Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is what the VA calls what has happened to a lot of Vietnam Veterans.  But it is not only Vietnam Veterans but anyone who has gone off to war and seen things that are upsetting.  It happens when you witness the death of a family member in a car accident.  Rape victims also have had to deal with the trauma after the event.  It is a normal reaction to what you have experienced.  When a lot of Veterans came home in the early part of the war up until the mid-1990’s the VA did not understand what was happening which resulted in the Veterans going untreated and over 100,000 Vietnam Veterans committed suicide.   Finally, the research began to become known and the VA began to offer counselling and help to the Veterans dealing with trauma.  I went to the VA about a year after I came home from Vietnam but the VA did not know how to help me and sent me away.  I came back in the mid-1980’s and they did offer me classes about PTSD and to see someone in mental health for counseling.  It was not until I got a leg infection and was admitted to the Phoenix VA Hospital and while I was there the guy next to me died and I had a flash-back.  Mental Health came up to see me and made an appointment for me to get some help.  Every time I would go away after the VA told me nothing that they could do I medicated myself with alcohol and food.  I went from around 200 pounds to 425 pounds in about a 3-4 year period.  After I started classes with my psychologist and group I started learning what I could do to help myself and I was given medication that assisted me in staying calm, less anxious, and able to control my feelings and mood.  The VA finally approved my claim for PTSD some 32 years after coming home from Vietnam.  The VA has really grown in their knowledge of PTSD and providing proper help.  I was able to take what I learned and apply it to my life and I was to write a book about my own PTSD and the journey I traveled.