solarlight

Take Vitamin B12 and see if it improves. Your medicine regimen as well as symptoms points to that deficiency. Your B12 test should be MMA, not blood serum. Many US doctors know nothing of the ravages of B12 deficiencies, which is estimated at 40% of the US population.

Yes, these two were made together, on the same page. reading "Dx: (1) Antisocial Personality ז passive-dependaent features (2) R/o: Manic-pressive Illness handwritten, this was after a MMPI and wruten 3 days after I had first seen him. At he end of the first session, he had written "Dx: Paranoid Personality Rx: Take MMPI" Being older and wiser (hopefully), I can see complaining about my discharge,circumstances etc had him pigeon hole me. I just read a few things by your reference to Mr. Crosby, that that may be standard thing, the VA looking at your SPD code make making some assumptions, or perhaps just myself informing him of problems I had( the previous dx by a PHD-psych that was denied/overruled by a MD-psych. The funny thing is.. that was the last time I received any dx of personality disorder. My hospitalizations since in 85,97, 97 or treating psych etc never mentions that. But it appears as a secondary diagnosis in my rating decision and the exmaing C&P psychiatrist, although asked in the referral, makes no comment concerning it. The rating decision states I "also have a concurrent diagnosis of personality disorder" but it is the only time it was ever addressed, dx or otherwise. All other records are devoid of any personality disorder in their diagnoses. On my DD214, separating me on 4DEC81, in the Remarks section, the narrative appears: "EXTENDED ENLISTMENT ON 28MAR81 FOR 02YEARS. EXTENSION WAS AT THE REQUEST AND FOR THE CONVENIENCE OF THE GOVERNMENT" re: [i agree with you that a psychiatrist's opinion can sure trump a psychologists opinion- Psychiatrsits are MDs and psychologists are PHDs and cannot prescribe medication nor always successfully use all of the proper testing methods to rule out PD diagnosis for a more favorable and compensable one. Did you say that a PHD gave two diagnoses? This problem of the erroneous PD diagnosis is actually plaguing combat vets returning from Iraq- unconscionable- no one should accept that without getting a full battery of tests to rule PD out- PD is easy street for the VA in most cases- they hope the vet won't challenge it.

john999, No, I didn't have a private medical report when I first filed my claim in 1983. The baisc reason I am thinking of this is that my wife does not have CHAMPVA coverage because my SC rating commenced in 97 and although 100% SC schedular, I was not rated permanent. The 20 year mark gives that to me so if I got it backdated to 1983, I would also get that as well. I just filed an appeal of sorts to get myself rated permanent, but in looking at things, I thought I might as well go whole hog and amend so as to approach them at every angle. I am very unhappy about that unsuit rap as well. I am sure it does blacklist one with defense contractors but again, I suippose I was too ill then to even consider giving that reason much merit. Not having both diagnosis which were made at the same time, by the same Phd, and then again omitted in their rating denial might be a possbility to merit CUE (or least I would think and just wanted to see if anyone lese here might offer advice, caution or cndemnation of this approach. Thanks.

I did forget to mention that prior to my rating decision, I had requested to the BCNR a change.. but of course, I wasn't service connected then for BP. It was summarily denied. I am quite sure at that time, it wasn't a complete request.. I was not truly in the best of mental condition, it might have been more of a rant then. But since then, I have obtained copies of all my service records (meidcal and others, at least what they say exists.. though it appears in their copying them, they failed to copy all pages (one side but not the other in some of the records, but for the most part complete). I have noticed though, that no examiner actual does complete perusal of the record. they see on e thing and ignore the other.. usually they see damging evidence to you but the the exonerating evidence which is placed after that). An example is a psychologist report that says one thing, and then later a psychiatrists report that completely reverses the psychologist report, stating that "that consultation was provided, was not by a medical officer and there exists no evidence of that reports' diagnosis"). It is a hard road to navigate, and I think some consideration must be given that a person , young and uninformed, especially with some mental disabilty, can be expected to suffer more in frustrations (that is excerberate his condition) because of the roadblocks set up to disparage an otherwise meritorious claim.

