Episode 13: Mental Health Claims

This episode breaks down some of the biggest misconceptions surrounding Mental Health Claims. Many veterans focus on the diagnosis itself, but the VA assigns mental health ratings based on both the diagnosis and how mental health symptoms affect work, relationships, daily life, and overall functioning.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why the VA focuses on symptoms, not just diagnoses

• Common mental health symptoms veterans often overlook

• How family members can help identify symptom severity

• Why many veterans downplay their mental health struggles

• The importance of discussing your worst days during evaluations

• How personal statements, therapy notes, and real-life examples support a claim

This episode helps veterans better understand how the VA evaluates Mental Health Claims and why clearly explaining the impact of symptoms can make a significant difference in their disability claim.

Transcript

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Denied, delayed, underrated? That's the story for too many veterans, including me. Hey veterans and the families listening in, welcome. My name is Robert Pinero. I'm a Marine Combat Veteran and the founder of Veterans Educating Veterans. I've served two tours in Iraq, and like many veterans, I know how hard it is to get service connected and navigate the VA system. After service, I was frustrated, in pain, and told no more times than I can count, even by VA attorneys. So instead of giving up, I decided to learn the VA process myself. That's what Veterans Educating Veterans is built on. We educate and guide veterans through the VA compensation process, step by step, helping you understand how the system works so you can move forward with confidence, not confusion. I do this work alongside my wife Jillian and for our two daughters because our families live with the impact of service long after the uniform comes off. You deserve the benefits you've earned, not just for yourself, but for the family that stands beside you. Welcome to the War Room. The War Room by veterans educating veterans. Every claim is different, so don't take this as an individual guidance. All right, welcome back everyone to the war room. On today's episode, we are going to be talking about mental health claims and some of the most misunderstood claims in the VA system. Because people focus strictly on the label and not so much the symptoms and everything that goes along with it. Again, my name's James. I'm the senior coach over here at VEV. With me today, I got our CEO, Robert Pinero. All right, we got Cody, one of the other coaches, and the other coach, obviously Jesse. What's up, guys? All right, Robert. What's your thoughts on this there? Well, uh, so yeah, definitely mental is a lot of what the veterans think. Um, so the diagnosis name is usually the whole story. Um, in reality, the impact on daily life is a huge part of the picture. So veterans often minimize and struggle to explain health symptoms, either because they know or they don't know what they are, or they say this is something I've begun to do, and it became a habit. So they don't even realize that it's actually a symptom. So today we want to break down you know what matters in these claims and how veterans can better understand them. So let's start with the difference between having a diagnosis and then showing the diagnosis actually how it affects your life. Absolutely. So the biggest thing on this and the biggest misunderstanding is the label or diagnosis matters, but it's not the big picture, it's not the whole story. Um, the VA looks at symptoms, not the name. So a lot of veterans get hung up on, oh, well, mine just says anxiety. I don't have anxiety, I have PTSD. The VA does not care what you call it unless you start talking about TBIs. Um, mental health is mental health. It's not what it's called or labeled, it's based on functionality of symptoms and how they affect your life. Yeah, and I mean, for the most part, I feel like that can look a lot of different ways. Um, I mean, just to ask my wife, I have a lot of these personally. Um, whether that's like you can't stay focused on one task, um, I seem to have that quite a bit. Amen. Um, so amen. Um, I mean, it could be a lot of things though. It could be you're isolating yourself from your family or your friends, uh, you're irritable for no reason. I seem to get that one quite a bit as well. Amen again. Um so um, and I think that's a with a lot of veterans, and you might not even realize it, but and another good source is to go to your family or friends or spouse and talk to them about this because they might be seeing stuff that you're not. You know, another one is losing a lot of sleep and you're irritable throughout the day for no reason, you're just exhausted throughout the day for no reason as well, just a lack of motivation. All these are symptoms of those mental health symptoms or mental health disabilities. So it kind of just all combines into one. Oh, my wife says I'll be at a hundred percent if it was up to her. So and sometimes it takes that uh, you know, it takes a