usmc1962

http://benefits.va.gov/REPORTS/abr/ABR-Compensation-FY15-05092016.pdf

http://benefits.va.gov/REPORTS/abr/ABR-Compensation-FY15-05092016.pdf

All claims c!osed...50% PTSD. 20% PNES. 10% tinnitus. 10% idiopathic disequilibrium... 70% va math...no further exams scheduled...thanks to asknod and hadit
Semper fi

Never rule out a medical reason for night sweats. I confused them for years with a MH issue and discovered they were directly related to my Hepatitis C. Never diagnose yourself or have your friends do so. By the same token, never allow VA ''experts'' to do it. They discover what they want to...or don't.
I see folks regularly hereabouts in my neck of the woods who were Vietnam combat Vets. One, Butch, had a 60mm gook mortar hit his bunker. He's still picking SFWs out of his arms and legs. He almost lost an eye over it. He lost 3 or 4 buddies that night. If ever there was a poster boy for night sweats, it would be Butch. He has PTSD, of that there is no doubt, but he has no night sweats. He's just about beaten his wife silly innumerable times waking up in the throes of nightmares only he can imagine. He held a job about a year at a time and usually got fired. This went on until 2008 and he finally threw in the towel. Bent brain has many facets. For me, assuming I have it, it's the sound of a chopper flying over. I target shoot regularly to desensitize myself to the sound of gunfire. I moved to the country to reduce the number of people around me because crowds don't work for me. 
Vets do not realize they can be proactive to improve their mental lot. Medicating yourself silly is a band aid that covers up a major wound that will have to be treated eventually. Pills are not a catch-all repair order. VA did a wonderful job of getting me addicted to Dilaudid after screwing up 4 surgeries. It took me three years to find my way out of that jungle. These days I celebrate pain drug-free. Butch has never taken any meds to alter his conscience and he rightfully should according to the brain doctors. Same for a Huey door gunner friend who conservatively sent 200-300  souls to Valhalla with his M-60 yet he is as solid as any man who never pulled a trigger in anger. 
I want all of you to think about that. Many are the Vets who come to me and say "Alex, I drove an 18 wheeler from Baghdad to Mosul every week and I always worried about getting blown up by an IED. I have PTSD bad." My rejoinder is usually quite blunt- "How many times did you hit one? How many of your fellow troops did you see get blown up and killed?" If they say none and complain that the threat was omnipresent but was never actually realized, then I'd say they need counseling but I would never be willing to advance a diagnosis of bent brain. The mere threat of violence is everywhere these days in society but I do not see a large portion of the American populace huddling in fear. 20% of those who served in SWA are coming home with bent brain. Oddly, only about 8-11% of troops deployed actually see real Cowboys and Indians combat and its attendant bloodshed.
By today's standards, I would qualify. We had a 40% casualty rate and usually never recovered  our pilots. I  sat on body bags and ate lunch because they were in the shade. Death and destruction around you is almost always the proximate cause of PTSD. Do not confuse major sexual trauma with PTSD. It sets up an equal ricochet in the brain but should be classified under a different metric-male or female. I  watched an F-4 C auger in with no survivors. After it cooled off, we canvased the wreckage for security concerns. Imagine picking up a flight helmet still occupied. That ought to queer you for life but it didn't. Everyone has a different level where the rubber band breaks but my take is that it is usually something far more traumatic than 'almost' or ten miles away.
When we enter the service, we are adjudged defect-free. Certain events can obviously provoke mental issues for life but I do not believe a drill sergeant yelling in your ear is one of them. I also believe the mere ''threat'' of harm cannot be a valid stressor based on the theory that no one would sign up in an all-volunteer force with reservations about what they are getting into. Quite simply put, we go into the Service with eyes wide open. The military is all about war, violence and the possibility of injury. Can any of you say you joined but were ignorant of that possibility? I can't. I've been so afraid of getting wounded I almost shit my pants. Fear. Major shaking butt pucker fear. Cut and run fear. Getting shot was almost anti-climatic when it finally happened.
Everyone has a breaking point-that's a given. Worrying about something that might happen can never  qualify or none would ever join except for us idiots who tended to run towards gunfire rather than away from it.  And that's all I'm gonna say about that.

All claims c!osed...50% PTSD. 20% PNES. 10% tinnitus. 10% idiopathic disequilibrium... 70% va math...no further exams scheduled...thanks to asknod and hadit
Semper fi

50%..per my cp exam vamc psyc examanier been suffering since stressor 28 years ago..put my claim in last summer.