Last week I couldn't even spell PTSD Sufferer, this week I are one!! Hi, I just found this site, if I fit in anywhere, I figure this is the place. 25 months in Vietnam gave me two gifts, PTSD and as of August, 2006, prostate cancer associated with agent orange exposure(they never said, "don't bathe in the bomb crators"). I did a three month tour of an inpatient PTSD Program in Phoenix, AZ and 11 years in a PTSD Combat Support Group. I finally got therapied out or maybe my depression won out, I don't know. It took me many years to realize that the way I felt and reacted to things wasn't the normal way for someone to be. Then I had to get the courage to get help because the post-war VA system told all of us that we didn't deserve help. Luckily, I found the best Vet Center in the system(my opinion) the Phoenix Vet Center. My gift to that group was humour, I brought it and it first pissed everybody off, then it started helping the other guys. I taught them to laugh at themselves, where most of them had been down for so long that they had forgotten how to see the humour in some of PTSD's symptoms, like hiding in the bushes being hyper-vigilant. Sorta sounds kinky, doesn't it? Well, there's my introduction, if I don't fit in, I'll head on back to the bushes:drugs:

Welcome, hippy
Your Humour is grerat I love it we tend to develop dark humour so bring it on and welcome hope you find Peace her plus many other Ex-military folks to chat with , this place is great just give it time i found

Hi WH - welcome. I'd say you're now part of the family.

Take a seat and chill a while.

Welcome hippy!

Humor is always needed and appreciated. I think you'll fit in fine.

1%WarHippy,
Funny name and welcome. Glad you found our site. Come out of the bushes and give us some of your humor. Hey hiding in the bushes sounds like a good coping tool to me.
See ya 'round
Patty

Hiya Warhippie and welcome.

The name jumped out at me as soon as I saw it and I thought of Micheal Herrs Dispatches. A book I read and rearead. I endeavoured to be a hippie here in the UK in the 70s but my favorite reading was about war, when I aught to have been readin peace. I was blown away with the idea of these guys going into firefights with Hendrix :music: / :music: Stones blazin away. Peace always seemed too ****in dull for me. I loaded up on drugs and headed for the hills and extreme fantasizn. Said life style bought me close to dangerous people and put me in mortal danger many times. I gave up 20 years ago and sought help and psych said I was manic depressive which seemed a meaningless term to me really. I tried a few of his remedies but I find cannabis eases me out best with no distressin side effects. I found this site recently and I now reckon they misdiagnosed me first time around for sure.

Anyways good luck with it

hey warhippie,
I was wondering when I was going to find a vietnam vet in this forum! Nice to meet you here...I imagine it's been quite a long road for you.

Thank you all for the warm welcome. But, PULEEEZE spell my nickname correctly. I know, that seems like a petty complaint on my part but I have my reasons. I got my nickname because I grew up in California in the sixties and generally lived the hippie lifestyle. But, that spelling describes a pacifist, and I never learned how to turn the other cheek, in fact just the opposite, and when I volunteered for Vietnam and arrived at my company, and they found out I was from California, I was christened with my nickname with a "y" and "War" on the beginning to differentiate me from the stereotype of a pacifist, and then they promptly beat me til I couldn't get up anymore to welcome me to Combat 101, Vietnam style. Then, they passed the ganja:drugs: my way and I had arrived, stoned and horny and ready to relieve John Wayne on the front.:die:Thank you for reading my story, and "YES", it has been a LONG road, and the hardest part of it has been fighting the effects of PTSD. When I stopped trying to rid myself of it and accepted it as a part of my character and made allowances for it, it has become almost manageable. PTSD was a mechanism that my mind created in an effort to keep my sanity when it was faced with an insanity that it didn't have any other way to deal with. Today, I look at it as a strength that has helped me survive quite a few brushes with death.

Hi warhippy, welcome to the forum.

understood, I love attics and tree tops, have a good one
White Wolf