Civilians with PTSD SOS call to veterans!

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
March 24, 2023

(From The Scribe Of Salem) Bill Gibson, a veteran of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars struggled to heal. His best friend, David MacDonald, a veteran of both wars, struggled to heal. Chris Papadopoulos was just a war reporter and decided to stop struggling, stop trying, and stopped hoping that any day would ever be better than the last worst day he planned on walking up from.

David was saved by a civilian with #PTSD. She ended up saving Bill and the others they served with. They encouraged Chris to meet her so she could save him too. They had no idea he would end up saving millions around the world.

Civilians with PTSD have issued an SOS call to veterans, but they haven't heard it.

This SOS call is not to Save Our Ships but to Save Our Survivors! We need you to be our battle shield in our fight to find peace too!

That was how The Scribe Of Salem began. That was the most important message I had to give. It has been so important that I decided over 40 years to try to deliver it. By the reviews on Readers' Favorite, it looks like I managed to begin to do it.

I am confident I can speak for all survivors of trauma that we need help to heal, just like veterans do. Speaking for myself, I looked to veterans to find hope that I could heal too from the 10 events I survived. I bet you didn't know that when I helped you.

One veteran years ago challenged me. He was angry because I wasn't a veteran and couldn't understand what combat did to him. He was right. I couldn't. What I did understand was what surviving did to him, because I knew what it did to me. Not one to back down from a challenge, I ran down the things I endured. Then I said, "You didn't survive any of that, so I don't expect you to understand what it was like. Can you understand what all that did to me?" He was silent for a while then told me he could understand. He got the point as to how I understood veterans. The truth is, I didn't understand I had PTSD too.

I compared my traumas to what veterans faced over and over again. You are heroes to me and deserve all the help and encouragement I can give. Now I am asking you to train to heal yourself so you can hear the millions of others like me needing you to lead the way for us to heal too.

If you have PTSD, stop pretending you don't. You're sending a message to the rest of us that we should be ashamed if we have it from just one event. If someone as courageous as you, decided that life meant so much to you, that you were willing to die to save us, then fight to heal so you encourage us to do it too!

Who Develops PTSD?
Anyone can develop PTSD at any age. Some factors can increase the chance that someone will have PTSD, many of which are not under that person's control. For example, having a very intense or long-lasting traumatic event or getting injured during the event can make it more likely that a person will develop PTSD. PTSD is also more common after certain types of trauma, like combat and sexual assault.

Here are the best estimates for how common PTSD is in the U.S. adult population:
Most people who go through a traumatic event will not develop PTSD.
About 6 out of every 100 people (or 6% of the U.S. population) will have PTSD at some point in their lives. Many people who have PTSD will recover and no longer meet the diagnostic criteria for PTSD after treatment. So, this number counts people who have PTSD at any point in their life, even if their symptoms go away.
About 5 out of every 100 adults (or 5%) in the U.S. has PTSD in any given year. In 2020, about 13 million Americans had PTSD. Women are more likely to develop PTSD than men. About 8 of every 100 women (or 8%) and 4 of every 100 men (or 4%) will have PTSD at some point in their life. This is in part due to the types of traumatic events that women are more likely to experience—such as sexual assault—compared to men.
Veterans are more likely to have PTSD than civilians. Veterans who deployed to a war zone are also more likely to have PTSD than those who did not deploy. Learn more: How Common Is PTSD in Veterans?

But it isn't just adults looking for you to lead the way. It is kids too!

How I Knew I Had PTSD When you have PTSD, the world feels unsafe. You may have upsetting memories, feel on edge, or have trouble sleeping. You may also try to avoid things that remind you of your trauma—even things you used to enjoy.

The other thing The Scribe Of Salem showed is that spiritual healing is vital to increase recovery. No, I'm not talking about "religious" attendance but I am talking about the spiritual connection we have to others, and to the forgotten messages within the scriptures. If you have been told that faith depends on which church you belong to, then it's a good time to refresh the messages you won't hear in church. They are in this book too.

I hope that after you read it, you'll understand how much power you have, not just in your own life, but how much power you have to save our survivors like me too!