Yes, I did file a claim in 83 and it was denied in 84. In the denial, the claim failed to state that the diagnosis of the examining clinical psychologist in 83 (VA consultation sheet) included bipolar affective disorder. His diagnosis was personality diorder vs. bipolar disorder. The rating decision made no mention of this, just a personailty disorder which is not cognizable under a claim for benefits but of course the BP was. I do believe that the omission of this had a direct bearing of the rating being denied. This diagnosis was written together (the only mention of any diagnosis in the consultation sheet of that timeframe). I suppose I could state that because of the failure to include the complete diagnosis (written as DX: (1) ... (2) .....), which was in front of the rating examiner, the results would have been different. I do not know what rules, etc were in effect in 83, perhaps no duty to assist, or whether or not this BP was sufficient for them to be required to investigate this BP via further evaluation. What I did learn though is that DO NOT BE SEEN BY A PHD PSYCHOLOGIST.. THEY GENERALLY WILL RENDER A NON-COMPENSABLE DISGNOSIS. I think the ARMY REQUIRES a medical psychiatrist.

I am 100% service connected for bipolar disorder, rated in August 2000 with an effective date of October 1997. As usual, I had been denied, appealed and had a hearing which resulted in my rated disability. I received a Honorable discharge, E-5, 4 years, 8 months, 6 days of service. At the time of my discharge 4 DEC1981, I was given a RE-4 reenlistment code,a SPD code of JMJ and narrative reason for spearation as "Unsuitability - apathy, defective attitude and inability to expend effort effectively" Needless to say, the rating by the VA along with all medical opinions stated that my bipolar disorder began during my active duty (or else I wouldn't have been rated). Both my treating psych and my C&P eval psych stated my BP was present prior to discharge). I had had two psych hospitalizations in service ( July 1980 and Jan 1981). My medical record has notations that I had sleep disturbances "not having slept for two weeks", elevated Blood pressure of 160/100 over 6 six months prior to my first hospitalization( this first hospitalization ened up with a Medical board statig no disease found.. but I think that ws beucase I had told the doctor I needed my security clearnace and didn't want to jeopardize that) and just prior to the commencement of dicharge proceedings a competency for duty report stating "snm has neen extremely tired and unable to do duty tasks" and clinical notated "has been working long hours"), normal, oriented x3, return to full duty. The discharge was when I assigned to on the USS Coral Sea in the Persioan Gulf.. an assignment a couple months after my second hospitalization. I was a Safety Officer on the Coral Sea, in which I had to oversea various facets of the ships operations, including medical emergencies ,helo-reps,underway-reps, flight ops etc. BUt to me it was a very strange position I had never had shipboard or air-ops duty until this tour, I had been a comm/computer.sonar tech at a shore station in sub/ocean surveillence. Needless to say, I knew very little about the job i was assigned. My last eval stated that I performed these duties as would a competent Seaman, which I now regard sort of as superlative as th assignemetn was so foreign to me. My question is this concerning CUE (clear and unmistakable error). When I was discharged, I sought VA help for my psych problem. I was open concerning the status of my dischage and this Va clinocial psyholgist wrote up a two part diagnosis, paranoid disorder and "r/o manic depressive illness: which from I have acertained means that there is a distinct possibility that it is bipolar/manic depressiion, in his report he stated I appeared "manicky"., In any cause this claim was denied in 1983 but only listed the first part and called it a "personality disorder". I was hopitaized a few times since, in 85,87, and 97 whihc led up to my current rating (100% schedular srevice connected). NOw what I want to do is petition BCNR for a chage in my discharge to PEB, along with the chages in re-code and narrative, and also to petition BVA for a earlier date of disability.. at leasy no later than my first informal request of '83 or use the PEB upon discharge. I did not recieve a NJP, but my perfromance marks were not so good in my last eval.. I had used to get very good marks and these really stank, but nothing bad in my conduct.