ptsd Ptsd Without Medication

[bigoc]

2 questions

1. If I meet the 50% rating criteria, is it reasonable to expect this rating without being place on any type of medication relating to the condition? I tried zoloft a few years ago and did not like the results. I have not been on any medication for this condition for a few years. I have found better results through counseling only without medication.

Can the VA use my TBI finding that I am SC for to explain away PTSD? I am looking at the memory part of the rating criteria and it looks like that is a significant portion of the 50% rating.

My in service combat stressor is pretty solid so I do not have to much concern with that area of the claim. This process happens at the same time (SC finding and rating) so I want to be prepared and able to defend it with a solid initial claim and avoid as much of the back and forth NOD as possible. I have had problems in the past with private doc's writting a finding and having the VA explain away the claim somehow. Then I have to jump through hoops to finally prove my case. I know this is sometime the reality but I would like to be prepared. If anyone has experienced the VA using the TBI finding(memory issues) for VA benefit to deny a PTSD claim please fill me in.

[john999]

If I was dealing with the VA I would accept drugs from VA shrink. I would then just make a decision on my own about taking them. To be honest I think the VA does believe that vets who take drugs are more compliant and are better patients than those that don't. If you are compliant in all areas and still suffer significant symptoms I think that might show you are worse off than someone who does not take drugs. For instance, if you are trying to get rated for a chronic pain condition and you take morphine I think the VA would rate you higher than someone who does not take any pain killer.

[LarryJ]

If I was dealing with the VA I would accept drugs from VA shrink. I would then just make a decision on my own about taking them. To be honest I think the VA does believe that vets who take drugs are more compliant and are better patients than those that don't. If you are compliant in all areas and still suffer significant symptoms I think that might show you are worse off than someone who does not take drugs. For instance, if you are trying to get rated for a chronic pain condition and you take morphine I think the VA would rate you higher than someone who does not take any pain killer.

..........or, as my PCP has pointed out to me (when they did the "drug test" at one of my first PCP appointments): "We prescribe you codeine because of your devastating injury to your body, and, if you do NOT take the prescribed medications, then all we can do is to show you as a "non-compliant" patient who does not do his best to help himself, and, if that is the case, then please do not ask me to help you gain a higher percentage rating..........................". I now make SURE that, even though I can "sometimes" do without taking my drugs, simply because I have learned to cope without them on an occasional basis, that, when I DO have PCP appointments, that I arrive with the requisite level of medication "on board".

..........just sayin'

[carlie]

I have made a choice to forgo any meds and I have managed quite well. My question is not about my decision not to take the meds. I was curious as to what anyone thought of how the va would rate such a person.

bigoc,

I don't know if you were able to read this part of my reply to you that I

posted earlier, so I will post it again.

There are two considerations in the schedule for rating mental health disability's,

that specifically consider medications for treatment of the MH disability itself.

Occupational and social impairment due to mild or

transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency

and ability to perform occupational tasks only

during periods of significant stress, or; symptoms

controlled by continuous medication... 10 percent

A mental condition has been formally diagnosed,

but symptoms are not severe enough either to interfere

with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication... 0 percent

[Papa]

bigoc, I did not meazn any disrespect whatsoever. I was not referring to Firefighter and/or Police Officers in total, but on an individual basis. Each one must make that decision to whether or not they can perform their jobs with PTSD and any other mental aliment as far as that is concerned. This can also apply to any job. Mine got to the point that I could no longer perform my job as I was getting violent, having panic attacks, afriaid to sleep. If, you are able to perform you job, that is great.

Papa

I almost removed my career from the post I wrote after I read it. I left it in as I did not think it would garner so much attention. I have made a choice to forgo any meds and I have managed quite well. My question is not about my decision not to take the meds. I was curious as to what anyone thought of how the va would rate such a person.

