VA Psychologist not reporting

[jamesriley1990]

Reluctantly I have been seeking treatment at the VA for my PTSD.  I was reading over the notes of my psychologist and she did a PTSD screening of me and she is misreporting or not reporting things that I stated during our last session. I told her that I was having nightmares about being in the military and that all I could remember was I was feeling scared and angry and during recent events, I felt as if I was reliving my past experiences. What can I do in this situation? 

[john999]

If you want to get help from the VA establishing a disability you need to be a compliant and "humble" patient.  This means you have to cooperate with them even if you believe it is BS.    Whatever you say can and will be used to mitigate or increase the severity of your disability.  This to me is destructive of the therapeutic relationship,   but if you want what the VA has to offer "play ball".  Just be careful what you say to them and don't embellish the truth or tell any lies. If they catch you in a serious lie it will tend to haunt you forever.  Of course,  I am not saying you would do this on purpose, but just watch what you say to these VA angels of mercy.  If and when you get the opportunity to "unload" don't hold back on details of your symptoms and sufferings.  When a V shrink asks you a question they have a reason beyond just seeing how you are doing.  Yes, I am suspicious as hell ,  but this is after 40 years of dealing with them.

What events are you basing your PTSD claim on?  Were you a combat vet or did you witness a horrible accident?  This is usually what they want to hear.  If you came into contact with dead bodies or injured people this is also a reason, but PTSD is individual and what affects one guy will not always affect another.  In my day you almost had to have been badly wounded or in hand-to-hand combat to be considered as having a stressor.

[Buck52]

you can always ask to change therapist...because you need a therapist you can click with....then everything will work out.

[john999]

As Buck says,  get another therapist.  If the person you are seeing now is minimizing your symptoms you can find someone who is not so blind.

[jamesriley1990]

7 hours ago, john999 said:

If you want to get help from the VA establishing a disability you need to be a compliant and "humble" patient.  This means you have to cooperate with them even if you believe it is BS.    Whatever you say can and will be used to mitigate or increase the severity of your disability.  This to me is destructive of the therapeutic relationship,   but if you want what the VA has to offer "play ball".  Just be careful what you say to them and don't embellish the truth or tell any lies. If they catch you in a serious lie it will tend to haunt you forever.  Of course,  I am not saying you would do this on purpose, but just watch what you say to these VA angels of mercy.  If and when you get the opportunity to "unload" don't hold back on details of your symptoms and sufferings.  When a V shrink asks you a question they have a reason beyond just seeing how you are doing.  Yes, I am suspicious as hell ,  but this is after 40 years of dealing with them.

What events are you basing your PTSD claim on?  Were you a combat vet or did you witness a horrible accident?  This is usually what they want to hear.  If you came into contact with dead bodies or injured people this is also a reason, but PTSD is individual and what affects one guy will not always affect another.  In my day you almost had to have been badly wounded or in hand-to-hand combat to be considered as having a stressor.

I am being respectful with the psychologist, she seems understanding of my concerns. People I tell my stories to really cant believe that this stuff actually happened. I just thought everything that I go through was normal but when my co workers (fellow vets) hear my stories they urged me to seek help because the things I was telling them appalled them.  But the aspects of my claim are based on personal assault and MST.  

Edited April 13, 2019 by jamesriley1990

[ShrekTheTank]

5 hours ago, jamesriley1990 said:

I am being respectful with the psychologist, she seems understanding of my concerns. People I tell my stories to really cant believe that this stuff actually happened. I just thought everything that I go through was normal but when my co workers (fellow vets) hear my stories they urged me to seek help because the things I was telling them appalled them.  But the aspects of my claim are based on personal assault and MST.  

Did these assaults happen before or during your time in the service?

Remember the Military Bought you the way you were if these events happened before service!  

My event may or may not help you, but it is relevant to me and my PTSD.  I was born into a Polygamist cult.  It was and still is the largest in the world.  I bring this up because it was traumatic and I never understood how it affected every day of my life.  When I got accepted into the military they never asked a single question about my past and I am not blaming them for what happened to me.  

Anyway fast forward I spent the better part of 2003/2004 in Iraq and saw/participated in some challenging things to witness.  So both of these play a huge part in my mental health and they are linked.  I had an IMO done for this which showed how bad it was and how and what the triggers are.  

I don't talk a lot about my past here, just remember you are one whole person all the events in our lives shape us for who we are and what we want to be.  We are here to help you and at the end of the day we all served and this will hopefully be our last long battle we have.   

[john999]

Shreck

 

                        Your past before the service is something you don't really want to bring up or dwell on when trying to establish a service connected disability.  The VA has a tendency to look back at your unusual past and try to say that these pre-service events are what has been the major factor in your PTSD.   These pre-service events are fine for therapy or treatment from a non-VA source.  The VA in my day at least was apt to look at a person's past and make a diagnosis of a personality disorder instead of a genuine mental health issue like PTSD.  This is why I say focus entirely on your military service.  If you were exposed to horrendous events in the military this is what counts.  Like you say the military accepted you as you were.  You did not get a major psychiatric exam to determine your mental state before enlistment.  In my time they drafted guys if they had a pulse.  After the person had a breakdown due to stress the army would say you had a pre-existing disorder and the fact you were exposed to combat had nothing to do with it.  I experienced all this crap back in the early 70's after Vietnam and I don't think the VA and military have really moved on since then.  They do want to minimize any compensation they award with these phony PTSD cures.