"Public Safety Serving Our Community Through Training, Tactics & Education"

All Blog Posts (560)

THE GIFT OF FEAR

A couple of months ago I decided to launch a book club for survivors wanting to take control of the PTSD recovery process. I figured, we all spend so much time reading and educating ourselves, might as well do it together!

For our first meeting we read THE BETRAYAL BOND, by Patrick J. Carnes, Ph.D. The book was very enlightening about how exploitive relationships can create trauma bonds -- chains of trust that link you to someone who is dangerous, abusive and toxic.

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Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 29, 2010 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Trauma and Addiction

Those struggling with PTSD often (although not always) also find themselves struggling with addictive behaviors. My own PTSD symptoms and journey involved an addiction to an eating disorder — for 20 years! I know how tough it can be to recognize, admit and change destructive addictive behaviors.

HOWEVER, when we do educate ourselves and allow ourselves to see the truth, we can finally reach the beginning of a new phase of healing. Last year Paul Radkowski wrote a great piece ab

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Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 26, 2010 at 12:59pm — No Comments

Keep Your Cool in Hot Weather

Getting too hot can make you sick. You can become ill from the heat if your body can't compensate for it and properly cool you off. Heat exposure can even kill you: it caused 8,015 deaths in the United States from 1979 to 2003.

These are… Continue

Added by FyreWebmaster on July 25, 2010 at 3:30pm — 1 Comment

PTSD U is now officially open!

Sometimes I wish someone would found PTSD U – a university for the study of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms, causes, effects, treatments and everyting in between!

PTSD is so vast and diverse in the population it would take the equivalent of studying for a degree to learn about the biomolecular, anthropological, civic, statistical, psychological, physiological, historical, international, social, literary and educational aspects of it. Right there you’ve got an entirely well

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Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 22, 2010 at 5:00pm — 2 Comments

The Value of PTSD Education

I think one of the top PTSD healing resolutions is: I WILL EDUCATE MYSELF. With that in mind, the next several posts will be about learning an enormous amount about PTSD.

When I first discovered there was a name for the condition in which I lived, I balked. I didn’t want to be labeled with a ‘disorder’. It never occurred to me that I had been ‘traumatized’, so I didn’t think I could be ‘post-traumatic’ anything.

I didn’t want to have something t

… Continue

Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 19, 2010 at 3:00pm — No Comments

The Importance of PTSD Education

Since education is an aspect of healing PTSD that I deeply believe in – the education of ourselves and of those living with, caring about and for us - I’m going to tackle it here for a while.

Starting with the category of “Ooh, if only I knew then what I know now!” Or, “Why didn’t anyone ever mention that?” I offer the following story:

My trauma occurred as the result of a medical mistake and the ensuing freak allergic reaction I had to a medication. After ten years

… Continue

Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 15, 2010 at 3:01pm — No Comments

Value of a Volunteer.

I know many fire depts, medical services and even policing services would be lost without volunteers. But, there are many organizations that need volunteers and even every day issues are often resolved with volunteers. The number one reason I think many volunteers stop volunteering is being under thanked, under appreciated and not valued for what they are worth. Many dollars are saved from people helping, many functions exist for many who need from… Continue

Added by Helen (Firebug) on July 14, 2010 at 3:14pm — 1 Comment

How to educate family & friends about PTSD

Hello, my USFRA friends!

Talking about PTSD symptoms and educating those around you about what it means can be tough!!! But there are things to do to make it easier.

Last week I hosted a free 'Making the Shift' monthly teleseminar that was packed with ideas for how you can bring your loved ones up to speed about PTSD. Topics covered included,

… Continue

Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 12, 2010 at 11:31am — No Comments

Educating Family & Friends: FREE Teleseminar!

For all of you who are struggling to figure out who and how and when and where and what to tell those around you about PTSD, tonight's free teleseminar is just for you!

Educating Family & Friends About PTSD

How do you decide who to talk to about your PTSD? And what do you tell them? When do you explain to friends and family how PTSD works and your experience of it?

… Continue

Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 8, 2010 at 2:27pm — No Comments

The Universality of PTSD

Since I began organizing the survivor community, reaching out, interacting and coaching I’ve learned something very interesting about PTSD. It is, actually, something that really shocked me to discover:

PTSD is an equal opportunity invader.

