I have found many more cases of PTSD with students that are returning war veterans now then in past years. They tend to be on edge, jumpy or nervous. Often times they feel depressed and that they are wasting their time in class. I had one such student who was feeling very stressed, anxious, and very scared. This was a very large man who had been a solider. He was embarrassed that the crowd in the school could see him this way, which made matters worse. The technique I used to calm him down and get him back into class was to get him talking about something that he loved or had passion about. He started talking about his son, and then that led into a discussion on his plan to open a restaurant. I asked him to write the menu for a restaurant that he would like to open. He calmed significantly and was able to rejoin the class. In all this took about ten minutes. The class was on break, so he didn't miss any lecture, and it really didn't take my focus away from the rest of the class. Now when he feels as if a panic attack is coming he quietly pulls out his notebook and works on his menu or other project to calm himself down. He has changed his behavior completely and hasn't had an episode since that day. I feel that as teachers it is our responsibility to understand that PTSD is a very real problem for these vets, and that we can help them and not lose them. It just takes a few minutes to talk to them and get to understand where they are coming from, and you might help change their life.