Made a disability claim with the VA a year ago for a bunch of small things like tinnitus, skin rash, insomnia, environmental hazard exposure etc. Basically anything that was in my medical record, the group doing my claim for me said I should claim.

Was hoping to get maybe 10% to help pay for school supplies because my reserve education benefits aren't 100%. That's my own fault, but I might as well try and make up for it.

They denied me all of the physical disabilities (probably mostly prudent) except for 10% for tinnitus...

And 50% for PTSD that I did not claim.

It would seem that during the interview with the psychologist for the insomnia claim, they deduced that I am, in fact, crazy anxious.

It caught me off guard to be labeled like that, and I wanted to share with a few people that I don't know in person (though I guess I know some of you better than lots of people I do know locally).

Thanks guys.

Climb to an elevated position with a rifle. I believe that's how former Marines deal with everything, isn't it?

I can't explain Antony's unicorn or even why his title still says he's on a thirteen week vacation he failed but you do seem to have taken a serious turn to the left which could explain the PTSD diagnosis. I don't expect to be rated for any PTSD since I don't cry about life.

Also because papercuts can't give you PTSD.

Got sick, retard. I'm sad that I keep having to explain this.

I'm not following here. I didn't know you could file "skin rash" under disability claims in the first place.

Also I didn't know they handed out PTSD diagonsises like that. "Crazy anxious" is PTSD these days?

I never went to a psychologist before so I don't know things work in the world of psychological ...medicine.

Obviously.

Tell everyone I'm fine. That I don't actually have it. Then go crazy towards the end of the conversation on purpose just to freak them out.

Seriously, if you feel fine it's all good. I don't know how many people I know who do this but, they live the diagnosis just because they were told they have it. It becomes them.

Like a buddy I have. He was going through a rough patch... Death in the family, girlfriend left, etc... so, of course, he was feeling down. It was to be expected. He decided to go for therapy just so he had a chance to kind of vent and talk about it. To work through it in his own time sort of thing. So then he gets told he suffers from depression (duh, of course he's depressed right now. It was a bad time for him). After that, it was always on his mind. Somehow, it always managed to come up in his conversations. I guess he let it stick in his subconscious or something, but he just felt the need to keep that 'title'. "Yup, I suffer from depression, blah blah blah". Mind you, this is even after he's gone through the rough patch and came out the other side shining like gold. The man is never down now and always having a good time. Yet he feels the need to 'fulfill' that diagnosis. It changed him and made him a bit more cynical. However, that cynicism is about as real as the depression. He's just trying to show he's down now when he's not.

In short my point is, if you're told you have PTSD and you're going to get some VA benefits from it, take it. But if you honestly feel fine, and are more shocked by the diagnosis than anything, don't let it bother you. If you feel fine be fine. Don't go all "Yeah, I suffer from PTSD, blah blah blah" and start letting that run your life. If you functioned fine before, you can function fine after. It is a mental thing, not something like a terminal disease that's actually going to change you're ability to do things. They didn't tell you you have cancer or some rare blood disorder.

So is the insomnia related to the PTSD "deduction" in that it could be explained by the disorder? So do you, Spook, have the symptoms commonly associated with PTSD, and you just didn't know it? Or are surprised you got such a diagnosis by the interviewing psychologist because it couldn't be right?

Yes, insomnia is a symptom of PTSD, GAD and all other anxiety disorders.

So much gold in there. SO much...

Wookie, I may have taken a serious turn to the left of you, but I'm decidedly moderate. Anyway, I have this theory that most anxiety disorders (distinctly different from crying about life) are unrelated to political views. But I could be wrong.

I have certainly been functioning differently the last few years, but I didn't think that the fairly mild symptoms of anxiety I have been dealing with would be noticeable to even a professional. I was obviously very wrong and now I have to reevaluate if I am acting like an anxious ******** towards everyone in my life. I'm not so much concerned about all of the sudden being more ****ed up because of a diagnosis of something that they can't even agree on the definition of, but I certainly have stereotypes to avoid fulfilling now.

Mental diagnoses are a very real, very serious part of some people's lives; they actually do significantly affect the sufferer's ability to function. In fact, that is a primary qualifier of a mental diagnosis: if it does not significantly impair you, then it's technically not a mental issue.

That being said, there is a LOT of overdiagnosing done, especially for depression.

Now Spook, I don't know your situation, but you said that you DO have anxiety. The question is, Does it impair your ability to live life and be happy?

