Falsely claiming PTSD for VA benefits?

First folks need to stop analyzing other people’s VA claims, that’s the job of the VA personnel; second stop broadcasting your situation/compensation with every Tom, Dick and Harry...my two cents.

All over the place but not hard to follow. First PTSD does not require one to have been in combat, or fired a weapon, or even in the military. PTSD comes from a "brain overload" as it were resulting from a very traumatic episode that one has endured or witnessed. Was he fit for duty in the National guard, maybe the better question is was he fit for duty period. It would seem that someone somewhere along the way would have noticed if he was "all there" for lack of a better term, and had it looked into. If his visits to the Psychologist were a matter of record, then that would preclude him from ever owning a firearm legally. As far as defrauding the government, I would say that this is a good possibility, I would also say that the decision to award full disability was in error and should not have been done so quickly. While it seems the VA doesn't care, they do, just not enough. And they do have a path to pursue an investigation, all they need is a credible report with actual evidence to support those claims. To me, and this is only my personal opinion from life's experience and 34 years in the military, 22 years as an MP/ Investigator, this stinks of fraud all the way up and down. And sadly, this kind of thing will not end as this is where we as a society are heading....

I know this is an old post and my answer isn't really for the OP, but more so for others.
YOU ARE NOT THE VA RATING POLICE!
Don't worry about what someone gets from the VA legit or not. If they're defrauding the VA, trust me, it'll come out in the wash.
The VA has no issue with letting veterans know that they caught someone pulling a scam and that they are doing time and/or paying money back.
This is for the current active service members, once you get out, you really aren't your brothers keeper.
You stay in your lane and you do you, you shouldn't have time to worry about someone else and if you do, then you're wrong.

Infact PTSD diagnosis only needs one event. I am married to an active duty soldier I am the one that has complex severe PTSD ! I got it from a series of life-threatening events domestic violence abuse as a child. PTSD is not just for soldiers and that is extremely insulting in fact the highest rate of PTSD is in women! PTSD is not combat related
As TV and movies would like you to believe that you’re someone is raging and see bombs going off and being shot it in your head that is not PTSD that is TVSD !
Sadly my husband now has PTSD but he did not before he became a soldier his PTSD however does not have anything to do with combat but accidents he was involved in and saw during regular duty on the base. so you can put your pistol away it’s not about gun fire!!

There are many that are abusing this whole PTSD thing. From a legal standpoint, it is better to not claim PTSD in the long run. If you even get in a fight, divorced, receive any sort of false claim, or in any way have to defend yourself on the civilian side, you will loose. To claim PTSD, in the eyes of the civilian world, is to claim to be crazy, unhinged, abusive, and dangerous.

We are now living in a time where everyone wants to be the victim. There is more benefit in being weak and broken than there is in being strong and having self-control. People would rather encourage self-destruction instead of provide correction.

Anyone collecting VA disability for PTSD should be banned from possession of firearms

To start, everyone's triggers for what eventually becomes PTSD are different, and everyone's resilience is also different. It's currently known as post TRAUMATIC STRESS disorder, not post combat or post rape. Just the stress alone is enough, such as excessive bullying or too many long hours with little to no decompression time. A mere deployment is enough to add stress. A unit that overtly or covertly shames members for needing proper stress relief is part of the problem. Commaders who don't follow the rules should be made examples of.

But what of the guy who is committed fraud? How do you know? I certainly don't. I have anger management issues which tick off some of the PTSD boxes, but am well adjusted in the other categories. So if I request PTSD compensation, I should expect it to be denied. PTSD is pretty much cross 50%, you're 100%; fall short and you're 0%. Until the VA recognizes that someone is partially affected and should be compensated, this will encourage someone to overstate their symptoms.

The VA has a bad track history of looking for one tiny justification to deny a claim, so that only encourages legitimate claimants to blow things out of proportion to only get what the deserve.

If the facts are true as presented, this appears like fraud. Someone that disabled to gain a PTSD diagnosis and compensation likely needs regular counseling and medications. You don't get cured with today's science short of death. PTSD is a result of permanent changes to brain chemistry and trying to find the right combination of drugs just helps you get the brain chemistry close to where it should be. Unless this guy magically got cured through experimental therapies, he still has PTSD. If he really says he no longer needs drugs, then he's inadvertently admitting he's no longer disabled. That means fraud.

If no one is listening, keep yelling. You have to find out who can investigate. Get your ducks in a row. They don't want to investigate and waste their time. Find out how PTSD is dignosed and treated. Help the investigator by checking all those fraud boxes for him or her. The easier their job is, the more likely the fraudster will get caught.

It just ain't popular at this point in time to investigate such claims. The VA requires you to link a provable event like deployment or presence at a certain place and time to PTSD and then go through it with psych. So in some way, he was able to connect his behaviors to an event that the VA thought was credible. It is even possible that the event was a sexual or non sexual assault of which he was the victim, rather than combat, which would also explain his ambiguity and difficulty in dealing with this condition. Or he could have fooled everyone. But can you see where you trying to be the agent of justice in this situation is going to possibly wreck you instead? As far as ability to shoot / hunt / conceal carry, well PTSD is not (automatically) a legally disqualifying event at this point in time. Finally, look up HIPA and you will see it is illegal for you in your official capacity to go after his medical claims by exposing them publicly. So again, you pursue this guy and his case at your own risk.

There are those that will try to get whatever they can. This will always be true. PTSD is very hard to diagnosis. When I was going through the process I was asked about my experiences (stressors) by many docs at different times and then putting them together to see if the story changed. I guess what I am trying to say is that there is a many ways for the docs to see if someone is trying to talk their way into a rating. They even went so far to find me incompetent (removing my 2nd amendment) to make sure.

Honestly PTSD can affect an individual in many different ways. Myself serving 20 years suffer from PTSD 4 combat tours and that includes 2 15 month deployments. I have nightmares, outburst, want to be alone all the time, I put off therapy for awhile due to having to talk about and re-live the events almost every session was taking a toll on me on top of the medication prescribed to me, I had enough and had to find an alternative to for my issues, as for your question, who really knows and why, can you fake having PTSD? I honestly can’t answer that cause I personally have not met a veteran or Soldier currently serving that doesn’t have some sort of traumatic event regardless if served in combat or a garrison Soldier. The military puts a lot of strain and stress on an individual where it can cause and lead to depression, anxiety which those two are very much linked to PTSD in Soldiers. I am pretty sure if someone was to fake it the Doctors/Specialist would recognize it and address it.