Why Is This Process So Stressful?

[autumn]

**if this topic should be moved elsewhere, just let me know moderator as i didn't know whey to put it

when we veterans have our claims sent in with (documentation, corroboration, history, med reports, imo, etc) why is this process so stressful? or let me say stressful to me"me". the whole process has actually increased some of my symptoms that i'm SC'd for. i'm sure many of you can relate to that. just a fact, no complaint.

i can't really put it into words or perspective, this stressor of filing claims with the VA. its not only mental & physical, its financial stress, i.e. some of us have to get outside imo due to no one at VA will document the real deal, medically speaking. like a truthful supportive counter argument to what VA writes.

i thought i would ask this for myself and any other newbie to the system in that it might help them & me understand (if anything at the VA is understandable regarding claims)

[Tbird]

I hear ya brother or sister. It is a struggle now, before the internet it was just unexplainable.

Quote from my About Page:

"By Feb 1991 I had moved to the San Francisco bay area and was staying at a friends apartment and pretty much I was just a puddle. In desperation one night I called suicide hotline, I had no job, no idea about going to the VA. They talked with me for a long time and explained to me that I could go to the local VA hospital even if I did not have insurance. Now, I know what you are thinking if I was 50% why didn’t I just go to the VA in the first place, two reasons 1, this was Feb 1991 and the 50% didn’t come till May and 2, even if it had come thru it is unlikely that I would have had the mental acuity at the time to put the two together. I relate this here because it is where so many of our brothers and sisters are coming from, perhaps where you started. Fuzzy and unsure, in pain and sometimes homeless they come to the VA hospital for help. And that is where I ended up. Up to the pysch ward I went, blah, blah, blah, a few days later I was released with a promise of a call from the out patient program, which I would soon be entering. Blah, blah, blah, after many miscommunications, and no call backs I was at the Day Hospital everyday M-F. And this brothers and sisters is where I began to learn and formulate my plan for HadIt.com. Veterans, veterans everywhere…I spent a year in the day hospital and about another year at a sheltered workshop before I got back on my feet. So I just talked to veterans everyday waiting for appointments, waiting for prescriptions, waiting for a vet rep and I started to learn the system.While in the navy I was data analyst and had to learn a 5 volume manual and just about anything you were suppose to do was in that manual. So I figured there must be a manual on how to do a VA claim or at the very least regulations. So I found out about the Code of Federal Regulations, United States Code, Veterans Affairs Manuals and so on and so forth. Of course this was 1991/1992 I was living in a tiny studio apartment in a particularly bad neighborhood, working in a sheltered workshop making a nickel per envelope I stuffed throw in PTSD and you will see that it was a difficult task for me to get somewhere where they had copies of these, let alone that they would let me look at them. And there was so much knowledge around me, it was like the gold rush in those days, I could just sit on a bench a veteran would sit down next to me a little conversation later I had another nugget, I made copious notes. Phone numbers to call, ask for this guy or that guy he’ll give you the straight scoop and they’d slip me a piece of paper with a number on it. You want to read this regulation or that one and another slip of paper into my hand. I spent a lot of time on those benches watching the squirrels they gathered their nuts and I gathered mine :)