If the answer is no, rejoice! And still take the benefits and rejoice even more!

If the answer is yes, then you need to deal with it. But, as others have pointed out, don't let it define who you are. We are more than the sum of our psychoses.

ptsd? ****in whiner. be a man and walk it off.

*does army paperwork for 20 years*

*is wookie06*

ban this ****head

i can guarantee any anxiety disorder can have nothing to do with political views! hell i get horrible anxiety whenever i have to use a public restroom. but i would overcome that anxiety to take a crap on the governors desk if i could get away with it. well, i would except then i would be creating job security for a public union janitor... damn catch 22's

Firstly, if you're legitimately going through a rough patch and you're normally fine, it's not depression. However, such situations can trigger depression in those who aren't equipped to deal with it.

There are standard tests for depression, if he still scores as depressed then it's probably real. Do you have any idea just how hard it is to tell a friend that you're depressed? There's a huge amount of shame involved with being depressed, not to mention that many people will try and make you justify your depression (it can't be justified in any meaningful sense, depression is irrational). Maybe your friend is mentioning it a bit too often, but the very fact that he's mentioning it at all is a big ****ing deal, it shows that he's no longer ashamed of it. Even if you're right, and he's actually trying to live up to the label of depression, it still shows he's depressed, because no healthy person wants to be seen as depressed.

Yeah, Airborne Infantry involves a **** ton of paperwork.

Oh and, Spook, you should know I was teasing you and needling Antony. I love how Jon`C took it so serious though.

Lib, I've been through depression, and came out the other side a different person than who I used to be. And I wasn't diagnosed. I didn't even know I was depressed until recently when I was researching and discovered that I demonstrated a lot of symptoms of depression at the time (feeling hopeless all the time, inability to sleep, irrational avoidance of people, difficulty eating, etc...). I'm sharing this to make sure you understand that while you may very well be right about your friend, you are not a professional and have no right to make a "diagnosis" of his condition. You could be right, and he could be "living the diagnosis" as you say. On the other hand, his increased cynicism could very well be a remnant of that period of time in his life (having lost a family member myself, I can attest that the pain doesn't ever go away, you just kinda learn to live with it, which I'm sure affects your attitude and outlook on life). So, you should know that while you could be right, if you're wrong, you're probably doing more harm than good by casually dismissing something that is a major struggle for your friend. If you're a confrontational person, you might ask him about how he's doing and encourage him to not dwell on it so much. If you're not, then you need to put your opinion of the situation on the back burner and not get bitter when he mentions his depression.

Spook, obviously no one here can tell you if you have PTSD or not... But keep in mind three things. 1) The military doesn't like to just give out money for frivolous medical claims. 2) The psychologist that diagnosed you is a professional who is looking at you externally and with a knowledge and background that you don't have, so it's very likely that he/she recognizes signs of PTSD that you have simply learned to live with. 3) Having spent time in theater, it is normal and common that you should experience post traumatic stress. In fact it's so common and normal, that if you are *not* feeling it (to at least some degree), then you've likely got much more serious mental issues than PTSD.

As has been said, if you don't feel like there's a problem, take the money and continue to live happily. But I would caution you to consider that there may be some emotional issues lurking below the surface that may either currently be a problem that you don't recognize, or may become a problem later in life. Don't go making mountains out of ant hills, but you might want to spend some time digging a little deeper into your own mind and emotions, just to make sure everything's all good down there.

I actually wrote my senior thesis about how pharmaceutical companies are using integrated marketing and communications to slowly expand the definition of depression and other similar conditions to sell more anti-depressants. It focused on SSRI's and how over prescribed they can be, and honestly, how dangerous it can be to be so quick to identify clinical depression, which is a chemical imbalance in the brain, as the source of problems, rather than depression related to actual problems or issues that someone has to work through. I interviewed all kinds of psychologists who all talked about how over diagnosed clinical depression has become and how over prescribed SSRI's are. (One went on and on about how they essentially treat the symptoms, rather than the problem in most cases)

THAT BEING SAID, just because it's over diagnosed doesn't mean it's not a legitimate condition that real people suffer from. To completely dismiss claims of depression out of hand is to do them a real disservice.

I'm sorry, this little soapbox is only somewhat related, I just can't help myself when the subject is brought up.

I was diagnosed as having depression while I was in high school after a whole mess of crap went down my junior year. I was forced to take Celexa. After the initial prescription I refused to refill it because the fact that I had to dose myself to deal with problems made me feel even worse about myself. I was diagnosed after one short talk with my general practitioner, not even a psychiatrist. Apparently the trigger is to mention killing yourself.

