ptsd MST Compensation Claim Question

[Michigander]

Hi,

I am a victim of MST.  I have a police report in graphic detail of the assault while I was serving active duty in the Army.  The events (more than one) occurred 30 years ago, however, the images replay in my mind daily and to this day.  I somehow managed to get through life and was married once and have three children.  I have suffered internally (mentally) for years and have had a multitude of health problems including panic attacks and anxiety.  I want to file for compensation, but also to get the mental help I know need through the VA I understand it there for me...if I can finally get myself to be able to talk about it with a counselor.  I worked full time my entire life (now age 51) but was approved for SSD disability (civilian) for other medical conditions 3 years ago.  When reading some of the blogs proving my MST is not a problem as I have the police report, however, how or what do they need to prove my suffering of panic attacks and PTSD to access if my life has been affected by the MST for compensation purposes.  I have hid the MST events my entire life and even though I have taken anxiety medication on and off and even have seen a few counselors over the years I rarely talked about the MST and focused my sessions on other issues I think mostly so I didn't have to relive the events by talking about them.  So again I am wondering if the proof is there for the MST what proof is needed that it had impaired my life in such a way that compensation would be awarded.  I am not trying to find out how I can manipulate the system, but rather so that I can get an idea before putting myself through all the trauma of going through the application process if there is clearly no way I will even be awarded a disability rating if for example I do not have a trail of doctor's or psychiatry sessions stating I was talking about these events etc. to proved it has affected my life negatively.   

[Buck52]

 MST

Counsling & Treatments 

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/1720D

Source: ''Cornell Law School''

Edited June 1, 2017 by Buck52

[Michigander]

@Buck52  Thanks Buck you are always so helpful!

[Buck52]

Michigander,

your welcome  glad to be of some help.

Along your journey if you have any problems with your claim  just come here to Hadit and post your questions ,there's a lot of other hadit members here much more intelligent than me when it comes to these VA Claims  and to be honest with you  I am not that familiar with the MST Claims!

Just from what I've read and from a few other Hadit members that were MST Victims.

[Michigander]

I posted this on another thread I started, but wanted to post this on this thread too

My Update...

This week I met with a VA mental health psychologist for an official evaluation for a therapy plan related to my MST.  I was very nervous going up the upper mental health floor and couldn't help, but think I hope I'm not met with white coats wanting to lock me up.  I don't know why I think in such extremes, but these are some of the things that go through my head.  The meeting lasted about and hour and half and the therapist asked me a host of questions (as one might expect)related to my family history, my current health conditions and series of questions that was obvious to me to differentiate and identify various mental health conditions (depression, anxiety, OCD etc). 

Although she never asked me anything about my MST event other than the date of the assault my answers to her questions (to me) clearly showed the affects the event has had on me.  (I am going to be open hear just for the sake of helping others facing what I am going through have some idea of what the evaluation entailed.)  

An example of a few questions during the psych eval... how do you sleep at night?  Answer:  Not good it takes me an hour or two before I can fall asleep because I am constantly looking at my bedroom door over and over checking to make sure nobody is standing there...I listen to every noise I hear before I fall asleep reawakening repeatedly and have to have the door alarms set and my knife next to my bed.  I will not take any medications that would make me sleepy because I cannot let myself not be on high alert of what is going on around me.  Question: are there things you avoid or bother you when you see it.  Answer: yes, there is a certain style of knife I cannot look at....I could not have knives in my home for many years and people would ask me why do I not have single knife in my house, but I know the reason.  I have a knife that is similar to "that knife", but my daughter is unaware for her entire life that when she puts it in the draw out of the dishwasher I methodically and secretively pick it up and hide it under other utensils so I never have to open the drawer and it. 

Prior to the meeting I was given a large packet of questions to fill out and give to the therapist which again the various questionnaires were geared to identify various mental health conditions including drug addition and physical limitations due to disabilities..one was clearly labeled PTSD.

I actually did not get the entire packet completed, but she told me she was unable to finish my eval that day and we were out of time so I have another appt. scheduled in the next few weeks.  I was surprised she said she had not finished the eval. in the time we had, but maybe I talked a little too much who knows.  Many of her questions seemed to mimic the packet they gave me to maybe there is a fact cross checking that goes on between what you answer in paper and what you say in the eval session.  There were a number of questions related to depression, but I answered honestly and many of my answers to those type of questions were negative on my part (as I do not feel depressed at this time).  I realized I could hurt my claim, but I know I have PTSD and anxiety for sure so would think my claim would be fine even if I do not have depression (any thoughts on that??) 

I have questions my notes online and she has not posted them although it's been 4 days, but maybe that is because we are meeting again to finish the eval. and then the notes would be posted.  I do see notes from a MH social worker I spoke with on the phone and in person a few weeks back at the VA when I was still deciding if I wanted to go to the VA for MST therapy. 

At the end of my eval. the therapist without telling me any diagnosis did discuss various therapies for PTSD, Emotion Regulation and other therapies that could address "Generalized Anxiety Disorder" .   The only thing that I am concerned about as it relates to my MST claim would be that she heavily talked about my currently medical conditions and how much my life is impacted from them...wondering how much someone might try to blame my current anxiety etc. on my medical conditions vs my past MST event (if that makes sense).

Well in the end it went well and they let me leave the pych floor so that was a good thing.

[Andyman73]

@Michigander

You can always contact your local VA MST coordinator. They can also give you guidance.

Buck, as always...a good guy full of good intel.

Andy

[Andyman73]

Just a thought....if it doesn't pertain to you than you can just ignore me

There are health issues that stem from the long term effects of PTSD, so maybe that what she was trying to find out. Also how unrelated health issues effect you in conjunction with the ptsd. Like me, for example, I have a lot of physical pain issues due to other injuries that I am already SC'd for. And that chronic pain has lead to depression, which then feeds off the PTSD, making the whole thing worse. So that may well play in your favor.