Is it possible to get a separation discharge changed to a medical discharge after leaving the military?

CPO Sara Chobot, you're not going to like hearing it, but your chances of having it recharacterized are pretty low. However, if you can prove a service connection to your issues, then you'll receive disability entitlements from the Veterans Administration.

Easy one first - contact a Veteran Service Organization (VSO) to assist you in submitting a claim. They can walk you though everything you'll need and assist in putting together your paperwork to send to the VA.

Harder one now - In order to have your discharged changed to a medical retirement, you'll have to prove that situation existed while on active duty and that it was negligence or some other factor for the reason you weren't medically retired. Even then, you'll face a very steep uphill battle.

A number of individuals HAVE been able to change their discharge characterization based on changes in laws, reclassification of medical conditions, etc. A notable examples would be the new guidance that DOD issues in 2017 about the "liberal consideration" in upgrading cases involved PTSD, TBI, other mental health conditions, etc. However, the general guidance (except in these narrow situations) is, "the ADRB may not change your discharge for nondisability reasons to a disability separation or retirement."

This too you can seek help from a VSO, but not all VSOs might be able to give you the same level of assistance involving submissions to a Discharge Review Board. It's perfectly acceptable to use one VSO for VA related stuff and another VSO regarding your discharge, however try to keep them the same just for ease of paperwork.

No, it's not, and yes it is. This is exactly why people need to follow up with medical care and medical separation before ETS. Once you ETS the opportunity is gone.

People have had their separations reviewed and changed, but it's not going to happen with you. You can apply to your service's board of corrections to have your separation reviewed and changed. This happened with all the GWOT Soldiers that Madigan separated for Adjustment Disorder during the height of the war. A review found the Pysch was declaring all the PTSD cases as Adjustment Disorder and they were all opened again by the Army Review Board and evaluated for medical separation.

Technically, this is the route you could take with your case. Realistically, any review board will look at your record at the time of separation. If you were not recommended for medical separation, you were considered medically qualified for retention at the time, and your separation was valid. If you were recommended for medical separation and placed in the medical evaluation and chose to separate anyway, you have no legal recourse.

Basically, no review board is going to overturn your separation at the time if you willingly separated. If you were involuntarily separated at the time, you may have a chance.

I have not had to deal with this!