How to CRUSH Your VA C&P Exam for PTSD!

Today I am covering everything you need to know about VAC&P exams for post-traumatic stress disorder. I'm going to share how you crush it no matter how scared you are right now. So first things first, getting scheduled for any compensation and pension exam is scary. It's a little bit uncomfortable, but I think if you know what to expect and how to prepare for the big day, I'm also going to teach you how to be uncomfortably vulnerable, share your uncomfortable truths about how your PTSD is negatively affecting your work, your life, your social functioning. I'm also going to cover some tips and strategies for exam day, as well as some questions you should be prepared to answer. Now first things first, there are three different types of PTSD C&P exams. First is something called a PTSD initial exam. This means that you're filing a new claim for PTSD. You don't already have a service-connected VA rating for PTSD. You're a first-time filer. Now initial PTSD claims and exams, it's going to be more in-depth and more thorough because they're going to go way back to the very beginning, and they're also going to have to validate something called your PTSD stressor event. Now the VA has a new form for that that you need to fill out and upload with your claim. It's the VA form 21-0781. That's your stressor statement for post-traumatic stress disorder. Now again, PTSD initial exams, it covers both combat and non-combat related PTSD claims. The second type of PTSD C&P exam is something called a PTSD review exam. This means you already have a VA disability rating for PTSD, but you've requested an increase. Now sometimes you're going to get popped for a review exam within the first five years of having your initial PTSD rating because you're being re-evaluated. It's called a routine future evaluation. The third type is a PTSD personal trauma exam. It's the same general thing. It's a PTSD exam, but the stressor event involves some type of trauma, traumatic stressor. Maybe it's military sexual assault, harassment, battery, robbery. The only difference between personal trauma exams and those that aren't personal trauma is they're going to ask perhaps some more sensitive questions. What is the purpose of a VA compensation and pension exam? There's four things that you need to be aware of that the C&P examiner is trying to ascertain. Number one, they are trying to determine if you have a medical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder that conforms to DSM-5 standards. That's the diagnostic statistical manual for mental health conditions that the law governs under 38 CFR part 4, the schedule for rating disabilities. So number one, determine the diagnosis. Number two, validate the stressor event. Again, it could be combat, personal trauma. The key element for whether your stressor event is good enough is whether or not you feared for your life. The third thing the examiner is going to provide their medical opinion on whether they believe your PTSD was caused or made worse by your active duty military service. Now again, that's only for initial claims for PTSD. If you already have a VA rating for PTSD, they're not validating your stressor, they're not confirming your diagnosis, they're not giving a medical opinion. They're trying to determine if your symptoms have worsened, meaning you would get the higher rating. The fourth part is the assessment of your severity of symptoms in terms of frequency, severity, and duration, and then how do those symptoms negatively impact occupational and social impairment. Again, those are the four things that the examiner is trying to determine on exam day. What can you expect during a C&P exam for PTSD? Number one, there's going to be a comprehensive and detailed review of your medical history, your medical records. The examiner has access to all of this stuff prior to the exam. Number two, there's going to be discussions of symptoms. The examiner should ask you about how severe your symptoms are, when you notice them, how often you experience them. Be prepared to talk about everything including, you know, hallmark PTSD symptoms like flashbacks, nightmares, anxiety, depression, OCD-like behaviors, avoidance behaviors. Number three, negative impacts on your work life and social functioning. Be prepared to talk about this and use examples. So for example, here would be something. My anger is so severe it's hurting my relationship with my spouse. My kids are afraid of me. My insomnia is so severe I can't sleep and it's impacting my work. I'm not alert. I fall asleep at work. I've gotten in trouble at work. Be prepared to talk about those things. The examiner is also going to go through a detailed mental health evaluation and walk through your history from your childhood to your military service to your post-military service. There could be some psychological testing. It's usually just some questionnaires which I'll cover a little bit later but then the examiner is going to complete the DBQ for PTSD, the disability benefits questionnaire. Absolutely a critical piece of document and then that document is going to flow forward to the VA Raider for evaluation. What are some common questions that you can expect? Well let me give you an example. Describe for me your current symptoms of PTSD. How do your current symptoms of PTSD negatively affect you? Can you give me some