john999

Listen to what Sharon has told you. Get the TDIU form and submit it. If you are on SSDI solely for SC conditions that is enough for TDIU. If the VA balks hire a VA lawyer.

If you are on SSDI you should apply for TDIU.

This would be a good claim for the lawyers since there is much potential retro. From what you are saying there may be a chance that this 1994 claim is still open if you never got the SSOC.

I think you are going to get TDIU because you are already 80%. Do you get SSD? If you have proof that you are unemployable and with an 80% rating that does put you right in the TDIU ball park.

You are a little mixed up. TDIU and IU are the same thing. There is no schedular TDIU. There is extra-schedular TDIU where you don't meet required percentage but you are unemployable due to your SC condition. You may run into some trouble since none of your SC'es are 40% or more. Do you have medical evidence that you are unemployable?

What is your stressor?

With new regs the VA has to be the one to DX your PTSD. I would wait and use the IMO to bolster up the percentage after I got SC'ed for PTSD. This is not the way it used to be but it is now as far as I know. The VA has their own check list when they do your C&P exam. What you need from the VA is a PTSD diagnosis and nexus. What is your PTSD claim based on since this will tell us how easy your nexus will be?

If unemployment is at 9% in September 2012 I don't think Obama will be around in 2013 to make good on his promise to us vets. Budget hawks will be helping us to stand on our own feet even if we don't have any feet. This is just reality. Old right wingers from American Legion may not like Obama but they don't represent average vet either.

You don't want the VA to believe you are an anti-social personality disorder because they don't compensate that problem. From reading your posts I don't think you will have that problem. Try and stay out of trouble because you won't get compensation if you are in prison. What kinds of meds are you on now? Does the VA know that you believe you are being groomed to be a CIA assassin? I would be sure they know about this. It might help you get the urgent care you need. I don't think you are a psychopath.

Did they tell you that SSRI's have the unfortunate side effect in both men and woman of sexual dysfunction? It is a very common side effect.

There is not much you can say about Obama's speech that is not political.

Reading some of my comments over the years I am surprised I have not been visited by government paid Ninja.

Well, the rule says total plus 60%. I would try and get the other problems SC'ed. Borderline DMII is DMII. If you have one fasting glucose abover 124 that is strong evidence of DMII.

Ask a private doctor about agent orange and you will get the same eye roll. If you tell them that AO may have caused your DMII or heart problems they will just sort of smirk. They don't know anything about it. Most Vietnam era vets don't know anything either. This is due to total failure of outreach to Vietnam era vets and no outreach to medical community outside the VA. Most VA doctors don't know anything about AO.

Retired The VA does screen for depression on occasion. Why don't you google depresssion and study the symptoms so you can recognize what they are besides being suicidal. There are subtle symptoms of depression. Your nurse or PCP may be too dumb to recognize them.

You might want to get an independent medical opinion that says your PTSD is worse than 40% now that you have been rated by the VA. Keep going for your appointments and keep taking your meds. Get all the treatment you can from the VA because this is the kind of documentation you want. You want to build a mountain of evidence that your PTSD is a very serious matter. I am not telling you to lie or be untruthfull. I am telling you to gather as much evidence as you can. The VA feeds on paperwork documentation.

VA is way to cheap to invest money in making sure you get your rating. Are you suing anyone or being sued?

As long as you are not 100% it would not affect your work at the VA. I did not think that ex-wives could make a claim on disability pay.

One year is light speed for the VA. You know 40% is what the VA pays for an eye or a foot. Do you think your eye or foot is worth $541?

This is the VA's way of telling you they just don't want to hear from you. I noticed the same thing a few months back at my VARO. I have no reason to call the 800 number these days, but I did call them about a claim I had about a year ago and they had changed it then for us.

We should all call and write our congressmen to let them know cuts to vet benefits will cost them our votes. This is all they understand (the other thing is cash).

If the VA says that the reason you are unemployable is due to a personality disorder you won't get TDIU. I think you did OK at the C&P since you did not fall for the fishing trip the VA likes to take vets on back to before service and into childhood problems, drug addiction, etc. A sociopath is a type of personality disorder where the main problem is an inability to live life according to society rules and laws. If a person is suffering from paranoid schizophrenia it can appear that they have a PD when they are just reacting to hallucinations and delusions. There used to be a DX called pseudopsychopathic schizophrenia which meant that the person appeared to have an anti-social personality but was really schizophrenic instead. This sounds like you. Delusions and hallucinations can cause people to do pretty bad stuff, and get you locked up for a long time. That is why it is so important to stay on your meds. I think you will be OK. What makes you the most paranoid?

Pete992 The VA is looking for health care professionals, but most doctor's don't want to work for them given the limitations placed on them. The VA is the elephant graveyard for medical professionals.

What about remands from the court of vet appeals? How long? I have already waited almost 6 years from start to the remand.

You might not get a job with the VA even if you are very qualified and a disabled vet. I tried to get a job as a VA couselor. I was a disabled vet with a degree. I got an interview, but someone's girl friend or buddy got the job as I found out later when I actually got a low level job at the VA. Most jobs are already filled when they advertise. They just have to pretend to open them to the public. I must have tried for 50 jobs at the VA as an employee. I always got an answer "qualified but not selected".