Cjax

hi all! my husband has been out for about 6 1/2 years now and until recently i have stayed pretty much on the sidelines of his treatment. after another suicide scare last month, i've gotten more "involved" in what's going on and have had two of his counselors ask why he hasn't been seen for a possible tbi. he tells me that when he got out, he did the testing for it but that they wanted to inject radioactive dye in his system and it freaked him out so he just never showed for the appointment. my questions are, after almost 7 years should he bother with trying to get it diagnosed? what does it involve? i'd hate to mess with his benefits because it always sends him into a downward ptsd spiral if there's no point after waiting so long anyway. on the other hand, i wonder if it ties the hands of his counselors and doctors if he is never officially diagnosed. thank you so much for any help!

Thank you; that does help. He had been going to treatment pretty regularly for a long while, but stopped regular treatment about a year ago. He originally thought things would get better if he just followed through with treatment but got frustrated when all his therapist could offer him was a referral for drugs. His first eval was about 2 hours... 20 minutes is normal? I can't believe they could evaluate someone so quickly and with so few questions. Where do we find the notes? Thanks again. He's got 60% for facial scarring, hearing loss, and a messed up knee so the ptsd diagnosis isn't the bulk of his payments anyway. However, if he gets 100% and can't work, I don't see him engaging with the world ever.

I'm posting this for my husband. He was given 50% ptsd disability in 2008. After 6 years of not hearing anything from the va, he got a letter last month that he was being re-evaluated. He went to the appointment and it consisted of 17 questions and lasted less than 20 minutes. It was then punctuated with a lovely same day referral to the psych department. The doctor told him it was for an increase, but he's so on edge about why they would volunteer to increase it. Is this normal? I can't imagine an assessment taking less than 20 minutes... What was the purpose? Is this normal behavior? He didn't put in for an increase, so where would that have come from? We're just so confused, and he's so on edge right because of it that it would be nice to have some answers, even if they're only anecdotal.