Coming Out of The Dark of PTSD Raised Awareness in 2006

If you hate it when I rant then you'll really hate this one. All the talk about raising awareness raises my blood pressure because for all the talk, there is far too little mentioned about how long ago all of this started. Really infuriating when I was part of the beginning of it.

'Out of the Darkness' walkers raise awareness for suicide prevention
Herald Mail Media
CJ Lovelace
September 26, 2015

"Through its growth, we've been able to spread awareness," she said. "We've been able to help the grieving and their process of grieving. We've been able to help our community."

A parade of walkers 800 strong made its way through Hagerstown on Saturday morning, spreading a message of support and awareness for suicide prevention.

Organizers of Hagerstown's Out of the Darkness Walk, now in its third year, said they hoped to raise $80,000 through this year's event.

By Saturday, more than $50,000 had been donated to the cause, helping to fund educational opportunities for the community, research, and assist those in need of mental-health or substance-abuse-related services.

"It's a walk for mental health and suicide awareness, … to break the stigma for mental illness, just bring the recognition to the cause in our community," said Julie Matheny, co-chairwoman of the walk and chairwoman of Maryland's branch of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention.

Led by a police escort in several sections of the city, walkers marched out of City Park about 10 a.m. and went south along Virginia Avenue, before cutting across Howard Street and onto Summit Avenue heading north.
read more here

Why not use coming out of the dark since it is what worked back in 2006 when I created this video? "Coming Out of the Dark." It went up on YouTube when they were not blocking music. The counts were well over thousands back then because no one else was doing them.  This year I started to put them back up on YouTube.

Coming Out of The Dark of PTSD
4 min - Aug 31, 2006
of PTSD...PTSD is caused by an outside force. You did not cause it but only you can heal it. You did not fight alone then http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7061437177250215004

Wounded Minds PTSD and Veterans
27 min - Mar 14, 2006
and Veterans...Veterans and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The effects on veterans as well as their families. From Vietnam, to the Gulf War, to http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3279156366519397686

Hero After War Combat Vets and PTSD
8 min - Nov 27, 2006
and PTSD...PTSD is coming out in Vietnam veterans although they thought they recovered. The events in the two occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan have brought old http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2199741453313873966

Death Because They Served PTSD Suicides
21 min - Apr 25, 2007
. Here are over one hundred of them. How many more will it take before we take care of the troops we sent into combat?...Kathie http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4064359324485965426

When War Comes Home PTSD
5 min - Sep 5, 2006
Did they? Their battle may be over but your's has begun. Learn the signs of PTSD and know when you need to help them....Kathie http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-6897079942240223839

PTSD After Trauma
5 min - Sep 1, 2006
After Trauma...PTSD is caused by trauma. From war, acts of nature or acts of man. It is time to end the silence. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-85078005610207216

PTSD Soldiers Wounded And Waiting
12 min - Aug 24, 2007
And Waiting...The men and women we send into combat are wounded and waiting. Why? Why do they have to wait to have their wounds treated http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6001704134622986751

When War Comes Home Part Two
7 min - Nov 21, 2007
Part Two...Afghanistan and Iraq produce more wounded and more with PTSD from the USA and all Coalition forces. No nation is taking care of any of http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7329173913049044718

Nam Nights Of PTSD Still
9 min - Nov 17, 2007
PTSD Still...Vietnam Vets are being pushed to the back of the line with the new veterans needing so much help. We need to help all of http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3981582536481542706

Homeless_Veterans_Day.wmv
4 min - Oct 10, 2007
.wmv...We give veterans one day a year of "honor" but they are veterans everyday of the year. We forget that for too many http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6584586264840240021

The old links won't work but you can find most of them from my YouTube Channel. There are more but you get the idea. All this has been going on for far too long to end up leaving more committing suicide instead of actually coming out of the dark of PTSD.

A year after the video came out, it was used in an article from the Virginia Pilot.

Out of the Darkness: Suicide and the military
By JOANNE KIMBERLIN, The Virginian-Pilot
© July 8, 2007

They're young - an average of just 19 - and far from home. They train for a deadly task in a gut-it-out culture. And then, they go to war.

No wonder suicide has long plagued the military.

From 2001 to 2006, according to the Department of Defense, 1,110 active duty and reserve servicemen and women took their own lives. The largest number were Army (454), followed by Air Force (249), Navy (244) and Marines (163). One hundred and twenty have committed suicide while serving in the Iraq war.

As bad as that sounds, it 's a lot better than it used to be. A decade ago, the military wide rate hovered around 17.3 per 100,000 people. Today, it's down to 11.2 - not much higher than the civilian rate of 10.9.

The turning point came in 1996 when Adm. Jeremy Boorda, the nation's top Navy officer, shot himself after questions arose over one of his Vietnam combat medals.

"That really got everyone's attention," said Cmdr. Anthony Doran, who heads the Navy's effort to curb suicide.

The thing is, for all this awareness raising and all these news reports, and all these groups taking walks to raise awareness,,,,,,too much has not been learned in the process and it has all gotten worse!

July 7, 2010

Twilight of Glory
The things I’ve seen and done would boggle your mind.
I’ve seen the death and destruction created by mankind
in the living hell that I walked away from but could not leave behind.
It all comes back to haunt me now and makes peace impossible to find.
The ghosts of the past that find me in the night
make me wonder if my life will ever be right.
I have tried to forget what I have done,
and now there is no place left to run.
All this in the name of glory!
There is no end to this horror story.
It still does not make sense even now that I am older,
why, when I was so young they made me a soldier
and why I had to be a part of that war
when I didn’t even know what we were there for.
At eighteen I should have been with my friends having fun
not patrolling through a jungle with a machine gun.
I did my part just the same, just for my country
and stood helplessly watching my friends die all around me.
I felt a surge of hate engulf my soul for people that I did not know
and saw children lose their chance to grow.
All this in the name of glory!
There is still no end to this horror story.
There was no glory for guys like me
only bitter memories that will not set me free.
I can never forget the ones who never made it home
some of them dead and others whose fate is still unknown
and the stigma that we lost what was not meant to win
most of us carry that extra burden buried deep within. All this in the name of glory!
Will there ever be an end to this horror story?
In the twilight of glory
there is an unwritten story
each warrior keeps within.
Going back from the wars we are sent to fight
like going from sunshine to the darkness of night
we fade away from the public's mind
and wonder when glory was left behind
as we struggle to find reason to go on
back in a world where we no longer belong.


revised from IN THE NAME OF GLORY
@1984 Kathie Costos
I signed the poem W.T. Manteiv for We Trusted and Vietnam backwards.

It has always been their words reflecting the pain they carry inside of them. All I do is arrange the words to give that pain a voice and then help them connect what is already inside of them so they can heal. Now maybe you know why I get so upset when I read how it is almost as if no one had done anything before new folks decided to do "something" along with getting donations. I haven't had a single donation in over a year but that hasn't stopped me from doing the work.

Yesterday I was talking to a good friend and I told him this may be the last year for Wounded Times since I just can't compete with all the new groups popping up all over the place and not doing much at all. He reminded me, as usual, why I do what I do. It is for them and for families just like mine. I've been doing this for over 30 years, so I've seen what is possible but have also seen what is probable if we keep going in the direction we've been in for the last decade. It is not a happy ending.