ptsd Hiding Your Ptsd

[sgmdae]

Everyone handles their War Time differently. I realize I disguised my problem by working long hours, over comitting, and work hard to hide my PTSD. I didn't know what I was doing, but now after 30 plus jobs after release from the Army, I realize maybe it not them, it could be me. I alway find fault, don't get along, and cause disturbances.

To the question, and any advice you can give me.

Is Staying employed at something for 40 year after RVN, is it going to give me a small rating. I wasn't concerned about the rating at first, but now I realize they really are not going to help me, I have submitted for compensation

[john999]

I think the main point would be if you are employed now. If you are not employed due to your PTSD then I think you would be more likely to get a higher rating than if you are still gainfully employed making above the poverty line. However, if you get any rating for PTSD that gives you the lever to get more. Let's say you get 30% and then you are unable to work in the future. It is a lot easier to go from 30% to 70% and IU than to go from no service connection to IU. A lot of older Vietnam vets find that with age they are unable to keep up the defenses they had when they were younger and then the PTSD becomes worse. Also, you need to check on the agent orange presumptive diseases. Now is the time when things like DMII and prostate cancer start to be a problem for us RVN vets.

[Pete53]

You may think you hide PTSD but just ask others that you trust and you will see. I think that any rating for PTSD under 70% is a joke.

Some here have found jobs that accommodate their PTSD but in the end it will make you unemployable.

Just my opinion.

Our soldiers on multiple deployments are going to suffer dearly for their service as once you get rewired about the best thing you can do is manage symptoms and get the stress off.

The US is trying to fight 2 Wars on the cheap but will end up paying for it for many years. I think that they still had people up till 1960's getting paid for Civil War. That is about 100 years after the War.

[MikeR]

I thought I was hiding it also, and it pretty much almost destroyed my life. Things did not get somewhat manageable until I embraced it. Getting help, via meds and therapy was the best thing I ever did.

[Commander Bob]

DSM-IV-TR criteria for PTSD

In 2000, the American Psychiatric Association revised the PTSD diagnostic criteria in the fourth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR). The diagnostic criteria (Criterion A-F) are specified below.

Diagnostic criteria for PTSD include a history of exposure to a traumatic event meeting two criteria and symptoms from each of three symptom clusters: intrusive recollections, avoidant/numbing symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms. A fifth criterion concerns duration of symptoms and a sixth assesses functioning.

Criterion A: stressor

The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following have been present:

1. The person has experienced, witnessed, or been confronted with an event or events that involve actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others.

2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Note: in children, it may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior.

Criterion B: intrusive recollection

The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in at least one of the following ways:

1. Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: in young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.

2. Recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: in children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content

3. Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated). Note: in children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.

4. Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

5. Physiologic reactivity upon exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event

Criterion C: avoidant/numbing

Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by at least three of the following:

1. Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma

2. Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma

3. Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma

4. Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities

5. Feeling of detachment or estrangement from others

6. Restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)

7. Sense of foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

Criterion D: hyper-arousal

Persistent symptoms of increasing arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least two of the following:

1. Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2. Irritability or outbursts of anger

3. Difficulty concentrating

4. Hyper-vigilance

5. Exaggerated startle response

Criterion E: duration

Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month.

Criterion F: functional significance

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Specify if:

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic: if duration of symptoms is three months or more

Specify if:

With or Without delay onset: Onset of symptoms at least six months after the stressor

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR ( Fourth ed.). Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association.