Jump to content

Ask Your VA Claims Questions | Read Current Posts 
Read VA Disability Claims Articles
Search | View All Forums | Donate | Blogs | New Users | Rules 

  • tbirds-va-claims-struggle (1).png

  • 01-2024-stay-online-donate-banner.png

     

  • 0

First Time Visitor, Going To C&p On Monday

Rate this question


H4nds0l0

Question

I was discharged from the Air Force back in May 2009. General under Honorable Conditions for Minor Discplinary Infractions, but the first statement in my discharge paperwork was about my Adjustment Disorder as well as Axis 2 Personality traits. This past year I've been battling through some really dark times in my head, and I finally got the courage to go to the VA at the beginning of the month. All I wanted was information on my benefits, and who I could talk to try and appeal my discharge, but the guy put me in for a disability claim. I don't even know what's going on anymore, things are moving so fast. I have to be at this doctors appointment on Monday for whatever the case. I've tried googling information about all of this but I have no idea what to expect.

In my last couple of months in the service I started having sleep problems after I came back from Iraq. Came to work late a couple times. Cried a lot. Had suicidal thoughts. Went to life skills, was prescribed Celexa and Ambien and Paxil, but it just kept getting worse. Kept making mistakes on the job, screwing up paperwork, getting 'abrasive' with the NCOs in my unit. I didn't mean to. I was just in such a dark place, you know? It's funny, you can go from super troop at one end of the year, coming out of basic with honor graduate and loads upon loads of letters of appreciation for volunteer activites I kept up on, to going to Iraq, and coming back and just falling off the world.

Anyway, enough with my rant. What should I expect on monday? I really have no idea.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Answers 14
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters For This Question

Recommended Posts

I went through about 5 jobs after getting discharged in May of 2009. Now I've been able to hold a job down at a hospital working in the emergency room for the past 5 months, but I still have trouble remembering co-workers names and where supplies are. Working here has been a godsend - I was totally upfront with my boss and co-workers about what is going on and they know I'm a hard worker. I bust my butt and do my best to stay active and contribute, but it's still hard when someone asks me to get a plastic tray and I forget where the plastic trays are.

I'm definately going with a lawyer because I feel cheated. I want this done right and I don't want the work around. I'm 23 years old and I need to get to college so I have some hope for the future. I don't want to live with my parents forever, constantly being a nuisance to them because of my problems. I want to rise up and have a good career and have my own family some day and live in a nice neighborhood. I refuse to be homeless and live on the streets...but it's so hard.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, I don't care about percentages or money or anything. I know I was wronged by the military. They treated me like shit and made me feel like i was a scum bag when I was suffering and threw me out the door. I worked so hard in Iraq. Not only did I do my normal duty activities, I volunteered with Honor Guard out there. Did a Funeral Service. Volunteered for base security. Graduated Basic Training with Honors. Home base I actively volunteered too. Was an usher for a few promotion and retirement ceremonies. Volunteered for Airman Against Drunk Driving. Helped police a stretch of highway for a local clean up effort. Assisted the SERE squadron for SERE outdoor exercises, lugging around my medical bag. I was Santa for the Children's Christmas party. I don't care if I got 10%, 0%, or 50%, or 100%. I just want to know that i'm not a shit head and that I did the best I could for my country. I hate people looking at my DDR214 and shaking their head, thinking i'm a trouble maker when for 9 months I sat in my dorm room crying, not being able to sleep, haunted by nightmares, and not being able to properly focus on the job. They just threw me to the curb...

And now I have nothing here. I just want to go to college and maybe have some chance of becoming a somebody instead of wasting away to a nobody. I don't want to be a nobody, I want to succeed and help more people.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Tell a friend

    Love HadIt.com’s VA Disability Community Vets helping Vets since 1997? Tell a friend!
  • Recent Achievements

    • Lebro earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • spazbototto earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Paul Gretza earned a badge
      Week One Done
    • Troy Spurlock went up a rank
      Community Regular
    • KMac1181 earned a badge
      Week One Done
  • Our picks

    • These decisions have made a big impact on how VA disability claims are handled, giving veterans more chances to get benefits and clearing up important issues.

