Posted on Sep 11, 2015
Should PTSD be confined to one specific event?
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Should the criteria of a specific event be expanded to include a cumulative event? Although not being shot, not being inside a vehicle as it exploded, or not being sexually assaulted, etc. should a veteran who has an anxiety disorder not have that disorder recognized as service connected?
PTSD
Stress
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 12
As someone that the VA has identified as having PTSD, I would say that my anxiety disordered started after one specific event. However, because everyone is wired differently, its very hard to say how one's mind will react. Plus, one's PTSD could be a result of the combination of events. Event A might happen and the person is fine but than event B, C, D, and E happen and its the combination of all them that causes the brain to react differently. Just my two cents.
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SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S.
SGT Ben Keen As a SO I always show the people that I am helping with paperwork what the VA uses to "score" the disability. 38 CFR establishes how veterans are compensated for disabilities. Part 4 enumerates these disabilities and presents a list and scoring mechanism.
Here is the section that deal with PTSD.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?rgn=div5;node=38:1.0.1.1.5#se38.1.4_1130
Good luck with your review!
Here is the section that deal with PTSD.
http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?rgn=div5;node=38:1.0.1.1.5#se38.1.4_1130
Good luck with your review!
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SGT Ben Keen
SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. - Awesome thanks for sharing! I'll be sure to take this with me to my next appointment.
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SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S.
SGT Ben Keen I would recommend that you take that to your private care provider by NOT to the VA. Having the "score card" could be interpreted as being "couched". Read and understand so that you will not unintentionally understate your reality. A constant I see in other vets is they always think someone is worse off than they are and what is affecting them is "no big thing".
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SGT Ben Keen
SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S. - That is sooo true and did apply to me before I started getting treatment. I didn't want to take the doctors' time away from others so I avoided going but thankfully, I had the support from friends and family and realized that what I was going through needed to be treated. Sometimes it's the modesty that we all practice that gets in the way the most. We never want to be prideful or make it all about us but there are times when you have to take care of yourself so you can help others. Thanks for the great advice!
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I'm not familiaf enough with VA's service connection criteria to answer that part (I'm not sure the VA is either, frankly.) However, the question of discrete event vs. cumulative trauma is one that is bouncing around the clinical realm now and was a hot topic during the rewrite of the DSM 5. I am aware of people with valid PTSD disgnoses who suffered from multiple discrete incidents, each of which would meet adequately Criterion A (precipitaing event.) The issue of cumulative sub-threshold trauma causing PTSD in the aggregate is still being argued, not so much for combat veterans, as for for first responders, law enforcement, and health care professionals. And abused children. Part of the difficulty in reaching consensus has to do with differing views on the etiology (origins) and mechanisms underlying PTSD. There are other, related anxiety disorders (e.g. Adjustment Disorder) that can look essentially like PTSD in their symptomology, but fail to meet the specific, discrete Criterion A activating event threshold. My own, personal opinion, based on my own understanding of the PTSD mechanism, is that chronic, low-level (sub-threshold) in combination with other environmental, social, and psychological factors, can lead to a "perfect storm" situation in which an event that otherwise would not result in PTSD, would do so. Often, reductions in social and family cohesion can result in lower resiliency, higher vulnerability, and PTSD, when otherwise that specific event would not.
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No fricken way!
There are two distinct flavors of PTSD.
One from a single traumatic event.
The other is from a constant grind over time.
Who is even suggesting this?
There are two distinct flavors of PTSD.
One from a single traumatic event.
The other is from a constant grind over time.
Who is even suggesting this?
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SSG Demetrius Davis
I have been diagnosed with an 'unexplained anxiety disorder'. I have been deployed to Bosnia (6 months), Iraq (12 months), Iraq (15 months), Iraq (12 months), Afghanistan (12 months). I exhibit emotional numbness and try my best to avoid crowds. If it were up to me I'd rarely go outside. I did not exhibit these behaviors before my military career. Of the VA mental health providers and the private mental health providers I have seen, they all say I have an anxiety disorder but because I have not experienced a specific traumatic event, the likely hood of my disorder is not PTSD related and my disorder has been deemed 'not service connected'.
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SPC Jan Allbright, M.Sc., R.S.
SSG Demetrius Davis When filing for a VA disability the narrative (the story you supply in the VA with the VBA-21-4138-ARE) is nearly just as important as the medial findings. Are you being assisted by a VSO? If not, beat it on down to the local VFW. They will help you with the narrative. It needs to be dripping with gore I'm afraid and most vets can't re-visit that easily. As an example, there are six (6) determination wizards at the Az VA. Three (3) are vets. The other thee (3) have no clue at what extended combat exposure is all about. They have never seen a vehicle disappear in a cloud of IED. So back up and take another shot at it!
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