout

One that won't make me nervous

Wonderin' what to do

One that makes me feel like I feel when I'm with you

I'm alone with you

I'm alone with you, yeah, yeah

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Christopher John Hayes / Huey Lewis

I Want a New Drug lyrics © Warner Chappell Music, Inc 

Don't be a ghost of yourself to them....

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 9, 2021

If you have PTSD, and are afraid of letting the people in your life know what is on your mind...you are making a big mistake. While they cannot read your mind, in their own mind, they are making up their own stories about how you are acting. You gave them no other choice because you won't tell them what they need to know.

The see the changes in you, but they don't know where those changes are coming from. They end up wondering what they did wrong. Kids wonder why Mom or Dad is acting that way again. If you don't want to hurt them by opening up, then you already are.

You don't have to tell them everything that is going on inside of you if you are afraid they will judge you or won't be able to handle it. They won't know what to do with too much information and that is what a therapist is for. All you need to do is share the basics with them so they won't blame themselves or jump to a conclusion about you that is wrong.

Hiding it won't help you heal. It will only make your family more distant. Pushing them away so they won't see your pain, won't help you heal. Letting them know will make all the difference especially if you are carrying a ghost they can't see.

This is why today the featured video is Gordon Lightfoot, If You Could Read My Mind. He wrote it after getting divorced.

"If you could read my mind, love,

What a tale my thoughts could tell.

Just like an old time movie,

'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.

In a castle dark or a fortress strong,

With chains upon my feet.

You know that ghost is me.

And I will never be set free

As long as I'm a ghost that you can't see." 

Don't be a ghost of yourself to them....

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it1

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

If You Could Read My Mind

©1969 by Gordon Lightfoot

If you could read my mind, love,

What a tale my thoughts could tell.

Just like an old time movie,

'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.

In a castle dark or a fortress strong,

With chains upon my feet.

You know that ghost is me.

And I will never be set free

As long as I'm a ghost that you can't see. 

If I could read your mind, love,

What a tale your thoughts could tell.

Just like a paperback novel,

The kind the drugstores sell.

Then you reached the part where the heartaches come,

The hero would be me.

But heroes often fail,

And you won't read that book again

Because the ending's just too hard to take! 

I'd walk away like a movie star

Who gets burned in a three way script.

Enter number two:

A movie queen to play the scene

Of bringing all the good things out in me.

But for now, love, let's be real;

I never thought I could feel this way

And I've got to say that I just don't get it.

I don't know where we went wrong,

But the feeling's gone

And I just can't get it back. 

If you could read my mind, love,

What a tale my thoughts could tell.

Just like an old time movie,

'Bout a ghost from a wishing well.

In a castle dark or a fortress strong.

With chains upon my feet.

But stories always end,

And if you read between the lines,

You'd know that I'm just tryin' to understand

The feelin's that you lack.

I never thought I could feel this way

And I've got to say that I just don't get it.

I don't know where we went wrong,

But the feelin's gone

And I just can't get it back!

Song: If You Could Read My Mind 

Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind | Official Trailer

PTSD and more changes for seniors

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 8, 2021 

Cross Posted on Wounded Times

I am writing my 4th book and needed address something in the first chapter so that I could move onto the rest of the book, based on PTSD Patrol. The thing I needed to address was the "strange changes" I had gone through, from survivor, to advocate, to expert and all the way back to denial. I wasn't denying the reality of PTSD. I was denying I had it. You can read it on I didn't really escape surviving unscarred.

That is why today the featured video is, David Bowie, Changes. This is going up on PTSD and Wounded Times because most of the time when you have mild PTSD, you can stuff it, push it out of the way, ignore it by keeping busy, but it is still there. When you reach retirement age, it can hit you like a ton of bricks because while you convinced yourself that you were unscarred, it turns out you just let the scar fester.

It is OK to be surprised it happened, especially if no one told you it could. It is not OK to be ashamed of it, because there is nothing wrong with being a survivor. I'm OK with admitting it and you should be too.