In all sectors of society our traumas are individual, but the more I talk to and hear from people of all backgrounds, the more I’ve realized how united we all are, despite country, culture, age, race, social orie

… Continue

Added by Michele Rosenthal on July 6, 2010 at 4:30pm — 2 Comments

Case Law

Does anyone have or know of any place where I could find some case law pertaining to fire departments or firefighters getting involved in a lawsuit for being gross neglect or that was free-lancing and someone got hurt and filed a lawsuit? The reason I as asking is so that I could inform some fire departments that are responding to calls just because they have heard it on the scanner or their radio and they are responding without being toned out or paged out. The management seems to think that

… Continue

Added by l jackson on June 26, 2010 at 7:09pm — 1 Comment

Central Minnesota town of Wadena hit by an F4 Tornado

On June 17, 2010 at aproximately 17:10 CST an F4 tornado ripped through the town of Wadena, MN. Devastating the entire west side, detroying over 200 homes and injuring 30+ people. Fortunately no one was killed.

I had actually just droped my wife off at work, for her shift when I heard the call over my ham radio that spotters noticed a tornado just south of town. I pulled over and watched it as it ripped the town I know in half. Got pictures of the town shortly afterwards on my

… Continue

Added by Rev. Matthew Lwarence Koscielski on June 24, 2010 at 8:30pm — 2 Comments

Isolated tar balls reported on west end beaches

Cleanup crews were out Saturday morning as a second wave of tar balls washed ashore.

Crews early Saturday cleaned up around Carillon, Hollywood and Sunnyside beaches on the west end of Panama City Beach. No reports of tar balls have been reported within the city limit… Continue

Added by FyreWebmaster on June 19, 2010 at 1:51pm — 2 Comments

PTSD and the Power of Joy, Part 2

Continued from my previous post…

This joy, of being with my brother (one of my favorite people in the world), of seeing one of my favorite bands, of being surrounded by this mass of humanity all of whom was feeling the same excitement I did, was evolutionary. It reconnected me to a pleasurable side of myself, and also, to the world at large. For an evening, it bridged the gap between me and the rest

… Continue

Added by Michele Rosenthal on June 11, 2010 at 7:25pm — No Comments

Full-Time Fire Departments

Does a Full-Time Fire Department required to have some sort of (standard operating procedures) or SOG's? even if they are only on duty from 9 to 5. Is there some type of law that requires this, either insurance, or NFPA, or maybe a state law?

Continue

Added by l jackson on June 11, 2010 at 3:02pm — 2 Comments

PTSD and the Power of Joy, Part 1

I’ll give you an example in my own life about how joy helped me get out of my PTSD head for a little while (doing this, by the way, reenergizes you to do more healing work!):

For many years I lived in New York City, that thriving metropolis that teems with life and crowds. And although I was often out and about in it,

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Added by Michele Rosenthal on June 7, 2010 at 7:46pm — No Comments

Reservist Fire Fighters

Establishing a more effective Service Model to

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Added by Rick Franks on June 7, 2010 at 12:08pm — No Comments

The role of joy in healing trauma

There I was, about to turn 40 and the thought of living the second half of my life unhinged by what happened before my life had even really begun was more depressing than the depression in which I generally lived. So, I decided to finally haul myself out it: I decided to pursue joy. I decided to dance at least once a week because I knew that when I danced I felt free of myself while I was

… Continue

Added by Michele Rosenthal on June 3, 2010 at 7:39pm — No Comments

volunteer firefighter

I have a question for someone who can answer this. Ok on the the first of this month a MVC occurred within our city limits. One of our Lt.'s was a witness to this accident, he requested EMS, and Law enforcement. the accident was a motorcycle vs. car with only one person injured (the motorcycle operator). Our fire department is a combination of paid/volunteer. There was 2 full time firefighters heard the radio traffic and responsed to the scene code 3. Fire Department or extrication were never re… Continue

Added by l jackson on June 3, 2010 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Firefighters protest proposed cuts

Motorists traveling through downtown Fort Walton Beach mid-day Monday were greeted by firefighters waving posters at a corner often occupied by panhandlers.

The firefighters were at the corner of Perry Avenue and U.S. Highway 98 to alert the public to budget cuts proposed by the city of Fort Walton Beach.

The City Council is holding a special meeting on the budget today at 5 p.m.

Among the proposed cuts is the elimination of three battalion chief positions from t… Continue

Added by FyreWebmaster on May 31, 2010 at 9:40pm — No Comments

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