Gopher

Moderator, you might want to Pin this somewhere, as this seems to be a recurring trend. 
I have given out this information to others, but I will post it here so that others can find it rather than searching through the forum.
First and foremost, claiming and getting sleep apnea secondary to PTSD or Mental disorder is not easy. I have personally seen more lost than won, however, it can be obtained and I myself have personally received it. 
If you had sleep apnea diagnosed while in active duty, it is usually a slam dunk........for the rest of those trying to get it, it could require a lot of work.  I suggest trying to get it both direct and secondary service connected.
It is easier to get sleep apnea as a direct service connection obviously, however, most Veterans do not get it diagnosed while in service. Best way to get that resolved is through buddy statements. I suggest getting 3-4 (I personally had 7-8) or more. Do not have them only say that they saw you snoring.......that is great and all, but that is not a symptom of sleep apnea.......it is incidental. They would need to say that they saw you gasping for air, choking, etc. Preferably roommates. If you were deployed, it would be easy to have many people saying that they saw/heard this as you would have more than likely been in an open bay setting at some point in time. You can also have your spouse write up a statement. This all needs to be during active duty periods of times and dates need to be included.  M21-1 reference III.iii.2.E.2.b "Types of Evidence VA May Use To Supplement or as a Substitute for STRs" allows for buddy statements to act as STRs for medical evidence.........if they are certified "buddy" statements or affidavits.............having them written on VA Form 21-4138 solves this issue as it has the appropriate verbiage written near the bottom. Under M21-1 reference III.iii.1.B.7.a and 38 CFR 3.200, it meets the certification criteria..........problem solved. From my experience, getting all of the buddy statements needed can take longer than you originally anticipate....plan ahead.
Now, for secondary criteria.
Have you ever been diagnosed with alcohol abuse (it is frequently written as "ETOH")? If so, has it been attributed to your mental disorder or did it exist prior to that and is it considered willful? If you have been diagnosed with alcohol abuse, and it is attributable to your mental disorder,  guess what, alcohol consumption is attributable to sleep apnea. 
would suggest that you start doing your own academic research. You might be able to locate peer-reviewed academic journal articles (those are the types of articles that you want to submit) through https://www.researchgate.net/. If not, another alternative is using a college database to search academic journals through. Ah, but you need to be a college student to use the database to search academic journals through. One might make an argument that you could register for classes at a local community college (you can even register online nowadays without even stepping foot on campus) and even register for "late start" classes, and have access to the aforementioned database immediately (hint hint, look in the academic journal Chest); one could easily find within a 60 minute search at least 5 appropriate and recent journal articles clearly establishing a link between specific mental disorders and sleep apnea; there is a clear link between PTSD, anxiety disorders, depression, and especially schizophrenia. One might make an argument that you could simply then disenroll from the classes that you enrolled in by the date specified in order to get a full refund, thereby being charged nothing. Save the academic journal articles as pdf files, and create a work cited page (bibliography) for them in APA format (google is your friend.)
You now have a choice...........
Submit your claim with the buddy statements, mental health notes from a private provider, and evidence that you have and go with either a VA exam or vendor exam (whichever is given) or you can get an IME and IMO from private providers. If go the latter route, I would schedule one with a sleep specialist, why, because sleep apnea is their specialty. Pulmonologists also fall within this scope as well, though I suspect that you will have better luck finding a sleep specialist believing there to be a link between mental disorders and sleep apnea. You will get a Sleep Apnea DBQ and an IMO. Make sure that you have your C - File first as an examiner is required to have access to it and state that they have seen it on the DBQ for it to acceptable proof to the VA.
I would also get one from your psychologists/psychiatrist (Make sure that they are a psychiatrist or a psychologist.....if a psychologist, they need to be PsyD or Ph.D., or under the observation of a Ph.D.). 
Make sure before you solicit those medical opinions, that you acquire "buddy statements" from 3-4 (or even more) people with whom you served. Roommates would be best, or people who slept in close proximity to you.........again, this is only if you believe that sleep apnea developed while you were in Active Duty service. Make sure that they are written on VA Form 21-4138. Make sure they say that they witnessed clear symptoms of sleep apnea i.e. gasping for air, choking sounds, moments where they visibly or auditorily could determine that you ceased breathing etc.
Remember, you will want the sleep specialist and the psych professional to have your academic journal articles and buddy statements.
Once you have all of them, solicit your medical opinions from the two aforementioned providers.
Ideally, you would love for the IMOs to say that they believe that you could be both direct service connected for sleep apnea or secondary due to mental disorder, possibly even say that the mental disorder and sleep apnea aggravate one another (which there is medical evidence to support.)
If you opt to go the route of getting the private IMO and IME, you will obviously submit those with your claim, and all medical records from private providers pertinent to sleep apnea and your mental health treatment, buddy statements, academic journal articles, and a nicely written statement written by yourself on a VA Form 21-4138 talking about the issue at hand and summarizing everything concisely. Mention everything that you are providing that you wont to be considered for the claim, and when the issue first manifested. 

