PTSD Patrol Empowerment Zone-Healing

Don't be defined by what is wrong with you!
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
March 4, 2018

Yesterday I went to an event for this fantastic veteran!

Kelly Smith will not let anything stop her. You can see the video from the event on Combat PTSD Wounded Times later today.

For now, we need to talk about some of the conversations going on at the event. It was more about a veteran worried about another veteran, than anyone talking about themselves. AND THAT IS THE POINT MOST OF YOU MISS!

No one is in this after combat alone! The same people you would have died for, the same ones who would have died for you, still care! What the hell makes you think they wouldn't listen to you if you need them? What stops you from talking to them if you think they need help?

This video also introduces Murray! It is a glorious morning here in Florida and he wanted to get some fresh air. 
Don't settle for the way thing are today! TAKE YOUR LIFE BACK!

PTSD Patrol Sunday Mornings Empowerment Zone

PTSD Patrol Fuels Hope
Kathie Costos
February 25, 2018

We need to talk! How many times have you heard those words and thought, oh crap, bad news coming? This time, it is good news!

Starting today, PTSD Patrol is going to be changing the conversation from suicide to healing. We need to face the fact that we will never know how many took their own lives but we do know why they did it. They lost hope that the next day would be any better for them.

We're going to be changing that conversation and start giving them reasons to hope for a much better life even with PTSD.

Scream about healing...not suicides

I can't think of a better day to do this than Valentine's Day. It is the reason our veterans and military members risked their lives...for love. They loved so much, they were willing to die for someone else. 

That is the reason why they hurt so much afterwards. The depth of their emotional core is so strong, it caused them to want to serve in the first place, yet is also so strong it is trying to destroy them.

That is where PTSD lives. While there is no cure for PTSD, there is plenty of healing that is possible. They can live a better quality of life with the right help.

Join the fight to help them take back control over PTSD. After all, they defeated it when they survived the thing that started it, but no one told them that what they stopped being a victim and became a survivor!

From now until the end of February, there is a  campaign for this cause to go to Point Man International Ministries. It started back in 1984 working with veterans and families with Christian based support. We're not about raising money but about raising healing with peer support.

After the campaign is over, if you have a charity, I want you to take the design you see above and use if for your own campaign. The message needs to be spread out across as many places as they can find it!


Here is the link to the campaign page


Take your cell phones out, set it to video and start screaming about healing! Yell "defeat PTSD and fight to take your life back" or hold up a sign. Then add in whatever message you want them to know.

Contact me through any of those links and send me a link to your video or link it yourself if you can.

It is time we changed the conversation and put a new voice in their heads!
cross posted from Combat PTSD Wounded Times

PTSD? Need a tow?

PTSD: Sometimes you need a tow truck
PTSD Patrol
Kathie Costos
January 23, 2018


When you breakdown on the road, you try to figure out what went wrong. Out of gas? Overheated? Dead battery? Flat tires?If you can't fix it yourself, you make a phone call to get help. If you don't, then you will be stuck there until someone comes along to try to help you get out of where you are.

What if the person coming doesn't know anything more than you do? Your still stuck where you are.

So, you make the call to someone you know will fix your problem, or at least give you a tow. They may tell you that you'll have to wait a while, but you know they'll show up.

When they come, a sense of relief takes place of dread. You hope they find something simple and can fix it right away. The longer it takes them to figure it out, the more you get worried about what they'll find.

You smile when you find out it wasn't as bad as you thought. A battery cable was not making the right connection. Put back on tightly, you are good to go again. You get back into your car, start it up and your help leaves. No problem since you think you don't need help anymore. 

To get out of the breakdown lane, you need to proceed with caution. You can't just take off and fly down the road. What is behind you? What is on the side of you? What is ahead of you? Is it safe to move forward? What speed should you be in?

