Showing posts with label Nam Nights Of PTSD Still. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nam Nights Of PTSD Still. Show all posts

Friday, January 9, 2009

YouTube doesn't care about troops with PTSD

YouTube has been blocking my videos one by one for too long now. The latest one was Nam Nights of PTSD Still. I was going to wait until the end of the month to pull the videos but I'm totally fed up. My videos have been up on Google and YouTube for a couple of years now. Suddenly they are targeting my videos. They started with When War Comes Home Part Two, which has songs by Toby Keith. I complained and they allowed it but it was too late. Then one by one I get an email telling me that another video has been blocked but yet again they don't seem to care what these videos are or who they are for.

No matter how much I write or email or try to do anything else, nothing has reached as many veterans as these videos. What good would it do to spend hours searching for music to fit the message and spend more hours putting them together if they are not seen? I trusted YouTube to deliver these videos to help the troops and our veterans. Now they will be on my web site and blog but not linked to YouTube or Google. I'm pulling them all off. I really hope YouTube staff is happy with what they just did because a lot less veterans will be able to find these videos now. Let's face it. When it comes to videos YouTube and Google are the top places to find them. I do all of this for free but YouTube just doesn't care.

The videos will be on my web site at http://www.namguardianangel.com/, this blog and on http://www.greatamericans.com/. At least they appreciated the work done to help the veterans and the troops when they need all the help they can get.

Saturday, November 17, 2007

9,125 days of a war that came to me

Lately there have been more Vietnam veterans emailing. It's one of the reasons I did the new video Nam Nights Of PTSD Still. I think it's also why I'm feeling nostalgic. On December 6th, 1982 the Vietnam war came to me and changed my life forever. I was 23! Wow was I young back then. Now when I look in the mirror wondering where all these gray hairs came from I realize how much life we've been through together since the night I first looked into my husband's eyes.

9,125 days and nights of living with Vietnam. While not all of those days have been spent consumed by researching and reaching out, most of them were.

I met a woman at the VA clinic in Orlando. We were talking about what I do and she asked me if I was a psychologist. While I said politely "no" in my own head I was thinking "Hell no, I have experience!" While I give all the credit in the world to psychologist and psychiatrists, it is very hard for them to fully understand what this all is unless they live with everyday. It's one thing to hear stories of the lives of people and yet another to live the life. But they decided to do it for living. For the spouses of veterans with PTSD, it came to find them.

Jack had a hard time understanding why I do this in the beginning. Often now he still has a problem with it. I just have to keep reminding him that while we have everything he needs to stay stable and alive, well cared for as a matter of fact, there were years of fighting the government to make sure he got it. I learned too much about what veterans and their families have to go through to ever decide to become one the "I got mine screw you club" and go off on my merry way.

There are thousands of people all across this country just like me and they have been there for 30 years. They do it because this is all personal to them. The veterans are part of their own families. I do it for my husband, for love, knowing that every veteran who comes to me needing help, could have been him if we never met. I also know that had I not met him, I wouldn't have a clue what's going on.

9,125 days ago God put us together. Jack's one of the most gentlest men I even met in my life. There isn't anything he wouldn't do for someone else, but there is very little he would do for himself.

Wives and husbands of veterans take on a world they didn't ask for. Some can't find what they need within them to stay in the world of a veteran who has been wounded in their soul. I find no fault in them. We all do what we can do, what we are equipped to do. I was born with an extremely curious nature. I wanted to learn and understand all of this. Most of us do because we fell in love. Love does not end because someone becomes ill. The love maybe tested and tried but when knowledge provides the coping tools to get trough it all, it grows stronger.

I've been reading about the new generation of veterans coming back along with what is happening in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have to keep up with it all because this generation comes to this older woman. I cannot forget about the wives and husbands living with all of this right by their side or the parents, for a lot of them, veterans as well. I wonder what is the key to get all of them to fully understand what PTSD is? There are still Vietnam veterans not knowing what it is.

I think the best thing that can be done is for every family with the knowledge and experience in hand to reach out to all others they can find. Listen to people talking in the grocery store or at church. Listen to people talking at work. If you hear anything that rings a bell, quietly ask them and let them know you're there. Offer the tools that helped you. Direct them to sites on line, support groups, veterans groups or any of the hundreds of videos on line. We all know the psychologist and psychiatrists have their hands full. They can use all the help they can get and so can the veterans and their families. Remember how lost you felt in all of this and then think of what would have helped you. You can make a huge difference in the lives of someone else. If you don't want to do it for a stranger than do it for the one you love. After all, they had you!

Kathie Costos
Namguardianangel@aol.com
www.Namguardianangel.org
www.Namguardianangel.blogspot.com
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