Exactly. If the depression is the result of external forces, medication isn't going to solve the problem, and it should never be implied that it would. It also drove some of the psych people I interviewed nuts that general practitioners can prescribe stuff like that.

It doesn't solve the problem but it can be a very effective part of treatment. Depression, no matter the cause will (or at least can) result in a chemical imbalance (everything in your mind is physical, depression can trigger chemical imbalances). Fixing that imbalance through medication can make therapy much more effective by preventing the person from being too depressed. I mean, ever try talking to a depressed person? They tend to frame everything negatively because of their low mood, which makes therapy difficult. If you create a higher base mood it's much easier for them to function and work through issues.

I agree that they are over prescribed. I also think they should in most cases be prescribed by psychologists that work closely with patients and can monitor their progress. People respond differently to different antidepressants and negative effects need to be seen early so the medication can be stopped or changed. My dad responded terribly to Effexor, but it was perfect for me, despite our genetic similarity. Honestly I'm surprised Spruce was prescribed Celexa and not one of the more common, safer SSRIs like Zoloft or Lexapro.

I didn't know you were Airborne! That's pretty sweet. I never knew Airborne Infantry had paperwork guys!


I know. Just know that I will have the last laugh someday when I am an E-6.

You make a good point, (my brother was depressed for a long time and you're right, he did have a sense of hopelessness about actually resolving the issue) except that the withdrawal effects from SSRI's can range from not a big deal to really damn extreme, and we're not talking about less than 1% kind of figures here for the extreme effects. It's certainly not something to be taken lightly. And I think in many cases, particularly when a general practitioner is prescribing them, they're not following up with therapy.



I can definitely agree with that.

For the common, safer SSRIs like Zoloft, the withdrawal is usually just dizziness and irritability. If a person's properly weened off with decreasing doses there should be no withdrawal effects.

The best way I've found to describe depression and medication is as follows.

Think of depression as having inertia that pushes you towards negative thoughts and moods, most depressed people are more than capable of responding to positive events (which is why many people can be surprised when they find out you're depressed), but when left to their own devices will start to withdraw and feel hopeless. What the medication does (in most cases, there are a few that work in different ways) is lower that inertia so that it's easier to respond to positive things, and so it takes longer to fall back into a slump.

For some people this can be enough, if they're depressed because of a series of bad events (not to be confused with legitimate sadness), antidepressants can be all that's required to get them back into their previously healthy lifestyle. For others (like myself), the depression is the result of long-term negative thought patterns, the only real way to treat it long-term is through some kind of cognitive therapy where you're basically trained to think about things in a different way. The medication can make this process easier, but it's not a cure.

Emon, remember that this was over a decade ago that I was prescribed.

Just to clarify for everyone, I was NOT just dismissing his depression. If a friend comes to me about something, and tells me something, I believe them. If one of my friends tries to be serious with me I listen. This has actually caused me to be the butt of a great many jokes, but hey... in the end, the boy who cried wolf finally did see one and someone did come, even after all the 'jokes'. I'm that guy.

Now, about this specific friend... This incident was a couple years back (like two or three). Also, I'm kind of his best friend. One reason why he came to me about this before anyone, I know him better than most anyone.

Before the rough patch, the man was great. By that I mean he was not depressed. Honestly. When he ran into trouble I was there for him. In many cases still am. I was even the one that suggested if he was still having problems to find someone to talk about it with. Proffesionally. The reason why I told him that is I do have other friends who suffer from other mental disorders. Bi-polar, depression, and yes, I do have a friend who has been clinically diagnosed and suffers from schizophrenia. You want to talk about the shame and stigma attached to a mental disorder? You have no idea what he has to go through. He's a great guy and shouldn't have to deal with a lot of the crap he does. Just make sure he stays on his meds otherwise it can get pretty bad (he'll be the first to tell you that by the way).

Anyways, I know devastating it can be and I wanted him to find help if he could. It's not a joking matter. He took my advice. After he got his diagnosis, he let himself get worse. Yes, I said let. Why? Because suddenly he was using that as an excuse for a lot of things. Like I said, I deal with people who suffer from it. Who take medication for it. He, however, wasn't on any. Not that he wasn't taking anything, he literally didn't have any prescription. It wasn't neccisary in his case aparently. He never whined about needing it, he never said, "this is bad, I need help". He had no anxiety or trouble sleeping. No physical pains, nothing.

