It's traumatic to lose your job

Job losses mount
The government reported more grim news about the economy today, saying employers cut 240,000 jobs in October -- bringing the year's total job losses to 1.2 million, CNNMoney reports. According to the Labor Department, the unemployment rate rose to 6.5 percent from 6.1 percent in September. It was the highest unemployment rate since March 1994. developing story

The unemployment rate keeps going up and according to this CNN report, it's the highest rate since 1994. I remember what it was like to lose my job. Shocking!

I worked for a Presbyterian Church as the Administrator of Christian Education. It was the perfect job for me. My faith is a big part of my life. Aside from the fact I'm Greek Orthodox, raised in the Orthodox doctrine, there really isn't that much that is different between the two branches and it wasn't that hard to be able to fit in with them. I just went to my own church for the Holy Days. I loved my job! I was there for two years. The job provided me with the part time income I needed and a lot of joy because I love kids and there is a preschool there. Twice a week, the youth pastor and I held chapel with the preschoolers. We sang and danced with the joy of praising the Lord. It was wonderful.

On my daughter's 20 birthday, I was supposed to have my employment review. I thought I was getting a raise. I ended up being told the job was being eliminated. I had to clean out my office and leave. I didn't even have a chance to say goodbye to the kids or most of the people I loved.

It took a month to begin to get over it. For the first couple of weeks, I mostly cried. Yes, I know I was posting at the same time, but while the church was my job, PTSD has been my life for 26 years now. Doing this work is the reason my husband and I moved to Florida so that I could work part-time for a check and be able to do this the rest of the time. I was devastated. I worked hard for the church and was devoted to it.

I spent most of the time wondering what I had done wrong, blaming myself and worrying about what I was supposed to do for income. Working for a church, which is tax exempt, I was not allowed to collect unemployment. The church didn't pay into the system. That was in January and I am still officially unemployed as of today.

In March I became a Chaplain with the IFOC. That cost me some money and so has the traveling I've been doing with PTSD. While I am a Senior Chaplain, certified, insured and ordained, I couldn't find a job with the fire department as a Chaplain because they had a lot of budget cuts and layoffs as well. The VA won't hire me because I do not have a degree but probably know more about PTSD than most of the Chaplains they have. After all, 26 years experience plus living with it does tend to provide a higher degree of knowledge than just college. They would not even consider me, not even as a part time Chaplain.

I'm as they say, out of luck. I cannot give up the work I do, especially making the videos or going around talking to people, going for training and conferences, which all has me deeply involved on a daily basis. So what do I do? I pray and try to make it from one day to the next.

I am not counted as "unemployed" because I did not get a check. There are a lot of people just like me out there. Once you run out of benefits, or cannot get them in the first place, you drop off the count. As bad as the figures are on unemployment, they are really higher. I often wonder if the people who made a bundle off all of this ever let their conscience bother them? Do they know what they did to people who worked hard and did the right things but were not even considered when ax came down and jobs were cut? I know it bothered some people but too many just never really cared as long as it was not happening to them.

My brother got laid off a week before he passed away. He had a highly paid job in construction with a big, beautiful house and mortgage to pay. He had a massive heart attack less than a week after he lost his job.

There is a lot of suffering out there far beyond what the media reports on. It's almost as if the numbers they report about the unemployed never really make them think of the people who are the numbers, what stories they have and how much suffering they are going thru from financial stress to emotional stress. It would be great if they began to report on the people so that maybe, just maybe, some people in this country will understand people like and my brother didn't do anything wrong, did a good job, but ended up suffering all the same.

PS: If you know anyone in the Orlando area in need of Chaplain specializing in PTSD education, please let me know.

Senior Chaplain Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Woundedtimes.blogspot.com
"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation." - George Washington