I will say, if I can do so kindly, that the concerns here are not on target. I do not mean that in a personal way but, a great deal of veteran police officers in this country are suffering from some sort of PTSD. They have guns and somehow they make do most of the time. So I will respectfully disagree with the concern of a firefighter performing their job while being diagnosed with PTSD.

[carlie]

I almost removed my career from the post I wrote after I read it. I left it in as I did not think it would garner so much attention. I have made a choice to forgo any meds and I have managed quite well. My question is not about my decision not to take the meds. I was curious as to what anyone thought of how the va would rate such a person.

I will say, if I can do so kindly, that the concerns here are not on target. I do not mean that in a personal way but, a great deal of veteran police officers in this country are suffering from some sort of PTSD. They have guns and somehow they make do most of the time. So I will respectfully disagree with the concern of a firefighter performing their job while being diagnosed with PTSD.

bigoc,

OK - lets get real here.

You titled your topic :

" Ptsd Without Medication is 50% a realistic PTSD rating without medication"

This question was specifically answered with support directly from the rating criteria for mental health.

Medications are only addressed at the zero or 10 percent level.

OK now lets look at the criteria for a 50 % mental health rating just to see, if as you asked, "is 50 % a realistic PTSD rating without medication".

Sec. 4.130 Schedule of ratings--mental disorders.

Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week;

difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short- and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood;

difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships ... 50

Now, did you read those symptoms - once PTSD is granted as SC'd the symptoms above are whats considered for a 50 % rating.Nothing at all in there concerning medications.

A claimant does not have to exhibit every one of the symptoms above BUTmust meet the majority of those symptoms.

You posted, " I will say, if I can do so kindly, that the concerns here are not on target. I do not mean that in a personal way but, a great deal of veteran police officers in this country are suffering from some sort of PTSD. They have guns and somehow they make do most of the time. So I will respectfully disagree with the concern of a firefighter performing their job while being diagnosed with PTSD."

Believe me, if you are a firefighter the VA will know this.

It would certainly be mentioned somewhere in your VA/VAMC or private practice medical records.

Now I certainly will agree that there are many, many police officers "suffering from some sort of PTSD".

I will follow up by stating the majority of the ones that don't want a desk job just continue to "suffer"from their undiagnosed and untreated PTSD because due simply from having a diagnosis of PTSD along with much of the symptomology listed in the criteria above -

their job would turn to crap.

If a firefighter or a leo has medical evidence of meeting the above symptomology, yes their superiors will certainly want to be aware of it because in being public servants - they are liable for the loose cannons underneath them.

Some states do not even allow a CCW permit with the above medical evidence being of record.

I am sorry if you feel any of this is related directly towards you -

it is in direct relation to the VA'srating criteria for a 50 percent level of mental health compensation.

If your employment requires you to do things that you are unable to do - because of a service connected disability -

that's the reason VA has to pay the cash - plain and simple.

After all do you feel it would be fair for a claimant to collect both ways

1) in VA comp

2) for only being able to do only parts of the job

JMHO

[bigoc]

Thank you for the advise. As for the VA find out that I am firefighter, I have put that information in my other claims. I do not lie about any portion of my claims, not a single part. I was referring to removing my career from this post as I have now seen where it has gone.

I can see the "anti-100% combined schedular and still working" crowd is still in full force here.

I think this post shows the delusion that some in our society have about the world we live in and the people around us. There are people in all walks of life, including public employees with PTSD that are still able to preform their jobs with out endangering themselves or the citizens they serve. There are "loose canons" in public service that have never seen anything even close to combat and do not have metal conditions and still they act out with violence just because they had a bad day and could not control themselves. Point is, PTSD effects every one differently and you can not place people into nice, neat little boxes of what they can and can not do in life.

Getting a disability rating and working is not unreasonable even at 100%, if it is combined. Many of the VA rating are based on physical effect and or test results(neuro-psych exam). If you fit the rating of several ratings who is to say that all of the sudden when it hits 100% combined you are doing something wrong.