Questions About Ptsd Diagnosis

[piratelip]

Greetings,

This is my first time posting here and I am trying to get a definitive answer on a question I have had on my mind for awhile. I filed a claim with the VA for PTSD and related anxiety and depression 2/13 and am scheduled for a C&P in a week. My symptoms have been gradually getting worse over the years and I finally reached out for help. Not getting too in depth about my personal struggle my background is that I was a USN FMF Hospital Corpsman with a combat rotation in Iraq at a field hospital in 2005. I am not worried about my stressor being conceded, but I DO NOT have a current diagnosis from the VA for PTSD. I was seen on active duty in 2006 for anxiety and prescribed medication however I have not gone to the VA for mental health issues. I am currently being seen at the local Vet Center by a therapist and currently attend a weekly PTSD group. Because my C&P is in a week I do not have time to be seen by a VA Psychologist but could go to the PET clinic for emergency medications and be seen by a Psychiatrist . My question is, do I need a current diagnosis from a VA mental health MD? Will a diagnosis/referral from my Vet Center therapist suffice? I am asking this because, through reading online about this process, I have received two contradictory answers to these questions. I have read that during my C&P the examining VA doctor will assign a diagnosis at that time. Is this accurate? Will the C&P examiner diagnosis PTSD and will that be enough to satisfy the criteria of needing a current PTSD diagnosis? If not, please provide any advise/information that will be useful for me going forward with my claim. Thank you for your help and I appreciate all the advise and stories I have read on these boards, it is nice to know I am not alone.

-Sam

[GuaymasJim]

PR, is exactly correct. I would add this to his comments. NOT EVERYONE SUFFERING FROM PTSD HAS EVERY PTSD SYMPTOM! I would venture to say that claiming EVERY symptom would raise huge red flags with the examiner and rater. Be honest, but base your answers on your worst day rather than your best day.

In my own particular case, I can remember excruciating details about the event, but I cannot remember much of anything that happened immediately afterward. My stressor has been written up in numerous publications and I have spoken to other participants who remember what happened afterward. I have discussed this period of time while drunk and sober, happy and sad, So I have read, seen photos (even some with me in them), and been told in detail what happened, I have no memory at all for about four hours.

Another land mine is those seemingly off the cuff comments, greetings, and questions on C&P day. I would be prepared for the PTSD C&P from the moment I woke up the day of the exam until I got home afterward. If asked, "How are you, today?" The only honest and safe response is, "I am how I am." Period.

We have all read about having one's childhood experiences used against the veteran. Your childhood memories, aside from being irrelevant, have been reformed and molded over the years as they intertwined and overlaid with newer memories. My response would start and finish with, "Nothing I experienced as a child prepared me for what I did and witnessed during my military service." Period.

We have heard about the consequences of "my wife (husband) pays the bills." The safe and honest response would be, "When we married, my wife (partner) and I vowed to share the responsibility of making our family succeed. We have held to true to our vows and our family is succeeding." Period.

A PTSD dx is not a dx for stupidity! A C&P exam is the last place to pour your heart out. The examiner is neither your therapist nor your friend. Download and study the PTSD DBQ. Some of the questions will be relevant; and some won't be. Prepare for the relevant and ignore the rest. If allowed, bring your other half with you to the exam. They can keep you on track and remind you of information you might forget on your own. Don't give the examiner ammunition to use against you.

Go into the exam knowing full well that you know much more about you and your condition than the examiner ever will. The exam is yours not theirs.

Just my thoughts; others might disagree.

[meghp0405]

Guys, I have to add my 2 cents here because a few of you are way off base and not even in the same ball park IMO!

A c/p examiner can not make a diagnosis of PTSD. If there is a claim for any type of mental health condition, an exam will be made with a VA psychiatrist or psychologist. Either of those two will determine if a diagnosis is warranted. And that diagnosis is returned to the c/p examiner.

learn the required symptoms of PTSD and say yes to all the questions? come on, that's bullshit and you know it PR! How can any veteran receive the proper treatment if he/she does what you suggest? That's the most craziest thing I have ever heard! Best to deny homicidal but admit to suicidal? Is this through your years of treating patients with PTSD? Oh, your not a frikin doctor so how in the hell you can you give that kind of advice? Is it more important to get to the 100% rating by deceit and lies or to have a counseling treatment/program tailored to the veterans needs. A veteran doing what you suggested would raise every red flag there is know to man kind! Then they would be in a world of hurt!

free spirit? Man, WTH? don't limit yourself to one diagnosis? I am guessing that you are speaking of a MH condition? "So even if they decide to call it something else -- as long as they SC it" That statement just doesn't make sense at all ! - Who is going to decide to call it something else? A diagnosis is made up of symptoms and the severity and frequencies of those symptoms. Not, "what will work for the moment" This isn't a chess game! Your diagnosis can always be changed later if necessary How in the hell can you say that? Did you go to the same MD residence program as PR did? Where do you get that information from? Oh, your opinion maybe? "The VA generally lumps all mental health conditions into one rating anyway". Well, they do so by further evaluation of the veteran.

piratelip, I would suggest that you go to this examination and be honest with the examiner. If your having certain symptoms, agree with them and if your not, say so. I've seen and read so many rating decisions where mental health conditions were denied simply because of some of the "advice" you were given above . Examiners stated that the "veteran had over stated, over exaggerated the details of his/her symptomology" "Appeared to have been coached in his answers" And, those comments being made by the pychiatrists who examined the veteran. Just be honest brother, that's all I can say.