So I’m thinking I could put a little handbook together print it out and hand it out at the VA. Or perhaps flyers. Still formulating, time goes by, 1994/1995 I am being treated for PTSD regularly and doing and feeling much better and I go to work for a company as a marketing systems analyst and I discover the internet. Well let me tell you that was perhaps one of the most significant life changing events I have ever experienced. And I might add finally a positive one :) It seemed only natural to me that surely there must be a website that contained all the knowledge I wanted, well as it turned out not so much, lots of stuff but I wanted to get straight to the claims information and there was a lot of stuff to wade thru to get to it. So taking my lesson from the squirrels earlier I started to gather, gather, gather…and learn html and work as a marketing systems analyst and work my claim. 1996/1997 major ptsd cork blows and unemployed. Working my claim, working the website. 20 Jan 1997 register HadIt.com domain name right after getting off the phone with the VA and saying I’ve had it with this. As fate would have it the old DAV board goes down just as mine opens up and folks start to wander in. So HadIt.com has two main components the website which supports the discussion board with links, articles, research resources etc. The website starts to grow, I can’t tell you how many times I had to switch servers for space and features. I continue on a downward trend and in 1998 ended up back home in St Louis living in my sisters basement in therapy and working it. The website continued to do great during this time, I just stayed in the basement bought new software, new books, and learned how to make things work and I continued to use this knowledge to make HadIt.com better. My 100% finally came thru from the VA and I had a friend who is an advocate who helped me thru my SSDI claim, he was literally at my side thru the entire process and that came thru for me. My therapist and sister continued to try and get me to leave the basement, but to no avail. At some point in 1998 or 1999 I put a counter on the website and was shocked to discover how many visitors we were getting. Time goes by my sister gets married and I move from the basement to the upstairs, there is much celebration that Aunt T is living in the light again. More time goes by and I settle into my life in St Louis and spend more time on the site trying new things, finding more information. 2003 I buy my own home VA loan. For years now I have just considered HadIt.com my job and I get up every morning go to the office and work for several hours, take an afternoon break and see where the rest of day takes me. I have a place in the office to use the computer and a comfortable to place to read journals and articles and take notes. Blah, blah, blah so that is my story and HadIt.com’s intertwined." -Tbird

[john999]

Before the internet and Hadit I never heard of TDIU after being SC for 30 years. Within a year of posting on Hadit I had TDIU. The DAV,VFW or AL never even discussed this topic with me and I joined them all and paid dues. Hadit is the best site on the internet.

[ks1k]

Wonderful recap of Hadit TBird. Thanks for all you -- and many others -- do for Veterans.

[Berta]

The hadit stats per quantcast are fabulous:

http://www.quantcast.com/hadit.com

This site has sure grown Tbird and YOU have done a REMARKABLE JOB HERE!!!!!

Our Success stories prove that point.

The smartest people I know are mainly all at hadit.com.

[autumn]

In my opinion, this is so stressful because the VA hopes you just quit and leave them alone. Also our well intentioned politicians are so far removed from the reality of what it is like to be a member of the military that has been injured to the point, that we now seek the very benefits that they have put in place to help us. But what they probably did not intend this giant bureaucracy to be so bad. I think that it is so far broken, I'm not sure it can be fixed.

Which brings us the websites like this. Can you imagine what it was like before the internet trying to file a claim? Research? I'm gonna take a wild guess here, but I have to believe prior to the internet, claims were probably approved every 1 in 50? with the internet we are probably up to 1 in 49. Not really sure about my numbers but I think the direction is correct.

Don't give up, learn all you can, use a service officer if you can find a good one that you trust, and if you feel the need to contact your congressman/Senator about an issue (which I have - got a positive result), let them know how stressful it is.

I'm sorry its affected you in a bad way, but you are not alone brother. Hang in there.

i think of that often, that is, before the internet. i never had one claim approved before the internet. the internet, researching ms and stuff, emailing other veterans with such issues, and hadit.com, i don't think i would still be here. so very thankful for such help.

[autumn]

Let's not forget, that when they became overloaded with claims and paperwork, instead of hiring more people they decided to criminally (but never charged!) to SHRED DOCUMENTS at almost every VARO. Disgusting, un-patriotic, un-american and just plain wrong.

not all mind you for i have met some great people at some va's across the country. BUT, when it comes to filing claims and seeking help from VA for such matters, i''ve met some the most adversarial stonewalling folks in my life. and there is absolutely no reason at all for it. you folks know what i'm speaking of too. and yes, i really would venture to stretch the word, "criminal" to some areas of the organization due to i don't have another word in my brain to describe it.