According to the department of Veterans Affairs, Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or that happens to you. During this type of event, you think that your life or others' lives are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening.
PTSD is a disability that you can service connect through VA Disability Compensation. However, in order to service connect on PTSD; you must have a diagnosis by a doctor. It is important to note that this diagnosis does not have to be administered by a Veterans Affairs doctor. A diagnosis from any doctor will suffice.
PTSD is a disorder that the VA can grant a Veteran between zero and one hundred percent for service connected compensation. Unlike some issues that peak at ten percent, or thirty percent, a Veteran can get service connected compensation up to one hundred percent for PTSD.
The VA can grant a Veteran service connected compensation in the following percentages:
A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough to either to interfere with occupational and social functioning or to require continuous medication.
Occupational and social impairment due to mild or transient symptoms which decrease work efficiency and ability to perform occupational tasks only during periods of significant stress, or; symptoms controlled by continuous medication.
Occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency and intermittent periods of inability to perform occupational tasks (although generally functioning satisfactorily, with routine behavior, self-care, and conversation normal), due to such symptoms as: depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, panic attacks (weekly or less often), chronic sleep impairment, mild memory loss (such as forgetting names, directions, recent events).
Occupational and social impairment with reduced reliability and productivity due to such symptoms as: flattened affect; circumstantial, circumlocutory, or stereotyped speech; panic attacks more than once a week; difficulty in understanding complex commands; impairment of short- and long-term memory (e.g., retention of only highly learned material, forgetting to complete tasks); impaired judgment; impaired abstract thinking; disturbances of motivation and mood; difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships.
Occupational and social impairment, with deficiencies in most areas, such as work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood, due to such symptoms as: suicidal ideation; obsessional rituals which interfere with routine activities; speech intermittently illogical, obscure, or irrelevant; near-continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function independently, appropriately and effectively; impaired impulse control (such as unprovoked irritability with periods of violence); spatial disorientation; neglect of personal appearance and hygiene; difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances (including work or a work like setting); inability to establish and maintain effective relationships.
Total occupational and social impairment, due to such symptoms as: gross impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations; grossly inappropriate behavior; persistent danger of hurting self or others; intermittent inability to perform activities of daily living (including maintenance of minimal personal hygiene); disorientation to time or place; memory loss for names of close relatives, own occupation, or own name.
It is important to note that it is very difficult to jump from fifty to seventy, or one hundred percent. Often times an increase such as this requires severe impairment. This can include, but is not limited to fear of leaving ones house, institutionalization, or causing physical harm to one’s self, or others.
When it comes to service connected disability compensation with PTSD, the VA determines your percentage of compensation based off something called your Global Assessment of Functioning Score, or GAF Score. Learn what these scores mean.
Thousands of Veterans have PTSD, and few are familiar with the support options available. Contact us today for more information and a free phone consultation.
You can contact us directly at jon@ptsdveteran.com