[free_spirit_etc]

Meg,

Thanks for clarifying the information on the psychiatrist / psychologist. Though I realized PTSD had to be diagnosed by a psychologist or psychiatrist, I did not realize that was not part of a C&P exam. The last time my husband had a C&P exam, they set him up with a mental health examination with a psychologist, who diagnosed him with depression. Perhaps I was wrong in assuming that vets would be scheduled exams with mental health examiners when they had mental health claims.

If the vet actually does have PTSD, then of course, it is best to get both diagnosed and treated for PTSD. However, if the examiner (i.e. psychiatrist / psychologist) does not diagnose them with PTSD, but does diagnose them with another mental condition (such as anxiety – that they were treated for in service) then the vet might be able to get granted service connection for that. I thought it was important for the vet to know that because sometimes we get so locked into thinking of one diagnosis, that we miss other diagnosis that might also be able to be service connected.

I said the diagnosis might be changed later because some of them do change. Sometimes a vet is diagnosed with one condition, and the diagnosis is sometimes changed to another condition. Or a condition is added. So I was thinking even if the vet is just diagnosed with anxiety, that doesn’t mean the VA wouldn’t later add the diagnosis of PTSD, or even change the diagnosis if that was appropriate.

Yes. It was my opinion. I got it from reading lots of posts and lots of claims. I never thought I was an expert or a doctor. I just tried to help. And I don't generally just start spouting my opinion without having some type of basis for it. I really do try to research and study and make sure I am giving vets information that might help. So it kind of stings to be chastised so harshly. I wish you could have made your points in a bit gentler way.

Edited November 2, 2013 by free_spirit_etc

[stillhere]

I personally agree with Meg be honest about how you feel and the problems you are having wit everyday life and you should/will be fine. get a letter from the vet center to support your claim and send it it.

I am rated 50% for ptsd and while
I do not like the stigma I felt when I first got it. I am doing better in life at this point.

Stillhere

[Philip Rogers]

Guys, I have to add my 2 cents here because a few of you are way off base and not even in the same ball park IMO!

learn the required symptoms of PTSD and say yes to all the questions? come on, that's bullshit and you know it PR! How can any veteran receive the proper treatment if he/she does what you suggest? That's the most craziest thing I have ever heard! Best to deny homicidal but admit to suicidal? Is this through your years of treating patients with PTSD? Oh, your not a frikin doctor so how in the hell you can you give that kind of advice? Is it more important to get to the 100% rating by deceit and lies or to have a counseling treatment/program tailored to the veterans needs. A veteran doing what you suggested would raise every red flag there is know to man kind! Then they would be in a world of hurt!

meg - here is my quote: "Posted 28 October 2013 - 06:27 AM"

"My suggestion is to learn the "required symptoms" of PTSD and be sure to answer yes to the them when asked. Most vets w/PTSD have suicidal/homicidal ideations. If you have a plan, you generally get a higher rating. Best to deny the homicidal but admit the suicidal. jmo"

No where did I state "answer yes to all the questions." The C&P examiner does or doesn't diagnose the condition, which is why they have the C&P exam. You will also note these are "just my opinion(jmo)."

I have never instructed anyone to lie.

VA claims and treatment are two different animals. I'd never count on the VA for help in treating PTSD, as they do little except medicate, medicate and more medicate.

I personally believe that new vets w/PTSD can be helped. PTSD, if caught soon enough, can be treated and can even get some resolution but there is the need to admit it's there (not avoid it by calling it adjustment disorder or some other disorder) and to help the veteran immediately, financially, so his/her life doesn't go down the tubes while the VA's deciding their claim.

For VN vets it's kinda 35 yrs too late. I've had it for 48 yrs and it's a little late to change my thought processes. I have changed much, using avoidance therapy, but I have nowhere the quality of life I might have had, had I not served my country, when asked.

Thank you for caring for the vets you serve!

jmo

pr

[john999]

Combat soldiers need to be deprogrammed. Just dumping a soldier who has spend two years in Vietnam, Iraq or Afghanistan where he/she believes with good reason that they are surrounded by people who want to kill them need help to readjust. This means more than the G.I. Bill and a job at the post office. They need help integrating back into society. Just being away for a year in a combat zone can really lead to a person feeling totally alienated from society. You come back and everything is going on just like nothing ever happened but something has happened to you.