ptsd Should I File For An Increase

[Rudy1983]

I have been browsing this forum on and off for the past few months. I am a service-connected vet rated @ 70%, but 50 for PTSD since I was discharged from Active Duty from the Army in 2009 and awarded 50% for ptsd it has gotten worse I been to the VA ER a few times and they tell me I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with Dissociative symtoms.... 2) Major Depressive Disorder with Melancholic features.... 3) Mild traumatic brain injury... 4) Alcohol use disorder... I just don't know if I should apply for and increase?

[Philip Rogers]

If your condition is worse, I would apply. Maybe the extra money would help you with your care or treatment. When I started my claim (1989) they gave me 30% for PTSD. The more I found about PTSD the more I realized I was worse, probably 100%. I started my appeal with their first decision and kept appealing. In 1999 I won 100%, retro to my original claim date. I won increases along the way but kept appealing. I'm now 100% P&T for 24 yrs and protected. Life has gotten better! I still attend weekly groups and take no psych meds. I still have suicidal ideations but they are way fewer than previously. I still isolate but by now I like it that way.

Should you decide to request an increase, remember they may try to reduce you, also. If they rated you 50% you probably should have been 70% or 100%, as they usually lowball you. I would get a copy of my claims file and see if they made an error or CUE, while filing for an increase at the same time. jmo

pr

[Testvet]

as long as you stayed in treatment and got your meds, but if you took the check and quit treatment altogether and now are thinking about filing for an increase do you have current medical evidence that you are worse off today than you were when they granted your claim. Without treatment records it will be hard to get increased

checks are not a cure like Philip I have been in treatment a long time, ever since I told my primary care doc to refer me to mental health back in Dec 2002 she made an appt for Jan 2003 and I started to see a shrink and have been seeing the same one ever since, his treatment records were the best evidence I ever had for my claim without them I doubt I would have been granted 50% and I appealed the next day and a year later they granted me 100% back to original filing date Dec 2003 (I had a bad VSO that lost my initial claim for PTSD in May 2003 after the PTSD team made the diagnosis) I quit using a VSO then and handled my own paperwork after that with my wife's help until we could hire lawyers for appeals to BVA in June 2007

If you file to open your claim then they can look at all SC conditions and re-evaluate them. If you went to a private therapist thats fine you just need medical evidence

[Rudy1983]

yeah I been attending weekly va meetings and seeing the VA Shrink but my PTSD has gotten a lot worse. I been to the ER Three times cause of suicide since then my life been a chaos my ex left me and I haven't been able to hold a single job since I got out of the military in 2009... I did 3 tour in Iraq as a combat engineer and all the stress from route clearance n getting blown up n watching friends dying or getting injured and finding torture bodies laying on the roads .. I just haven't been able to cope with all the anger and nightmares.

[eric_christensen]

Testvet is completely right. Money isn't the cure to your stress. But since you're having trouble with your jobs, then money will help you if you have money problems. But staying with your therapist and meetings is one of the best ways to learn to cope.