examples of how your PTSD is negatively impacting your work, your life, your social functioning? Again be prepared for those types of things and then when it comes to PTSD symptoms pay particular attention to the 31 mental health symptoms listed in the VA DBQ for PTSD. Now the standard is you don't need to have any of those symptoms under the law technically. However, VA Raiders and C&P examiners they are going through that list of 31 symptoms on the DBQ like a checkbox and they're assessing whether you have them and then how severe they are. Now a common misconception among veterans is that you know you need to have all those symptoms checked or well the examiner only checked six of these and I've got 17 of them. Well just because you think you have a symptom of mental health doesn't mean you meet the clinical criteria that an examiner is going to assess on exam day. Now the other thing you need to understand is the number of symptoms checked on the PTSD DBQ does not correspond directly to a VA rating. What matters is the severity of symptoms that are checked. Let me give you an example. I've seen a veteran have 12 of the 31 symptoms checked and they got a 30% rating for PTSD. I've seen a veteran with four of the symptoms checked who got 100% rating for PTSD. The difference is the severity of the symptoms that are checked. So go review that and have a general understanding of where you fall. Now some tips. Gather your records and documents and review your medical evidence prior to exam day. Write down some functional impacts and impairments that you're having. List specific examples of how your PTSD is negatively impacting you. I'll give you a couple more. Hey my anger is so severe my road rage I drove somebody off the road the other day and got out ready to fight. Hey my insomnia is so severe that I can't sleep and I'm having trouble with my work. I'm falling asleep at work. I got written up for poor performance. Maybe your OCD like behaviors are keeping you up at night. You're constantly checking windows and doors. Maybe you don't want to leave your home. Maybe literally your PTSD is so severe you don't want to leave your house. Maybe every time you go to a restaurant you have to sit with your back to the exit so you can see who's coming and going. Maybe you're constantly suspicious of everyone. Maybe your anxiety is so severe that you can't be out in crowds anymore and it's impacting your ability to function in daily life. These are things that are very real. Okay by the way these are things that affect me so I can share these things with you but you need to be prepared to tell your true story and you need to be uncomfortably vulnerable to talk about how your PTSD is negatively impacting you. I also think you should review the DBQ for PTSD the disability benefits questionnaire so you know you can bring somebody with you. I get asked this a lot Brian can I bring somebody with me to the exam? You can. I'm not necessarily you know sure that it's going to help you. It's not required. I've never brought anyone with me to a C&P exam but you certainly can. Okay last but not least what checklists, what questionnaires, what diagnostic testing might happen? I think you should generally be familiar with something called the PHQ-9, the GAD-7, and PCL-5 for PTSD. It's the patient health questionnaire 9. It's really just a screening tool for depression. The GAD-7 is called the generalized anxiety disorder 7. It's a seven question checklist that represents how severe your anxiety is and then probably the most important one for PTSD C&P exams is something called the PTSD checklist for DSM-5. It's the PCL-5. It's a questionnaire of 20 questions used to assess whether you have PTSD and then the severity. Now if you look below in the keyword description below of this YouTube video you're going to see a link to a blog post called how to ace your VA C&P exam for PTSD. I highly recommend you click it and you go through it so you know exactly what to expect. There's like 40 questions, mental health C&P exam questions you might get asked as well as the DBQ forms and some examples for you for C&P exam day. If you need help with a PTSD claim, any other mental health claim, any other claim for that matter, VA Claims Insider is the number one most trusted name in VA disability claims. We exist for veterans and because of veterans and we will help you whether you're trying to increase a VA rating. Maybe the VA wrongfully denied your claim and you want to fight it. Maybe you need more medical evidence for your disability claim. You need DBQs, you need nexus letters, you want to do an independent mental health evaluation. Again, we can help with all of that. I have expert level VA claim coaches ready to lead you to VA claim victory. You'll see the banner across the bottom of the screen. You can start at vaclaimsinsider.com. Our terms are simple. If we don't win, you don't pay. We got skin in the game every step of the way. We're in the trenches with you taking grenades. We will help you punch the VA in the face and fight a fair fight because we know these are your rightfully earned VA disability benefits. Can't wait to help you change your life fellow vets. I hope you enjoyed this video. Please give it a like, a comment, and a share. I love you. God bless you. Thank you for your service and your sacrifice to our country. Be Reese out from Austin, Texas. Talk soon.