family member to tell you that these situations, these symptoms are happening to you in order like for you to admit it. You know, some some veterans don't see it unless somebody else tells them that it's going on. Um, some of our clients when they come in and we we actually do a s you know, those small questionnaires with them and to see if they have what what they have, what they don't have, and sometimes they think twice when we give them the example of the symptom. Or I I'll have the wife get on the phone and have her listen in on the question. Sometimes I hear the wife in the background saying, Yes, yes, he does have that. Exactly. So um sometimes our family are a big part of what we tend to hide and what we don't realize ourselves or what's in front of us. Um, you know, there's a lot of stuff that you do that sometimes you don't realize that you're doing, you know, and it's those are hidden, you know, things, hidden symptoms that you may not realize you have. Like some some things like you know, like you never you you don't notice sometimes until afterwards, like you know, snapping, you know, you're you're you just snap over over something small, you know, like your kid drops uh and breaks a dish on the floor and you just snap, not realizing, you know, that you just snapped at a kid for a mistake, you know. But things like that, like avoiding crowds, you know, staying insulating yourself. Sometimes you you stop going you maybe you like going to concerts, now you don't like going to concerts too many people around you. Yeah, all stuff you used to love to do prior. Right, right. So it's the the big point is not just about sounding dramatic, it's about a clear showing the effect on life, right? So if you're um making small stuff that usually you wouldn't react a certain way, then you know that's something to take note of and to actually go back to your family and see other things that they're seeing that maybe you're not seeing, you know, it may be blind to you. So a lot of this stuff is veterans feeling uncomfortable talking about it, right? I I I hate talking about me and maybe you know my mistakes and maybe my symptoms because they're embarrassing. Let's call it what it is, right? You you don't want to recognize some of this stuff, so you don't talk about it. Yeah, absolutely. You know, and a lot of veterans I think feel the exact same way. Um, they you know, they don't want to appear weak or they want to appear that, oh, I have anxiety. That's something you know, high schoolers have because when they gotta, you know, against other people, or they don't want to be labeled that, um, or or even seem that they're broken, especially is a big thing. So some of these veterans they they just don't want to seem broken or feel broken, and they just want to bottle it up like they have been, and and they've been living it for so long, this is their new norm. They've learned to adapt to that and adjust to it. Um, when the reality is they shouldn't, they shouldn't, you know. They but I I absolutely get it. No one wants to, especially once it comes to mental health with with how society is and how mainstream it is, and they don't want to let people know that how bad of a struggle it really is because they've learned to portray something that they seem is normal, but as the rest of you have already expressed, is the family sees the reality of it and how it impacts everybody around them. Because it makes you look weak, right? That's the whole image, and you don't want to keep your image of you're strong, you know, you were in the military, you were strong. This is how they taught us to be in the military, is to be strong. The issue with that is it's not going to lead to one, the increase you deserve, because you're gonna lead to saying these symptoms in a light that that shines negatively on the increase you deserve. So you're you're downplaying everything that you have, whether it's you know, well, I I I just I'm sorry to interrupt. No, it's good. I just I just want to give you one. It's actually funny because we did a there's a short reel that we put out, and there was a veteran who was law enforcement who it was actually your your you talking, and you said you were law enforcement, and the veteran had stated that he was at a hundred percent and he had a mental disorder. And the comments went crazy. They were saying law enforcement shouldn't have a gun at 100% rating. So that is part of the issue of why people also hold back, is they're going to be judged, they're going to put their piece in, you know, and then who knows if this is gonna highlight something, especially when you're in that category of mental, because the worst thing comes to mind when somebody's a hundred percent mental. But as long as you're not checking off some of those boxes, in my opinion, then you should be able to have a gun. There's there's a lot of police officers with anxiety. Um, you know, depression is a is a is a tight um, you know, symptom to to kind of understand and see if uh an officer can or cannot. But some of the symptoms that we talk about, I I see it in some police officers, right? Because I have