PTSD Patrol 2 years of giving the keys to hope

PTSD PATROL 2nd anniversary

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
April 23, 2019


Getting road hogs with high beams off the road, was behind the creation of PTSD Patrol two years ago. It is one of the reasons why this post is not going up on PTSD Patrol. Doom and gloom needs to be left off there.

A group of us like minded workers of the harvest were tired of other people taking the attention away from healing so they could keep talking about failing.

That is exactly what raising awareness that veterans are committing suicide is doing. Talking about what failed for more veterans than they can even imagine.

The proof was right before their eyes, but they did not bother to even look. They did not bother to read the report they found so important they began countless fundraisers after snagging a headline.

The report they claimed was so important stated clearly that it was limited data from just 21 states...worse than not even half, because the states that were not counted, were among the largest veteran populations.

California and Illinois passed legislation to track veterans committing suicide long after the report was issued. Arizona will start to do it. 

The followup report with "20 veterans a day" was almost as useless. While the VA stated it involved all 50 states, including statistics from the CDC, the CDC reported that it did not have total numbers from states like Texas and Florida. 

As for the VA itself, less than half of the veterans in this country have sought benefits from the VA. The VA and states do not count veterans without "honorable discharges" as veterans, leaving them out of reports.

Now that you have a better idea of what is not known, add in these parts;

➣The majority of known veterans committing suicide are over the age of 50.

➣The known number of veterans committing suicide was 20 a day back in 1999 with 5 million more veterans alive at the time.

➣The percentage of known suicides has risen, in the veterans population as well as those currently serving this country.

According to the Department of Defense there were 504 service members who committed suicide in 2017. As of the 3rd quarter of 2018, there were 375. The total report should have been released the beginning of April, but as of this morning, it has not been released.

Recent news reports have revealed an increase to a ten year high.

Raising awareness about a subject they know very little about, has become a business. People making a great living off veterans no longer wanting to live. Worse is, they seem to find it acceptable to be profitable while "having fun" at the same time.

Road hogs with their high beams on endanger those behind them by clogging up the way for others to pass them by. They blind those coming the opposite way. Collisions occur because they want all eyes on them instead of on what will get other drivers on the right road to be glad they survived what caused PTSD in the first place.

This is my 37th year on this road. I had to learn how to read the road maps to know the way out, just as I had to learn the rules of the road. Along the way I encountered those who were prepared to lead and those who just getting in the way.

All of this matters because it is my life. It is all personal to me and that is how I started out. I needed to know for the sake of my family. Once I learned, I knew there were even more just as lost as I was. That is why I share the knowledge gained the hard way.

Much like a moped is different from a Harley, that is the difference between raising suicide awareness and actually doing the work to prevent them from happening in the first place.

Lives can be changed when we, not only offer hope, but give them the keys to use it!

#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife