How To Win VA Disability Benefits for Depression

How to win VA disability benefits for depression. Before we discuss VA disability benefits for depression, we need to understand how the VA views and rates VA claims for depression. VA disability ratings for depression depend on the severity of the veteran's mental health symptoms, which means the more severe your symptoms, the higher the VA rating for depression that you'll get. Clinical depression is most often diagnosed as major depressive disorder. That's a diagnosis that I have, and it affects how you feel, think, behave, and it can lead to a wide range of mental, emotional, physical, and social problems. All right, let's go over some frequently asked questions for depression. Is depression a VA disability? Yes, of course it is. The VA recognizes major depressive disorder as one of 31 mental health conditions that may be related to military service. So that makes depression a VA disability, and it's eligible for VA disability compensation under federal law. What are the VA disability ratings for depression? The VA will give you a disability rating based on the severity of your depression, specifically related to your level of occupational and social impairment. It all comes down to occupational and social impairment. All these disabilities at the VA, one way or another, you're impaired, and it affects your work life, and it affects your social life. If you're considered service-connected for depression, you'll receive one of six VA disability ratings, and they're broken out like this. You can get 0%, 10%, 30%, 50%, 70%, or 100%. Can you have more than one mental health rating, such as PTSD and depression? You can, but it's unlikely. You get one mental health rating for your multiple mental health diagnoses. I have five of them, but I have one rating, and I'm rated at 70% for mental health. It does happen, but it's unlikely. So unlikely, in fact, I've never actually seen it happen. The reason is because the depression is normally an underlying symptom of another mental health condition, like PTSD. The only time a veteran will be rated for more than one mental health condition is if the mental health symptoms and level and occupational and social impairment can be clearly differentiated among the different diagnoses. This is the hard part, because they're so intertwined. That's why we end up with one mental health rating. If you can unravel them, then you have a shot at multiple ratings. Like I said, I just never see it. For example, if you already have a VA rating for PTSD at 70%, which is exactly what I have, you will also have a diagnosis of major depressive disorder, and or maybe generalized anxiety disorder. The depression and anxiety will be rolled up as symptoms of the PTSD, thus you will not get rated separately for depression due to the VA's prohibition against pyramiding. They don't give you a rating for the same thing twice, and that's exactly the way it goes down with me. PTSD is where I'm at for 70, and then I have major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, episodic alcohol use disorder, and somatic symptom disorder, and they all are all intertwined and affect my PTSD rating. Can I receive special monthly compensation for depression? Absolutely. One way to do this is special monthly compensation under category S is given to a veteran if you have at least one condition rated at 100% and one or both of the following. You are completely and permanently housebound because of your service-connected conditions, meaning that you can't leave your house at all. This includes your home, hospital, ward, care facility, and this is expected to be the case for the rest of your life. So that's one way you can get it. The second way is if you have another condition rated 60% or a group of conditions together rated at 60% that are unrelated to the 100% condition. So one rating for mental health at 100, and then maybe you have a second condition for GERD rated at 60%. That would be a way to get special monthly compensation S, and if you qualify and win your claim for special monthly compensation S, you'll get an extra $360 for a month tax-free if you meet the mental health housebound criteria. You get a 100% VA disability rating for depression. Your depression symptoms must be severe enough to warrant the 100% rating is really what it comes down to. You do not need to meet every single subjective symptom listed under the general schedule to get rated for 100% depression, but you need to have a lot of the things in there or things that are similar to them, and we will go over those in a few minutes. Can I work with a 100% VA rating for mental health? You certainly can. It's a total myth that having a mental health rating somehow means you can't work. Even if you're rated at 100% for depression, there's no requirement or mandate that affects your work. With the VA, Social Security, different situation altogether, but we're not talking about Social Security. I think that's where the confusion comes in the most. VA ratings, if you're 100%, you can work unless you're on TDIU, which is known as individual unemployability. Will depression affect my security clearance? It's a myth that having depression will somehow affect your security clearance. Of course, you'll need to report it to your security manager and update your SF-86. However, it has no impact on your security and clearance, and that's, seeing this happen with thousands of veterans over the last couple of years. I know veterans and I know people that have security clearances, and this doesn't affect them whatsoever. I'm going to show you the different rating criteria and go over each of them a little bit briefly. I'm not going to read every single word. It's important for you to get in and understand the law and the rating criteria so you know where you are. Of course, you're going to have to get a board-certified psychologist to actually diagnose you with the severity of your symptoms, but it's good to know where you are. Then especially if you should be filing for an increase because your symptoms are worse, you should be looking at this stuff so you know what symptoms are. You know that it's worse because you feel worse, but understanding the words make a big difference. Just talking about combat veterans that have low ball ratings, this is why I think some of these low ones, 0, 10, 30, and even 50, are too low for a combat veteran. You're in a combat zone. You were affected. You're just not talking about it properly, and that starts with not understanding why you have a 0% rating. Let's start with that one. All right, a 0% rating for depression. A mental condition has been formally diagnosed, but symptoms are not severe enough to either interfere with your occupational and social functioning. This means you have a diagnosis of depression but no subjective symptoms. You have no social and occupational impairment, so you get a 0% rating. 10% mild or transient symptoms. You have very mild symptoms of depression. Maybe you take antidepressants. Maybe these medications keep you in check. You have bouts of depression every now and then, but it's not routinely. It's under control by use of medication. 30% fairly mild symptoms of depression. Perhaps you have some depression, some anxiety, memory loss, sleep problems, panic attacks, but you just don't have them very often. Memory loss as well. Typically, you're having panic attacks less than once a week in this category, and panic attacks are one of the things. If you're in a constant state of panic all the time, this isn't you. A 50% VA rating for depression. Now we're getting into moderately severe symptoms, and this all starts with zero symptoms, mild, moderate, moderate severe, and severe. That's kind of how the VA rates pretty much all disabilities, so this is no exception. The biggest difference between the 30% and 50% rating for depression is you're having a lot of trouble in your relationships, your work relationships, your family relationships, friends, family, all that stuff. Perhaps you don't have any friends or just want to be alone. I definitely fall in this category. Maybe you completely lost interest in activities or hobbies you once enjoyed. I know I fit into this as well. I kind of figured out a way to do this YouTube channel. It's technically a hobby. It's therapy for me, but I don't go outside and play baseball. I'm in way too much pain, and I don't like people enough to do those kinds of things, so my hobbies have changed. I just basically have one. You might even be divorced and can't get along with your spouse anymore. Angry outbursts can't control your anger. That's where this starts to show up. Another one is you're now having panic attacks more than once a week, so panic attacks are a big marker in these mental health ratings. 70% VA rating for depression. Very severe symptoms, and it's a big jump from the 50% level. The keyword change is deficiencies in most areas. Deficiencies in most areas of your social and work life. You check your windows, your doors. You have obsessive rituals as you go about your day. You're constantly scanning for threats everywhere you go, into the supermarket, into the parking lot, on your way into the supermarket. You have a surveillance system like I have set up. Those types of things fall into the 70% rating criteria, which is probably why I'm in it. Panic attacks, depression, and anxiety are now happening constantly. I'm almost in a constant state of panic to one degree or another. It's less when I'm at home, and I'm sitting here in my bunker, and I can see what's going on outside. My dog can alert me and stuff like that, but once I get in my car, road rage starts. Once I get into a store, yeah, it's weird the way I am just constantly assessing threats. You think about suicide often too. Maybe you're even having thoughts or making plans. This is one that's very embarrassing to talk about with anybody, but this is a big one in the 70% category. You have to talk about this. I've talked to a lot of you guys, and you haven't told anybody about this. I was the first one. As I appreciate that, you need to keep talking about it. You need to get real about it. You remember when you had those thoughts, or if you ever had a plan or whatever, you're going to need to be able to talk about that stuff in a consistent manner. It's fine if it makes you sad, and anger, and panicky, and makes you cry. It should do those things, because suicide's no joke, right? You're going to need to be able to talk to a board-certified psychologist that's going to provide you with an independent medical opinion. Most likely, you're going to a C&P exam for depression, and you're definitely going to need to be able to talk about all these things if you want to get a proper rating. That's why a lot of people are underrated. They didn't go in knowing that they should talk about this stuff. It's not like there's a roadmap here telling us to talk about it. Who cares? Who cares if you have depression? Nobody really cares. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to live with. It'd be nice if we could help you, but you do what you do, and it seems like it might be better to leave you alone. So we just do what we do. Quit doing that and start talking about it. Seek help. Get counseling from a professional person. You're unable to establish and maintain effective relationships at work and in your social life. You have divorces. You've been arrested a few times. You weren't able to put any kind of career together. You always want to kick your boss's ass. You can't stand the water cooler. You can't stand being in a cubicle. You're argumentative at work. Maybe you're biting your tongue because you have to, because you have your kids and your family. But even if that's the case, you need to talk about what you want to do to your boss and what you want to do to your co-workers, especially in the CMP exam. They want to know what's going on inside your brain and how hard it is for you to function as a husband and as a dad. If you're not a husband and a dad, then you don't have those parts. So it was a little different for me because I have nobody around me anymore, and I fall into this complete loner category. The 100% rating for depression, total social occupational impairment. You're at home all the time and you have major issues. You might have delusional thoughts, hallucinations, grossly inappropriate behavior, severe memory loss, the occasional inability to care for yourself. This is the highest one. You might even need aid in attendance and somebody to help take care of you for this stuff.