      Service Connection

      Frost v. Shulkin (2017)
      This case established that for secondary service connection claims, the primary service-connected disability does not need to be service-connected or diagnosed at the time the secondary condition is incurred 1. This allows veterans to potentially receive secondary service connection for conditions that developed before their primary condition was officially service-connected. 

      Saunders v. Wilkie (2018)
      The Federal Circuit ruled that pain alone, without an accompanying diagnosed condition, can constitute a disability for VA compensation purposes if it results in functional impairment 1. This overturned previous precedent that required an underlying pathology for pain to be considered a disability.

      Effective Dates

      Martinez v. McDonough (2023)
      This case dealt with the denial of an earlier effective date for a total disability rating based on individual unemployability (TDIU) 2. It addressed issues around the validity of appeal withdrawals and the consideration of cognitive impairment in such decisions.

      Rating Issues

      Continue Reading on HadIt.com
      • 0 replies
    • I met with a VSO today at my VA Hospital who was very knowledgeable and very helpful.  We decided I should submit a few new claims which we did.  He told me that he didn't need copies of my military records that showed my sick call notations related to any of the claims.  He said that the VA now has entire military medical record on file and would find the record(s) in their own file.  It seemed odd to me as my service dates back to  1981 and spans 34 years through my retirement in 2015.  It sure seemed to make more sense for me to give him copies of my military medical record pages that document the injuries as I'd already had them with me.  He didn't want my copies.  Anyone have any information on this.  Much thanks in advance.  
      • 4 replies
    • Caluza Triangle defines what is necessary for service connection
      Caluza Triangle – Caluza vs Brown defined what is necessary for service connection. See COVA– CALUZA V. BROWN–TOTAL RECALL

      This has to be MEDICALLY Documented in your records:

      Current Diagnosis.   (No diagnosis, no Service Connection.)

      In-Service Event or Aggravation.
      Nexus (link- cause and effect- connection) or Doctor’s Statement close to: “The Veteran’s (current diagnosis) is at least as likely due to x Event in military service”
      • 0 replies
    • Do the sct codes help or hurt my disability rating 
    • VA has gotten away with (mis) interpreting their  ambigious, , vague regulations, then enforcing them willy nilly never in Veterans favor.  

      They justify all this to congress by calling themselves a "pro claimant Veteran friendly organization" who grants the benefit of the doubt to Veterans.  

      This is not true, 

      Proof:  

          About 80-90 percent of Veterans are initially denied by VA, pushing us into a massive backlog of appeals, or worse, sending impoverished Veterans "to the homeless streets" because  when they cant work, they can not keep their home.  I was one of those Veterans who they denied for a bogus reason:  "Its been too long since military service".  This is bogus because its not one of the criteria for service connection, but simply made up by VA.  And, I was a homeless Vet, albeit a short time,  mostly due to the kindness of strangers and friends. 

          Hadit would not be necessary if, indeed, VA gave Veterans the benefit of the doubt, and processed our claims efficiently and paid us promptly.  The VA is broken. 

          A huge percentage (nearly 100 percent) of Veterans who do get 100 percent, do so only after lengthy appeals.  I have answered questions for thousands of Veterans, and can only name ONE person who got their benefits correct on the first Regional Office decision.  All of the rest of us pretty much had lengthy frustrating appeals, mostly having to appeal multiple multiple times like I did. 

          I wish I know how VA gets away with lying to congress about how "VA is a claimant friendly system, where the Veteran is given the benefit of the doubt".   Then how come so many Veterans are homeless, and how come 22 Veterans take their life each day?  Va likes to blame the Veterans, not their system.   
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines and Terms of Use