So it is our turn to face the strange changes in us. To use all our knowledge to do what we always did without noticing...surviving this change too. We know that life comes with many changes and challenges. You don't get to reach retirement age without them. Let's face it. Just considering all the changes our bodies go through...this is just one more change.

The good news is, we have plenty of time to do something about it. Our kids are grown. We don't have to get up early and go to work and then come home exhausted after trying to keep up with younger workers and traffic jams. This is supposed to be our time to "enjoy the fruits of our labor" and not pay for having survived this long.

Spend time learning the rules of this road the same way you leaned how to drive your vehicle back in the early days. Remember what it was like to feel that sense of freedom when you were in the car for the first time by yourself? It was great...mixed with some nervousness. This is like that too but just as you became more confident in control of that vehicle...you'll be more confident in control of the vehicle you life on.

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Changes

David Bowie

Oh, yeah

Mmm

Still don't know what I was waitin' for

And my time was runnin' wild

A million dead end streets and

Every time I thought I'd got it made

It seemed the taste was not so sweet

So I turned myself to face me

But I've never caught a glimpse

How the others must see the faker

I'm much too fast to take that test

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

Ch-ch-changes

Don't want to be a richer man

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

Ch-ch-changes

There's gonna have to be a different man

Time may change me

But I can't trace time

Mmm, yeah

I watch the ripples change their size

But never leave the stream

Of warm impermanence

And so the days float through my eyes

But still the days seem the same

And these children that you spit on

As they try to change their worlds

Are immune to your consultations

They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

Ch-ch-changes

Don't tell them to grow up and out of it

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

Ch-ch-changes

Where's your shame?

You've left us up to our necks in it

Time may change me

But you can't trace time

Strange fascinations fascinate me 

Ah, changes are taking

The pace I'm goin' through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

Ch-ch-changes

Ooh, look out, you rock 'n' rollers

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

Turn and face the strange

Ch-ch-changes

Pretty soon now you're gonna get older

Time may change me

But I can't trace time

I said that time may change me

But I can't trace time

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: David Bowie

Changes lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, BMG Rights Management, DistroKid, Tintoretto Music 

Get Undivided with yourself

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 7, 2021

I have been reading a lot about how a many of the people who attacked the Capitol were veterans. I can't help but wonder what would make them do such an evil thing after being ready to die for this country...they just attacked. Good time to discuss something we haven't before, becoming evil.

One of the things we don't talk enough about is feeling like you are suddenly evil because you have PTSD. It is very common, but few talk about it.

When you survive, and PTSD hits, it is part of the package, along with paranoia and rage. When these things collide, they feed all the negative things that were already in you. Face it, we are all capable of all the terrible things that are in everyone else. It doesn't have to be permanently part of the deal. The truth is, most of us, have stronger feelings based on what is best about humanity.

Being exposed to evil events can feed the thoughts that you are becoming that because it takes hold of you. You tend to forget about all the good inside of you, and then you think it is all gone because the bad feelings grow stronger. You are basically at war with yourself.

All the good that was there all along is still there, but you cannot feel it. You don't try to find those emotions again, because you stopped looking for them. They are all still there but while you may say you want to go back to the way you were before, you have to realize that is impossible. You changed the you became a survivor of whatever caused PTSD to strike you. The other truth is that once you get it all connected again, you make peace within yourself and the good feelings you had, can be even stronger.

"I think it's time to come together

You and I can make a change

Maybe we can make a difference

Make the world a better place

Look around and love somebody

We've been hateful long enough

Let the Good Lord reunite us

'Til this country that we love's

Undivided (yeah)" 

Today the featured video is Undivided by Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard. It is time to stop being divided within yourself. Stop being at war with what you really believe is the right way to live and start living it. Letting evil grow more powerful inside of you, is a betrayal of your core beliefs. 

It is the only way to stop treating people in your life like the enemy. Stop destroying one relationship, starting another and then destroying that one too. Until you figure out what should actually have power over your life, you will be miserable in all you do.

