Stressor Letter

[yoggie2]

I found a few web sites "how to" write a stressor letter, Is there anyone I can talk to about the content of my Stressor letter, I know first hand knowledge is king . I was able to contact my CO at the time to valch for me, he's is writting a letter for me to put with mine . I just want to make sure I word it right, some one who is been down this road please. Thanks for your help. RC

[Ricky]

Yoggie - the best way to word the stessor letter is to simply state the facts in chronological order.

[cowgirl]

Ricky, great reply! Yoggie, let me add a bit of thought for kickstarting the process, I guess I had writers block years back, got this outline to help me, dont recall where from. I had to space my letter writing over weeks, really a few months. Wrote too much, got exhausted, took a fun break, then pared it down to 5 pages. worked for me.cg

Yoggie - the best way to word the stessor letter is to simply state the facts in chronological order.

THE STRESSOR LETTER (YOUR STORY) A good stressor letter tells what happened and how it affected you. It should be no more that 4 or 5 pages typed. Below is an outline of what a practical stressor letter should look like.

NAME

Claim Number

Address

Dates of military service

Awards and decorations, add Commanders and first sergeants names if available, visit to Chaplains too. Names, places and dates help.

Dates in service units served with and dates with each unit

Locations where you were based. (Area of Operations) and dates at each location, in country, in battle area, campaign title

Stressors – Do a major lead in paragraph that describes your concerns for a normal lifestyle and give overview of what you feel are “stressors”. Only do these ONLY for 3 or 4 Major Stressors, to be fair, keep each to about 2 or three dedicated subparagraphs.

subparagraph

1.....describe stressor

2.....describe how you felt at that time

3.....describe how it makes you feel when you think about it now

*research and describe as best in pysch terms, or using 'I' statements)

List every symptom for PTSD that you have.

Describe how your life changed as a result of your service in the military. Add comments regards friends, family, daily life interactions with public and how you have changed in taking care of yourself and/or hobbies. Really, you had goals to succeed in becoming a ?? “mechanic” “aircraft crew chief” or “paralegal” in the military to transfer these skills into the civilian world later and/or attend college to further your prospects. *note this advice for friends or family writing buddy/supportive letters too.

Describe relationships dating. Ie, Marriage. Parenting.

Describe work history,

Trouble with the law?

Abused drugs or alcohol?

[RockyA1911]

No you don't need to create 4 or 5 pages or included things about how you felt then and felt now in a "Stressor". The "Stressor" should be confined to the incident or incidents. Just use this attached VA Stressor Form for PTSD. I was a Marine and like to keep it simple (KISS method). Download the form and you can fill it out by hand, it just wants the basics such as description of incident, awards received, names of deaths or injuries etc. All that are the stressor. All the info that cowgirl included has nothing to do with the stressor confirmation. Though she did included some of the criteria asked for in the stressor form, all the rest has nothing to do in describing the "Stressor" aka "Incident". How it affects or affected you then and today will be subject of psych evaluation. A lot of the stuff cowgirl furnished is mixed up with the "Stressor". Remember a "Stressor" is an "Incident" simple as that. VA Form 21-0781.

Cowgirl, I'm not dissing your letter and you know I love ya, it's just too much it seems to me and your feelings during an incident whether you felt anything or not does not change or add to an incident that occured. It happened regardless of how you felt then and how you feel now about it does not affect a stressor. Maybe you didn't know there was a simple form that you can put up to three stressor on just one page that is just the facts describing the incident and where you were and medals received, and the unit you were in. Simple as that.

It would be great if T-Bird would create a "Tool Box" or the like folder and include these forms to save the vet a lot of headaches in the "Stressor" department. It is a lot easier for them if they have to submit a stressor to just simply follow this one page form. I covers all the VA wants to know about the stressor portion of a PTSD claim.

21_0781_PTSD_Stressor.pdf

Edited October 22, 2007 by RockyA1911

[Wings]

Search www.hadit.com for "stressor letter"

[Berta]

The letter needs to describe the date and place of the stressor ,your unit, your MOS that put you at the place and time of the stressor,and any other corroborating proof that it occured.

They will send the info to JSRRC (US Army and Joint Services Records research Center) who will try to confirm it from their records.They have all unit histoies, ships logs,morning reports, daily staff jurnals- etc.

NVLSP recommends stating other service members names who witnessed the same stressor in the letter.

A vet I helped did this and also found some of the vets for buddy statements and 2 of them were getting SC for PTSD due to the same stressor.They put that into their buddy statements, corroborated the whole incedent,

and gave the VA their c file # too in their buddy statements.

[cowgirl]

Rocky, no problem, we can still kick the sawdust up on the floor! Thanks for helping yoggie too, I did work diligently on my letter and edited it for content after many,many posts right here at Hadit. Ya know what? So far so good, worked for first claim. Another one to go! Honestly, I kept it chronolgoical and all, but added the "truth" in clear terms, bare bones and encouraged buddy letters to do the same. Probably good therapy for me to do so as well.

Also, Thanks for the "Kiss", it sure helps alot of folks keep it all clear having a form to fill out. By the way, wouldnt it be great if the VA would mark their forms with a FORM Number on the top or bottom, especially the VCAA form. I am not an advocate of shuffling, sorting and trying to read through another simple white generic form letter. I like forms that identify what they are for, why even the IRS does that!cg