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Incredibly Rude Psychiatrist

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Shalia

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I have an IU claim in. I'm currently rated at 70% for bipolar (and have a few other SC issues) and they sent me to a psych. to reevaluate. The guy was a JERK. He started out the visit with telling me off because I prefer to see female APRN's (abuse issues in my past, what can I say?) and then got mad at me when I referred to the woman I see as my doctor. (Force of habit, and besides, she has a Ph.D. so it's not entirely inaccurate.)

I tried to tell him why I couldn't work right now, and he kept telling me things like "all I hear is you are making a willful decision to quit working" and telling me I have no valid excuse for not working. When I mentioned things like I have difficulty with concentration and memory he said I was lying because I can go to school. Well, school lets me have double time on tests, has other people take notes for me, AND lets me record all my classes onto tapes so I can listen to them again if I forgot stuff. Work doesn't let you do that stuff. And with all my accomidations I'm barely passing.

But he told me "there's a time for you to be talking and a time for me to be writing, and right now I'm writing so you need to stop talking". He was so dismissive and rude I can't imagine how I'm going to get a fair write up from him when he decided before he even talked to me that I was just "willfully deciding to give up a good job I've had for years". Can I get another doctor? Or am I screwed? Do I take notes in case I need an appeal? He was the rudest doctor I've had the misfortune of seeing in my life, and I feel like I won't get a fair shake from him.

I'm so frustrated. I'm almost afraid my percentage will go DOWN now, not up like I was praying for, because of this jerk. I'm *not* OK, and he made it sound like I was just being lazy. I'm so frustrated. I want to scream or throw something.

What do I do?

Shalia

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Hoppy,

I hope this is what your referring to:

General Rating Formula for Mental Disorders:

100% Total occupational and social impairment, due to

such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought

processes or communication; persistent delusions

or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior;

persistent danger of hurting self or others;

intermittent inability to perform activities of

daily living (including maintenance of minimal

personal hygiene); disorientation to time or

place; memory loss for names of close relatives,

own occupation, or own name.......................

70% Occupational and social impairment, with

deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school,

family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due

to such symptoms as: suicidal ideation;

obsessional rituals which interfere with routine

activities; speech intermittently illogical,

obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or

depression affecting the ability to function

independently, appropriately and effectively;

impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked

irritability with periods of violence); spatial

disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and

hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful

circumstances (including work or a work-like

setting); inability to establish and maintain

effective relationships...........................

50% 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...........

30% Occupational and social impairment with occasional

decrease in work efficiency and intermittent

periods of inability to perform occupational tasks

(although generally functioning satisfactorily,

with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation

normal), due to such symptoms as: depressed mood,

anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or

less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory

loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent

events)...........................................

10% 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...............

0% 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.....................

Patrick

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Patrick,

That looks like it. Shalila sounded confused as to how she was rated and on what symptoms they based the rating.

One other problem of importance that came up about a month ago was a veteran made statements to an examiner that he did not have a problem finding jobs. The problem was that he could not keep jobs. The examiner wrote in the report that he had no problem finding jobs and ommitted the part about his problem keeping jobs.

I thought this might be a problem with the failure of the veteran to be convincing when he made this statement to the examiner. Their is no rule as to what an examiner has to believe. Examiners in some situations are prohibited from using your subjective and unsupported statements. In this case and for any exam for a high rating or IU I would suggest that you get a copy of your Social Security earnungs statement and take it with you to the exam and give it to or show it to the examiner. The veterans who I know that got high ratings took their earning statement with them. Later they submitted the earnings statement as evidence in support of the claim. I have seen no requirement that the VA obtain earnings statements.

Also, if you have had difficulty getting jobs or have been fired from jobs tell both the examiner and notify the VA in a statement in support of the claim. I know a veteran who made such a statement in support of his claim and the RO investigated this part of his claim. They sent him a document that was a standard VA form requesting the names, address and phone numbers of any employer who refused to hire him. This veteran had been denied employment due to a vascular disease and was eventually given IU. It is best to make sure that everybody knows what you are going through if you are being refused employment. Additionally, this problem should be well documented. Also get a doctor to write a report as to why he thinks you should not work. If you go into an exam and tell the examiner you can not work and you have no support from a doctor or no other earnings statements or statements from employers, you can expect to have problems getting the rating you are seeking.

This has been my experience with high ratings.

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