Should I fight for PTSD?

[Fearless]

Hello everyone. 

Some background info:

1. I have a 70% SC rating for  Major depression
2. I'm diagnosed with Major depression and unspecified anxiety disorder.

My LCSW said that I suffer from PTSD and that my depression and anxiety are all symptoms of it. She was baffled as to why the VA has not added PTSD to my problems list. 

Should I even bother with getting this changed to PTSD , or hold what I got? 

 

[GeekySquid]

6 hours ago, john999 said:

easily

is the operative word in your post. Many 70%'s get denied and those that fight often lose, even at the BVA.

[seminoles]

13 hours ago, GeekySquid said:

glad you did that, sorry you experienced it. Hope you filed a complaint with VA and Medical Board in your State.

 

 

I did not, sadly the MH clinic at my local VA after my long time psychiatrist transferred 5 years ago has been awful to say the least.  I had to have a congressional inquiry just to have therapy at one point, I had one horrible psychiatrist after another, finally received telehealth pscyhologist who is AMAZING out of PA and was sent outside the VA for psychiatry, then that provider closed.  Now, I travel 3 hours each way to another VA for psychiatry after the head of the local VA psychiatry sat with my telehealth request from community care in his inbox for 3 months and did nothing.........I found that that it was waiting in his inbox from another provider.  I called the whitehouse hotline to complain and of course he was then calling me all day long and talking to my spouse trying to get me in for care.  He didn't get a damn I was without a provider for almost 6 months until he was called after I called the hotline.  He got busted and was trying to cover his ask.   I refused to be seen in that clinic and I will never again set foot in it.  Even though I have been approved for community based care there are no providers who will see VA patients and they insist there is zero telehealth psychiatry available.   The psychiatrist I see now is night and day different to the mh clinic at my local VA.  He is much like my old psychiatrist.  He is very good and actually gives a damn.  Go figure, he isn't like the last 3 women I saw who are dismissive, never look at me, read questions off a screen, act as if I am fine and then just renew meds and say well if you don't have a plan of suicide then knock on wood........you are good. See you in 3 months.  Horrible.

[GeekySquid]

10 hours ago, seminoles said:

hen just renew meds and say well if you don't have a plan of suicide then knock on wood...

Having a VA drug pusher (that's what I call the shrink I had in NOLA) pn speed dial is something I have heard from many vets with PTSD and or MH diagnosis from the VA.

Mine kept literally asking me to try harder and harder medications every time I saw her....When she said it might be a good idea to add Lithium to the Seroquel I fired her.

I dropped the Serodquel too.

I told them all then and I tell them today I do not believe in Better Living Through Chemistry.

10 hours ago, seminoles said:

The psychiatrist I see now is night and day different to the mh clinic at my local VA.  He is much like my old psychiatrist. 

Have you discussed the commute issue with him directly and maybe ask for a referral to a closer shrink? I know you like him and that there are limited options but moving closer to the VA seems over kill (LOL) as does the drive.

your profile says you are in FL which surprises me that you don't have a TeleHealth or Community Care provider. Trust me I know the state for many reasons including graduating from HS in the Heart of Fl and having to Castrate a Bull to pass HS in that county...this was before the Mouse built his house near there.

Overall I am just glad for you that you now have a shrink who cares and you keep making the effort to stay in treatment.

[seminoles]

On 7/28/2019 at 9:18 PM, GeekySquid said:

1

Have you discussed the commute issue with him directly and maybe ask for a referral to a closer shrink? I know you like him and that there are limited options but moving closer to the VA seems over kill (LOL) as does the drive.

your profile says you are in FL which surprises me that you don't have a TeleHealth or Community Care provider. Trust me I know the state for many reasons including graduating from HS in the Heart of Fl and having to Castrate a Bull to pass HS in that county...this was before the Mouse built his house near there.

Overall I am just glad for you that you now have a shrink who cares and you keep making the effort to stay in treatment.

I live near Tallahassee so we are kind of in no mans land with nothing around us for hours in any direction so it makes us an island for care options.  There are no community care providers sadly, I had one and their office closed and he was also amazing.  When we move it won't be in Florida.  I just don't see my provider as often as I should to be honest.  I see my psychologist weekly and psychiatrist well as often as I can.   I don't have a choice but to see someone as I have multiple mh issues that need mediation and as most with those sorts of diagnoses know medication changes are never ending. 

[GeekySquid]

8 minutes ago, seminoles said:

I live near Tallahassee so we are kind of in no mans land

I know you are up in the panhandle, i am from florida and in fact a cousin worked on the state school legislative committee decades ago, so I know a bit about Tallahassee personally. You have like 200k people there, so it seems strange that you have such limited care. Sad because the drive to Jax, Tampa or Orlando is really long and really boring...I surely wish they allowed you Tele-med.