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

Undivided

Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard 

You see, Billy got picked on at school

For things he couldn't change

He tried his best to play it cool

But in the seventh grade

You either fit right in or you don't fit

That's just the cold hard truth

I wish that I'd have been the friend

That Billy never knew

I think it's time to come together

You and I can make a change

Maybe we can make a difference

Make the world a better place

Look around and love somebody

We've been hateful long enough

Let the Good Lord reunite us

'Til this country that we love's

Undivided (yeah)

You either go to church or you gonna go to Hell

Get a job and work or you gonna go to jail

I just kinda wish we didn't think like that

Why's it gotta be all white or all black?

And when we gon' learn to try on someone's shoes sometimes? (That's right)

When we gon' start to see from someone else's eyes?

I think it's time to come together

You and I can make a change

Maybe we can make a difference

Make the world a better place

Look around and love somebody

We've been hateful long enough

Let the Good Lord reunite us

'Til this country that we love's

Undivided (oh, yeah, ay)

Undivided, oh yeah

We're all the same to God

No matter what we get His love

I'm tired of lookin' left or right

So I'm just lookin' up

I think it's time to come together

You and I can make a change

Maybe we can make a difference

Make the world a better place

Look around and love somebody

We've been hateful long enough (hateful long enough)

Let the Good Lord reunite us

'Til this country that we love's

Undivided (come on)

Oh yeah, ayy

Undivided, oh yeah

Oh yeah

(Get a job and work or you gonna go to jail)

Undivided

(I just kinda wish we didn't think like that)

Yep

Why's it gotta be all white or all black?

Source: Musixmatch 

Official music video for Tim McGraw and Tyler Hubbard's "Undivided" 

no time left for you

PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
February 6, 2021 

Did you read the title and think I was done with you? How did it feel? Do you think that maybe it is time you made PTSD feel that way? Go on and hurt its feelings since that is all it has been interested in doing to you!

"Seasons change and so did I...you need not wonder why." People change after surviving trauma, but just like the seasons change, you can change again too.  After all, you already did several times without noticing.

One day you woke up like normal. Later that day, you became a victim of whatever caused PTSD to hit you. Then you changed again the next second when you changed from victim to being a survivor. It happened that fast.

The thing is, you need to notice that you beat "it" the first time because you survived what it tried to do to you. Don't let "it" beat you down now. Tell PTSD you have no more time left for it....this is your time to heal and live a happier life!

No time left for you

On my way to better things

(No time left for you)

I'll find myself some wings (No time left for you)

Distant roads are calling me

(No time left for you)

Remember, it is your life...get in and drive it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife from #PTSD

No Time Left For You

The Guess Who

No time left for you

On my way to better things

(No time left for you)

I'll find myself some wings

(No time left for you)

Distant roads are calling me (No time left for you)

Mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da, mm-da

No time for a summer friend

No time for the love you send

Seasons change and so did I

You need not wonder why

You need not wonder why

There's no time left for you

No time left for you

No time left for you

On my way to better things

(No time left for you)

I'll find myself some wings (No time left for you)

Distant roads are calling me

(No time left for you)

Mm-da, mm-ga, mm-da, mm-ga, mm-da

No time for a gentle rain

No time for my watch and chain

No time for revolving doors

No time for the killing floor

No time for the killing floor

There's no time left for you

No time left for you

No time for a summer friend

No time for the love you send

Seasons change and so did I

You need not wonder why

You need not wonder why

There's no time left for you

No time left for you

No time, no time, no time, no time

No time, no time, no time, no time

I got, got, got, got no time

I got, got, got, got no time

I got, got, got, got no time

No, no, no, no, no, no, no time

No, no, no, no, no, no, no time

I got, got, got, got no time

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no time

I got no time, got no time, got no time, got no time

Got no time, got no time, got no time

Source: Musixmatch

Songwriters: Burton Cummings / Bachman

No Time lyrics © Shillelagh Music 

No Time (1992) Ringo Starr, Burton Cummings, Joe Walsh and Todd Rundgren at Montreux