Strange how that works the same way with PTSD. Something went wrong. It was the one too many times you were in a place where something terrible happened. After about 30 days, if what you've been going through hasn't weakened, or even better, left you almost the same as you were, then you need to get help.

It means the event was too much for your engine (mind) to handle. When you breakdown, trying to figure out what to do next, can lead to a lot more problems.

You'll try anything to stop feeling the pain and having bad thoughts pop in and out between your regular thoughts. Sometimes you just want to stop feeling the pain, so you get numb with drugs, alcohol, playing games online, or doing other things that would be out of character for you.

The stuff you used to enjoy, you have no interest in doing at all. People may say that you are acting like a jerk or "not yourself" lately, and they are more right than they know.

Sometimes, you are really not "yourself" because surviving something that could have killed you, changes you. No one really escapes the "IT" the same way they were before.

You end up stuck on the side of the road while everyone else is passing you.  

So, do you pick up the phone and ask for help or just sit there waiting for it to suddenly show up? How long do you wait? Do you keep waiting until it gets dark and no one can see you?

Is it OK to ask for help when your car is broken? Then why isn't it OK to ask for help when you breakdown? Sometimes all you need is a quick fix, or a jump start. Sometimes you need a tow and taken to where they can give you tests to figure out what you need to get back on the road.

One way or another, it is always better to ask for help than take your chances on the side of the road.

It doesn't matter how tough or how big you are, there is always a way to get you to where you need to go.

Be the hope they need to see that suffering is not all there is with PTSD

Not just a face in a crowd
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
January 16, 2018

How can you help a veteran with PTSD? The same way they were wounded in the first place. Whenever you see pictures of a wounded service member, you do not see massive crowds surrounding them. You see a few of the members of their own unit coming to help help. 

And that is how it needs to be done when the wound is cut deeply into their soul.

That is what Point Man International Ministries figured out over 3 decades ago. Treat them like a member of your family unit, know them like a brother or sister and then help them by standing by their side. Then they'll know they really matter.

A sailor of the USS North Dakota took a rifle and shot himself in the chest, but survived after crew members spent seven hours doing everything possible to save the unidentified sailor's life. The sailor may have been wondering if his/her life was worth living and they just proved beyond a doubt, it was.

The thing that keeps getting missed when discussing military suicides is, they valued the lives of others, they were willing to die to save someone else. The question is, why, after all these years, do they not see their own life is worth saving to others as well?

They show great courage above and beyond what most civilians are prepared to do. Yet when they are suffering because of what they had to face, they are not courageous enough to ask for help from the very people they trust with their lives.

We keep hearing about how the military and veterans communities have been working on getting the stigma attached to PTSD out of their heads, but that hasn't worked. Why haven't they tried plain, simple logic to explain what PTSD is and why they have it?

Why aren't service members and veterans leading groups after they overcame their own struggles with silence?

It isn't good enough to say you understand what they are going through if you do not have a story to tell of your own. You need to be able to share your own struggles with the veteran you are trying to help. In a large group, it seems that everyone is competing to tell their tales as if it is a contest to win as the most miserable.

In small groups, it is more about sharing and caring on a personal level. You can share what caused your heartache and then share with them how you ended up feeling better about your life.

You can be an example of not giving up on yourself as much as you prove you will not give up on them as long as they do everything possible to heal themselves.

You can make sure you stay in contact with them, encourage them to take the steps they need to get where they need to be. 

The only reason someone gives up is when they believe there is no hope of better days. Be the hope they need to see that suffering is not all there is to the rest of their lives!

If you are a veteran and want to offer this hope contact Point Man and start leading the way out of the lonely darkness and into a family of healing.

If you are a family member, then you can do the same for other families who have not been treated as if they are on the front lines of all of this.

Hotline: 1-800-877-VETS (8387)

Point Man Intl. Ministries

Po Box 267

Spring Brook, NY 14140

E -mail: dana@pmim.org

HQ Phone:1-716-675-5552

Point Man Intl. Ministries is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization