The Path

The year is 2007 and Im just now completing the writing of this book, which I began during the spring of 1999. I can be a procrastinator, but there were also other reasons for taking so long. My father past away in 2000 and this had a profound affect my disorder and eventually I ended up in a VA Hospital in Kansas for about six months.

From what I understand, my manic episodes were much like those of others, except that one psychiatrist has told me that mine were mostly in a manic state. Please understand that anyone with this disorder will also experience periods of depression and I most certainly have done that. I would gradually find myself going into a euphoric state of mind, which was a great high at first.

I would suffer my first manic episode during my first tour of duty in Vietnam while serving with the 173d (Abn) BDE. I was diagnosed with having Battle fatigue. Little was known about Manic Depression in 1967 or at least in Vietnam. I was so ashamed of myself for allowing this to happen to me, that I would volunteer two more times to go back to Vietnam. I felt I needed to prove myself to be brave.

I would not have another episode for sixteen years, but Im confident that as I look back to some of the bazaar behavior pattern demonstrated throughout the years both in Vietnam and also during the years leading up to my retirement from the Army, I have had minor type episodes.