There Are Ways To Win Against PTSD

There Are Ways To Win Against PTSD
Combat PTSD Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 26, 2017

I don't get much downtime. Between working a full time job, doing this work full time, going to events, talking to veterans and writing part 2 of Residual War, it leaves very little time to just chill out. 

When it all gets to be too much, I take my tablet and go out on the pool deck to play some games. When I get tired of blowing up jewels in Jewel Quest, I tap onto Candy Crush. The monkilings drive me crazy! 

There are ways to defeat them and get them to do what you want them to do so you can move onto the next level. There are videos on how to defeat them. Learn how the monklings work, how these levels are laid out, and tips for beat monkling levels. 

When I've had enough of that, I move onto Solitaire. There are rules for that game too, and tricks you can use. If you play with the physical cards, you can cheat but if you play with the computer game, you can only use shortcuts to finish. If you can see what you can take, move around and manipulate, most of the time, you can win. Sometimes, now matter how much you know how the game works, the cards are just stacked against you, especially when an Ace is not showing. You have to give up and start a new game, or go get a margarita.

It is like that with everything. Sometimes we just can't seem to win. If you are trying to do anything alone, no one is able to teach you the rules of the game or how to win. The monkilings always win and the Aces remain hidden because you don't have someone to show you the way to win.

For young veterans, there is a desperate need to have someone show them the way out of the darkness that followed them home. They don't know what to do, how things work and face the world with everyone getting in their way instead of leading the way toward the next level. In this case, there are Aces hiding, waiting to be found but operating under the radar, doing the leading, as they have done since before most of the OEF and OIF veterans were even born.

We've been there all alone at some point in our lives trying to cope with our own lives. We've been there struggling to teach others the rules, even when it seemed as if everyone was just trying to get in the way with stunts and slogans. We've been walking beside veterans and families since 1984.

Point Man International Ministries started with veterans helping veterans and families being helped by other families. To tell the truth, as a spouse myself, I think we are the ones in need of being shown the way more. We're the ones they come home to.

Everything is easier when you know how stuff works and take the time to actually learn how to move from one level to the next one. 

My husband came home from Vietnam a decade before we met. Back then I felt alone and lost. I'd listen to friends complain about tiny little things, knowing they'd never believe what struggles were really like. I was trying to raise our daughter, work and take care of my husband. After all, back then, no civilians were talking about PTSD or raising awareness about what we were going through. No one had fundraisers of pulled publicity stunts to talk about our problems. We did it for ourselves and then we did if for the generations that we knew would come after us. 

In the process, we managed to even help the generation that was before us. None of this is new to the families they come home to. So why make it harder than it has to be? Why make life an endless battle you are fighting unarmed? Why make yourself miserable when you could be living a better life?

We've been married for over 3 decades now and I can tell you that the bad days don't have to stay that way. Feeling as if you are part of the problem is actually partly the truth. If you have not invested the time to learn what you are fighting against, then how do you expect to ever win? How do you move on from the level of misery to the level of healing and forgiving when you don't seek out those who have found the way to do it?

We have a job to do! They trained to be in the military. We need to train to be able to move them onto the next level of their lives as veterans. If you want to know how to do it, then check out the Home Fronts for you and Outposts for your veteran. Hotline: 1-800-877-VETS (8387)

What is behind you is never as strong as who is beside you!