Documenting your claim, below is my system for going through service medical records.
First thing I do after receiving a service medical record is number each page when I get to the end I go back and add 1 of 100 and so on.
Second I then make a copy of my service medical records on a different color paper, yellow or buff something easy to read, but it will distinguish it from the original.
I then put my original away and work off the copy.
Now if you know the specific date it’s fairly easy to find.
If on the other hand you don’t know specifically or you had symptoms leading up to it. Well this may take some detective work and so Watson the game is afoot.
Let’s say it’s Irritable Bowel Syndrome (your diagnosis)I would start page by page from page 1, if the first thing I run across an entry that supports my claim for IBS is on page 10, I number it #1, I Bracket it in Red, and then on a separate piece of paper I start to compile my medical evidence index . So I would write Page 10 #1 and a brief summary of the evidence, do this as you go through all the your medical records and when you are finished you will have an index and easy way to find your evidence. Study your diagnosis symptoms look them up. Check common medications for your IBS (your diagnosis) and look for the symptoms noted in your evidence that seem to point to IBS (your diagnosis), if your doctor prescribes meds for IBS (your diagnosis), but doesn’t call it that make those a reference also.
38 CFR 3.1(D) Veteran means a person who served in the active military, naval, or air service and who was discharged or released under conditions other than dishonorable. There’s more so make sure to read the regulations.
Were you diagnosed with an illness/injury in the service? Is your current diagnosis and/or for that problem? Was it documented in your service medical record? Do you currently have a diagnosis that you think is related to your service? Do you currently have a diagnosis, that though existed before service was aggravated by an illness/injury in service? Can you link the aggravation to the illness/Injury in the service? Information may be in your:
Service Medical Records Hospital Records (Generally not included in Service Medical Records and may require on FOIA directly to that hospital.) Performance Reports After Action Reports Journals Letters Home Conversations with buddies Incident Reports you were involved in or witnessed TIP: Also you can have a rubber stamp made with your full name social security number and address use this stamp at the bottom or top of each page you submit to the Veterans Affairs if it gets lost it will be easy to see which page goes to which claim.
Best Practices
Have a diagnosis from a doctor before applying for a claim, depending on what your claim is for the diagnosis may have to be from a Veterans Affairs doctor.
Request a copy of your service medical records. Requesting a copy of your Service Medical Records
If you have had a previous claim, request a copy of your claims folder. How to request a copy of your c-file (claims folder)

Thank you. It has been horrible. There has been a lot of speculation and mean words spoken. I'm trying to remember that my friend may have been murdered, but I don't think it was on purpose. Long story short, he was sucker punched leaving a bar for defending a lady. The man hit my friend, he hit the concrete, had a seizure, had a brain injury, lived on life support for a five days, then was taken off life support. At least I got to say goodbye at the service. At that service I realized that I would never see his goofy grin or his unusually large ears again. That was....devastating.

SB,

Here's my answer to your question of what you can do:

If you have a journalistic background and the time to use that talent to help veterans then write about your experience and send it to your local paper and any other media outlet to see if you can collaborate with them on a first person account of what it is like to try to help a disabled vet attempt to win his disability claim. PTSD, unfairly labeled Personality Disorders, mental health care in general are all hot topics in the news right now. Add your voice and your writing talent to the cause of letting the American public know what is going on at the VA in the hopes that a grassroots effort will help affect change at the VA.

The dichotomy of being a psych vet is that you are the person best able to explain your disability but often the least able to do so. I'm bipolar and much of the time I'm totally spun one way or the other (up or down - manic and barely lucid or depressed and barely functioning). Then's there's the murky middle when I do ok for short periods of time and that's when, previously, I would try to work on my claim and currently, you'll see me post on hadit (so if I disappear for weeks or months at a time when we're in the middle of a thread, please forgive my abrupt absence).

Tell everyone you can reach the who, what, why, when, and where of your story, of our stories. Until the American public at large understands and cares about the situation at the VA we will be slogging uphill with an 80 pound rucksack on our back on a seemingly endless forced road march working on a VA claim.

Thanks,
TS Snave

While I was in the Army I was assaulted by a permanent party SGT and I was a trainee at AIT in New Jersey. I was set up to lose the court case by my legal council provided by the military.
They rushed me off the base to another where I ended up with a suicide attempt. Then they pushed me out of the service as quickly as possible. I have fought this battle for almost 35yrs and can't do it alone anymore. I have filed a claim for benefits and compensation. Of course the base cannot locate the criminal claim file now. I am seeing an independent Dr who has diagnosed me with PTSD and all that goes with it. She will be putting her pkg together for me to take to my C & P appt end of next week. I do have a job and really have no problems at work on a normal day. That is my life away from my home where I hide the rest of the time. Property is fenced and guarded by large dogs. My daughter does most of my shopping and takes me to my appts and anywhere I have to go. She and her hubby also live with me. The only real or close to real evidence I have are stmts from relatives of the incident and how my life changed after it.

So any advice on what to do or how this might play out will be greatly appreciated.