The Lost Son Alive Again and Stranger Angels Among Us are PTSD books for all of us!
Hopelessness grew within me as I contacted more and more reporters to inform them regarding what they should have researched ahead of time, before they reported on any of the terrible events they covered. Yesterday was a prime example of this.
On July 4th, there was a mass shooting at a parade in Highland Park Illinois. They were just there to enjoy a parade to celebrate Independence Day. When they heard the gunfire, they didn’t suspect that was what it was. They thought it was firecrackers. Six people were killed and thirty-five wounded within minutes. Most of the people in the crowd ran, not knowing where the shooter was. As always, some ran to help the wounded. One person caused the harm but he was outnumbered by good people risking their lives to help others.
That is how trauma strikes. It doesn’t matter if it is during a war, or any other event. That moment lingers for the rest of their lives. More so, it becomes reality for the rest of us because as a lot of people said, “no place is safe now.” That thought spreads out.
That was proven in New York and San Francisco. It happened in Florida too.
ORLANDO, Fla. – A scare prompted by apparent firecrackers thrown into the crowd celebrating the Fourth of July at the Fireworks at the Fountain at Lake Eola in Orlando caused parkgoers to panic and run, with some jumping into the water to seek shelter.
Orlando police said about 12 people were injured while running from the scare, which happened shortly after the fireworks began around 9:45 p.m. Monday.
Click Orlando
As more incidencese of mass murder strike where we least expect them, all places become a place to fear them.
Reporters will continue to focus on veterans when they are assigned to report on PTSD and suicides, because that is all they know. Some will report on police officers and fewer will report on firefighters, unless they commit suicide and then, well, that becomes a major news story. Reporters don’t focus on preventing that outcome, which would be a lot more helpful. What about people like the parade attendees? Who tells their story? Who tells the story about survivors of any of the mass shootings?
Who tells the story of a neighbor that is not a veteran, but endures the daily battle with PTSD from other events, also terrified of the sound of fireworks while they “enjoy” their “celebration” firing off hundreds of explosives because they are fun?
Who tells the story of people that also survived shootings, abuse, crimes, accidents, domestic violence, sexual assaults and even caused by living with someone with PTSD?
That’s why I wrote The Lost Son Series! These books are for all of us with PTSD so that we can see ourselves in the characters and someone will know the stories we live with. Above all, they are also written so we can find hope again that our lives can be better than they are.
While the books are fictional, and should be considered Christian Suspense, the problem is, the 1st Edition of these books “offended” some people. Considering they were written for the majority of the people I helped over the last forty years, that believe in God but felt church had no place for them and they were pushed away, I wrote them for them. Offending them, yet needing to provide the validity of spiritual healing, caused a great dilemma for me. So I rewrote them.
We have to admit that while the majority of Christians and other faiths are wonderful people, the only ones getting attention are not loving people, ranting and raving about what they believe, demanding what they believe is forced onto others, I had no choice but to move the Bible passages and bury them within the story.
June was PTSD Awareness Month, yet while the National Center For PTSD has been addressing it in all of us, reporters failed to learn the rest of us are included in on what they are focusing on.
Help Raise PTSD Awareness
There are currently about 8 million people in the United States with PTSD.
Even though PTSD treatments work, most people who have PTSD don’t get the help they need. June is PTSD Awareness Month. Help us spread the word that effective PTSD treatments are available. Everyone with PTSD—whether they are Veterans or civilian survivors of sexual assault, serious accidents, natural disasters, or other traumatic events—needs to know that treatments really do work and can lead to a better quality of life.
Can the characters reflect real life and PTSD? Absolutely! These are some of the characters in these books along with news reports I found to support that simple fact.
Chris, war reporter and male domestic violence survivor with PTSD.
Journalists do not just walk away from the stories they cover.
Photo and print journalists report on a variety of topics, from routine domestic issues to unforeseen, highly disturbing events, such as car accidents, homicide, natural disaster, famine, and war. As a result, some journalists find themselves in situations in which their lives are threatened and they are witness to significant human suffering.
National Center for PTSD
And on male PTSD from domestic violence,
The present study investigates the associations among sustaining IPV and PTSD among both a clinical and community sample of men. The clinical sample is comprised of 302 men who sustained IT from their female partners and sought help. The community sample is comprised of 520 men, 16% of whom sustained CCV. Analyses showed that in both samples, the associations between sustaining several types of IPV and PTSD were significant, and that men who sustained IT were at exponentially increased risk of exceeding the clinical cut-off on the PTSD measure than men who sustained CCV or no violence. The path models predicting PTSD symptoms differed for both samples, indicating that perhaps treatment implications differ by group as well.
National Institute of Mental Health
Bill and David, PTSD from 5 deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq as soldiers. We’ve read enough stories about veterans and PTSD, so you will see their stories tell the story of far too many veterans. Oh, and there is another veteran from Vietnam in the main characters,
A female ex-police officer with PTSD after Pulse Nightclub massacre.
Five First Responders to the Pulse Massacre. One Diagnosis: PTSD.
“My head’s still not right,” said one paramedic who responded to the Pulse nightclub shooting two years ago. He and some other responders say their departments haven’t given them the help they need.
On the morning of June 12, 2016, police officer Omar Delgado pulled his cruiser up to his two-story townhome in Sanford, Florida, and sat in silence for 15 minutes, trying to process what he had seen during 3 1/2 hours inside the Pulse nightclub.
He stripped his bloody uniform and gear off, put them in a trash bag, and took a shower. Then, he shut the door to his bedroom, locked it and tried to sleep.
Ed, a retired pastor with PTSD.
Pastors and PTSD
One category that never makes the list of at-risk professions is Religious Leaders. According to a current cross-denominational study being done at the Danielsen Institute at Boston University, 55 percent of clergy had scores that indicated PTSD may be a concern, and almost 35 percent met the criteria for a probable PTSD diagnosis. If these numbers were added to the list above, Pastors would have the highest risk of developing posttraumatic stress among all the listed professions.
The rest of the characters are survivors of child abuse, bullies, attempted murder and one of my favorite characters, Drake, an ex-female wrestler with PTSD from her last fight when her opponent died. She had double survivor guilt as well as surviving an attempted suicide.
The stories are not random or unknown but none of them were doing well on their own. They discovered how much power they did have once someone helped them heal and how that power grew when they helped others!
Want to find hope again? Want to know God didn’t do it to you? Want to know that you are not stuck suffering as a survivor? Want to know you are not alone? Then read these books! I have them priced to be read and not to make money off them.
Both books are also on Google Play for audio incase you don’t like to read.