He was the same as he had always been except now he would bring up the depression if things did not work out his way. I was still sympathetic towards him though... until he actually played the 'I'm depressed' card to a friend of mine to have her pay for his lunch tab one day. He has a good job. He gets paid more than her or I (and I believe the two of us together). He actually likes his job. He had the money to pay but did not want to. As much as that irked me, I let it go.

When he started using his diagnosis as a sympathy play in order to pick up ladies, I came to the conclusion that I stated earlier in this thread. Depression, or any mental disorder, is not something to take lightly or joke around about. I have friends who have it bad. If he does have it, it's not nearly as severe as he's putting out there. He still comes to me when he does get down, but it's about the same things that he did before his rough patch. It's never as bad as that one period of time. I've suggested that if he is still feeling depressed, maybe he should follow through with a professional.

Long story short, as I said, it's not something to be taken lightly. I've seen bad. I've seen real bad. I'm still there for him regardless. No matter what, if he comes to me I'll be there. Even if I'm not convinced he has it. Also that I didn't just jump to that conclusion. It took a long time for me to come to that.

This is really well said and exactly my opinion.

Spruce, Zoloft has been around since the 90s. I don't know the circumstances of your diagnosis, however. Maybe the side effects of Celexa weren't as well known at the time.

That's more or less what I was getting at. I actually looked into the specifics a few years back and from what I gathered Celexa was more commonly used in conjunction with other drugs and more for treating bi-polarization than depression. Needless to say, I don't see him anymore.

To me, depression is a color. Gray, specifically. The "food" that is life is bland and tasteless, and you go day to day in a fog. Technically, this is the symptom known as anhedonia; there are several others associated with depression, but don't affect me nearly as much.

Get a second opinion from someone who wouldn't have liability to consider if they misdiagnose you. I was hospitalized once when suicidal and they gave me every diagnosis in the book just so they wouldn't get bit in the ass if I had something they didn't find.

I know Chesty didn't have ptsd! I know Smedly didn't either! Did Dan Daly have ptsd? I think not!

You wany disability for three things Ive suffered from my entire life. And when I say suffer I mean I just deal with it.

You sound just as bad as every fresh out of the service ******* Ive been to school with that just goes for gi bill checks every month.

Hell, if I could, I would just go for GI Bill checks every month

Note: actually I probably wouldn't, but not because of any moral aversion to using it for the checks. Just because I don't think I would do particularly well in the military.

I assume that "wany" is actually "want". I don't get the impression that he wanted to be diagnosed with it although he seems to be embracing it. We can argue the validity of the diagnosis but without actually knowing the specifics that is pointless. You raise an interesting point as the reasonable inference is that stuff like that is just life and you deal with it but the issue is the he might have issues related to his service to his country and many believe the country is responsible for treating service connected disabilities.

I do believe that Spook served in a combat specialty so it is likely that he experienced trauma. Even many that serve in non-combat specialties experienced trauma although it usually appears that those that "milk" PTSD diagnoses didn't serve in combat fields.

Can you read? I dont think you can. I didnt mention ptsd. At all.

As in I didnt care about that part of the post and chose to talk about a different part. Its called conversation, and you suck at it more than you suck at growing a moustache that doesnt make you look gay.

Pointing out a typo is really 1999, you should probably cut that **** out. It doesnt make me look dumb or help discredit an argument. It does however make you look like a jackass

Ptsd is a real disability. Tinnitus, skin rash, and insomnia really arent. If you can get benefits for ringing ears than I should be rich.

Uhh, tinnitus can drive people mad, and insomia can turn people into completely dysfunctional human beings.

Yeah, well, I didn't do particularly well either. I'm comfortably mediocre and average as a soldier and especially as a Marine. I'm also WAY too pretty to be in the military.

However, Rob, my ears ring because I've spent weeks and weeks teaching people to shoot and driving down highways with wind in my ear. My tinnitus is job related, and I got compensation for it. Everything else I claimed I did because I could, that's how the VA works. They are likely to grant you service connection for something that you really don't have and deny serious problems. You weren't particularly specific about who you were talking to, so I wouldn't get too bent out of shape that people thought you were talking about you having PTSD (entirely likely, I don't really know you) and not other things.

Wookie, I realize you were teasing and I was doing it back!

Thanks everyone else for your comments, I just wanted some third (2 and a half?) person perspectives on it.

Were you a PMI or a coach?