ptsd Ptsd Fraud

[Ol'Man]

:D :D :o :D :D

Just read on VA Watchdog where many "veterans" are lying about stressors in order to claim benefits. I was a Dog Handler in Nam "70" - "71", 101st 47th IPSD. Tried for several years to get SR benefits for injuries and PTSD received while overseas but always got the same old story....WE NEED PROOF OF STRESSORS. Now after almost 40 years and many sleepless nights and nightmares, failed relationships, going from job to job, etc., I'm finally coming to terms with my past "life". I'm close to receiving benefits for Dabetes II and anxiety disorder, the latter not PTSD because I don't believe the "examiner" did his homework. My question is, am I going to have trouble with PTSD claim because only one out of three of my stressors was documented. The other 2 are true but were buried due to the nature. Can we say "cover-up" ? Been waiting for 2 months now for decision. I know I will have to file a NOD but am not letting the VA screw me again.

[LarryJ]

Ol,Man

You know I think I have a PTSD stressor. A dog handler lost control of his dog one night on guard duty. I was asleep inside a bunker. The dog jumped into the bunker with me. I woke up looking into the deep black eyes of what looked like a wolf. I about wet myself. The dog guy got his animal under control before it ate me. These kinds of things happened so often it makes me wonder who the real dangerous people were in Nam, us or the enemy. The dog handlers had the worst job walking around the small air base I was at. FNG's would sometimes fire at them by mistake. It was pitch black out there and you would hear the dog handler coming very slowly towards your bunker calling out to make sure he did not get shot by one of his own. The would stick guys out there with their M-16 and not even tell them to expect a dog handler to come by at 2am on his rounds.

I was also told by a dog handler that they would destroy the dog after the handler rotated. Some handlers signed on for more time in country just to keep their dogs alive..............................don't know the truth to that..........but, if true, it is really, really sad.

[Ol'Man]

I was also told by a dog handler that they would destroy the dog after the handler rotated. Some handlers signed on for more time in country just to keep their dogs alive..............................don't know the truth to that..........but, if true, it is really, really sad.

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Kinda going off course here but the dogs were given to another handler to work with after previous handler deros'd. But when the US left Nam the dogs were left behind to an unknow fate. Either sent to an ARVN unit or euthinized. After they worked so hard protecting our troops this is what the US figured they were worth. Now days the dogs are allowed to go home with their handlers or retrained with another handler. Seems the dogs weren't treated any better then we were. FORGOTTEN AND THROWN AWAY !!!!! I still think of my dogs every day. I will never be without a dog in my life.

[photoman]

Good Luck and there are always idiots who claim PTSD is a fraud. The VA can sort it out even though they take their sweet time.

Rather than trying to fake PTSD it would probably be easier for Vets to show other types of legitimate service connected injuries.

I have SC PTSD. I was a USAF Photographer. I was very fortunate that my name was on every photo and I was treated for Anxiety Neurosis after a year in service in 1977. I had horrible nightmares and since we used flash a lot all the images of body parts and other stuff are burned into my memory. The years of what I called "flashbulb" flashbacks are still there of separated limbs, eyeballs looking at me from the ash of an aircraft fatality and so on.

I wouldn't wish Dx of SC PTSD on my worst enemy. PTSD is physically exhausting and while the meds help to some degree, it never leaves. Then there are the side-effects of the meds.

I really think that anyone claiming PTSD is going to expend a lot of energy to present symptoms that meet the criteria for PTSD, but these guys are going to have to spend even more energy keeping their stories and symptoms straight. One would imagine that it would be less taxing to just working a job. These fakers are going to not want meds...I just can't imagine these fakers keeping it up for long. I may be wrong. While I know there will be malingerers I would hope that they get weeded out and the VA gets it together so the various providers can compare notes. There are standard measurement that can rule in or out whether a person is spoofing. The MMPI and the MMPI2 can actually (as one tool) reveal exaggeration, overreporting and reveal a Rule Out Dx of Malingering. It is one tool that consistently holds up in the legal system. The Department of Veterans Affairs Best Practice Manual for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Compensation and Pension Examinations. It is a comprehensive manual of 121 pages.

http://www.vva.org/Committees/PTSD/PTSDManualFinal6.pdf

It's just that those administering C&P's do not use psychometric test and there are plenty. They don't even follow their own standards for increasing dramatically the accuracy of a reported Mental Disorder. Why? It's time consuming, costs money which means increasing staffing. I think if the evaluators just use some of the measurements in the "Manual" many malingering cases could be dispensed with. Many of the fakers might even just run if they are asked to take the MMPI or MMPI2.

Thanks for this Forum.

[Berta]

I agree with you 100%.

Particularily on the MMPI tests.

(part of a thesis I did for school was on Marine Photographers and then videographers-(as technology developed) during major warfare.

There is no doubt at all that they not only witnessed horrific stressors but they documented them.You guys were in harms way too as your MOS depended on you getting as close to the action as possible. If I return to AMU for next degree and have need for similar thesis I will do it on the famous Civil War photographer who certainly had PTSD too from his service.My thesis was primarily based on how publicity of warfare shaped our country's perception of it.Life Magazine for example published photos of warfare that startled the US public during WWII and of course TV carried the videos of what Vietnam was like on the nightly newscasts that also caused public turmoil sometimes--But these were just thumbnails of what it was really like.Thank you for your service.This type of documentation has memorialized so much important information that warfare students and battlefield Commanders still study it all.)