Falsely claiming PTSD for VA benefits?

Over the years, I have seen way too many vets collect disabilities who, in my view, don’t warrant them.

I would have to ask, where was his overseas tour? Was it in a combat zone? I have an example of this with my uncle’s tour in Nam. He was not in an area where he fired his rifle as a Marine weatherman. However he was close enough to get bomb raids and have to run for shelter and had a risk on VC entering the camp. The closest he got to combat was when he was going on R&R but his bird got reassigned to pick up wounded. He ended up having to head some unlike Marines head together with his hands. Would you believe he should get ruled as having PTSD even though he didn’t fire his rifle?

There are many medics also that have never been in a combat zone, yet watched men and women coming to their field hospital in various degrees of dismemberment. Do they get to be ruled as PTSD?

Now if this soldier was stationed overseas outside a combat zone and never saw these type of things or had to truly fear for his immediate death from an enemy. The. I would say no.

Unlikely to get 100%, I got 70% on PTSD. My worn knees and back are not considered a problem though.

You seem to think you are smarter than VA psychologists and are able to see into his head.
There are really two issues.
1. The PTSD. The VA does a pretty good job of vetting PTSD. I was evaluated by a retired Army doctor who served at the same time. There were at least four psychiatrists.
2. His threatening his fellow soldiers. This should be handled as a separate issue.
Overall, don't get your self in a tizzy.

I see this all the time and it makes me sick. My coworker did 6 years in active Army. He gets 90% for shoulder and back from VA. He plays competition softball damn near every weekend. You cannot tell me this is not fraud. Over 50% of the guard members I served with are getting some % of disability. Some claim PTSD and get VA money and never left the wire in Iraq. Just sad.

This is a trick question in the worst way. The man claims he sick and you have to decide whether you believe him. Now let’s take two people the first person is a doctor that has 12 years of training in another 10 years of actual practice he’s interview the individual and looked at a hell of a lot of things and come to a conclusion. The second person (me) Has no formal medical training but has read several books and articles about the case he has first-hand knowledge of the individual because he talk to him a total of 10 hours over some five years and he has an opinion. No which would you as a reasonable juror believe. It’s very possible that either or both of the people making a diagnosis or wrong. But if one of the individuals is right and the other is wrong I’m going to bet on the doctor. It’s certainly true the doctors are not always right but they have a better batting average than the average citizen who does not know what he’s talking about. Out of the millions of people that the VA sends money to are there some that are gaming the system and should be caught and punished? Absolutely. And if you have real information you should report it to the appropriate authorities but if you’re just sitting around the bar speculating then you’re throwing mud on a fellow veteran who may not deserve it. In my personal case it was brought home to me when I got a liver infection and almost died. The liver is inside and no one could see it and even I didn’t know what was happening to me. At first the doctors were confused and didn’t realize what it was either. Even after they diagnosed it and started trying to treat me things were not going well it really really looked like I was going to die. On the outside you couldn’t see anything. But once or twice a week I just go “ stupid“ I didn’t know my own name I didn’t know what or where I was I didn’t know who anybody else was I couldn’t take care of myself at all. A couple days in the hospital with IVs and I was all straightened out. Remember this went from once a month to a couple times a week over a years time and I didn’t know any of it was happening to me only after I was cured and got a liver transplant did my wife and the doctors tell me what happened. Back to this case I don’t know anything about it. But something that happens to you at 25 can trigger a memory from something to happen to you at five and suddenly you have PTSD. The thing that happened to you at 25 didn’t / wouldn’t affect anyone else but you had a pre-existing condition because of what happened at the age of five and you didn’t even know it

I've always contended that there were more veterans falsely claiming PTSD then the ones who really suffer from it. I never said to my psychologist that I suffered from PTSD however thru several consultations I was diagnosed with not 1 but 2 different types of PTSD BUT I NEVER CLAIMED IT AND NEVER WILL. I know this guy who had hit the VA up claiming PTSD because he had his ass kicked ONCE by 3 fellow enlisted personnel and he actually is getting paid. He has a big insulting mouth and most likely deserved having his ass kicked.
Sgt. GM Clark U.S.M.C.

I'll just say what everyone else is failing to say to an "Unverified Veteran" MSgt that for all we know is a poser trying to stir the pot.

Stay in your own effin lane and don't worry about what you can't control..

as someone with PTSD 100% VA disability, most of the question really demeans and really denigrates and really makes all kinds of totally false uninformed and anti-science accusations against anyone with PTSd. and really not very polite to any veteran. the accusations of fraud are paricularly damning and particularly dehumanizing. It is almost impossible for the VA to award anyone a disability for PTSD without almost impossible requirements for a professional ironclad diagnosis, so it really insults psychiatry and psychology science and the profession.

The insults here to the profession of psychiatry and psychology are beyond forgiveness because our therapy, our lives requires that we trust our therapists and this screed says doctors don't know shit and our therapy is shit. it is not. 30 to 40 veterans die of suicide every day ... every single day .. because people spread false disinformation like this around. we are targets and every day a police officer shoots one or two veterans just for practice, another ptsd fraud dead they say

huge chip on somebody's shoulders. sounds like they need serious medical care

Write to the office of investigation at the VA. but if the complaint is just a series of basdeless unfounded wild accusations i don't think they would take it seriously either

this kind of wild talk hurts everybody. that is my professional opinion

Here's my two cents, first and foremost, the adage of claiming PTSD is not something that is classified once someone claims it. Initially, a person who claims this condition is claiming Post Traumatic Stress, if the symptoms have progressed or been present for longer than six months then the condition is claimed a disorder. However, this condition has been used to death and beaten like a dead horse. The reason for this is because if someone claiming this condition who knows the symptomology it is very easy to fool a provider. I'll give one such case; we had one cat who deployed with me on my last combat deployment. It just so happened that this guy would embellish some outlandish stories of his past tour in Korea claiming he had killed a north Korean general, all this while being stationed in the Hovey cut of camp casey. His stories didn't end there upon his return he would claim his combat exposure while on patrol. The only problem was it was hard to be on patrol while working in BDE TOC. He eventually finished his enlistment and was awarded 100 % due mainly to his PTSD. Now most of us would agree this is a clear case of fraud, however, the real tragedy is those who are honestly suffering with this condition find it hard as hell to receive the rating they truly deserve.

Along the lines of PTSD there is now a new condition that few really know about which is what I have called Playstation PTSD or second hand PTSD. Which is basically someone developing PTSD based on the exploits of others. Yes you heard me right if you and a buddy are talking about what you did at a particular time and place relating to something traumatic an individual who has never experienced anything remotely will mentally internalize your exploits, adopt them as their own and begin to suffer emotionally from something they were never even present to witness. I discovered this phenomenon when I was working on my undergraduate work in psychology. Crazy I know. If someone looks at the DSM V one would look at all the disorders within the text, but they would then question themselves when it came to the PTSD section. I mention this because this section has more than any other section. Meaning the umbrella of symptoms is far greater than those of other conditions. Conditions such as associative disorder, histrionic disorder, agoraphobia, OCD and many more. Since the time PTSD has been introduced into the field of mental health it has morphed into this never ending classification. It is not like "shell shock, battle fatigue or battle exposure" instead it is a mix of these conditions and everything else that may cause a person to suffer a traumatic episode.

Relating to this young thundercat you mention in your brief it may highly be likely that his condition is fraudulent. The problem is how do you go about proving this without looking like someone who has an axe to grind? Since obtaining this person's medical records are a dead end and having them self admit the claim of PTSD is a fraud you are pretty much in a stalemate. The only recourse would be to make the VA aware but remember no one likes admitting they have made a mistake.