friends who are police officers, but that doesn't affect their judgment when it comes to having a gun or they're not gonna react a certain way. Anxiety is something that's natural, you know, it becomes a problem when it it interferes with your everyday life. But that's part of the reason why people stay shut and don't want to actually express what they're actually going through. Well, absolutely, out of out of out of fear of remarks, like we've seen, just just from that. I mean, it's it's all over the place, and not just from that, but I mean if if you're going through that and you're also getting proper therapy or proper um, you know, the the medications that you need or whatever the case is, you know you can do your job effectively, but you also need to be vulnerable in this aspect to be able to get the compensation that you deserve because you can be compensated at that level and still you do your job effectively, then there's no there's no issue here. They they can intertwine effectively. Um, yeah, I I saw those those remarks as well. I thought it was funny, but everybody knows better than than everybody else. So I agree. There are there are there are police officers out there that are 100% mental and they're like the best the best officers are in are in are in their forks or in their their departments. If they get called to a person that's going through the same thing, they can relate to that a lot better. I've I've experienced that personally, I've experienced that through other officers. I 100% agree with you. Exactly. The small day-to-day changes are are often what tell the real story, and that's what paints the big the bigger picture. I agree. So once the veteran understands the impact, the next question is how that gets shown in the file. Right? So let's talk about the types of evidence that helps mental health claims make sense. So though I think the biggest one on that, Robert, is people get hung up again on the the diagnosis itself. So it's not based on the diagnosis. Um PTSD, if your says PTSD or if yours says just anxiety, it it still falls under the same rating system and criteria because it's all based on the symptoms. So absolutely if you're if you're receiving treatment, don't be afraid to let them know you know what you're experiencing. It doesn't mean that every single day is absolutely terrible, but don't downplay your symptoms either, is the biggest thing. Um, personal statements for sure can help your claim. Um, because sorry, can I interject on that? So I want to make it clear that when you're talking to somebody, don't make it your best day, even if it's just treatment, because that will affect you. We have been getting decisions lately that the veteran had a good day, went to the mental um appointment, and then that good day was used against them. Right. Absolutely and they still suffer through the bad days. Yeah, absolutely. You get what I'm saying? So I I definitely wanted to make that point because I don't want people to go in there and just talk about the greatest day. Talk about your worst day, right, and how it affects you and everyone around you. So, you know, and that's where again, um, this personal statement's gonna come into effect. Um, because they're gonna paint the outside picture looking in of how it really affects everybody. Because you may have the blinders on and not realize, you know, the explosiveness that you just did to your child for dropping a bowl by accident, and how the impact it had on the whole family, and now everyone's you know, scared, maybe scared to be around you or scared to tell dad I made a mistake because afraid of him exploding. When in your thought was you just did it, okay, it's over and done. You know, you don't see how it snowballs through everything else. Right. Very true. And then it can also go into work, work uh experiences, social life, interactions just outside of your home, you know, at at a drive-thru. You know, they forgot your soda and you explode or something, or or they didn't give you the you ordered, you know, ranch sauce and they gave you barbecue and how pissed off you are, and now you're road raging down the road because of something as simple as a mistake. And but yeah, you you just you know exploded on it. But those are times that you gotta to, you gotta say, you gotta you gotta explain those times, those are your worst days. Absolutely, yeah. Those are the days that you need to let your doctor, therapist, counselor, cmp exam, private DB, you know, private doctor doing the exam. You need to let them know those are the days you absolutely need to record or like talk about. Because what that's gonna do is that's gonna build your your chain of of evidence, right? So for the therapy, they're gonna show the notes and how this has progressively gotten worse or progressively stayed worse over the time. So for like therapy notes are gonna be a huge part of this evidence, and nobody knows me better than my wife does, so spousal uh statements are gonna be huge. Nobody knows more about what I've done wrong than my wife does, so you can just ask her. Well, that's a that's a normal wife, yeah, yeah. 100%, 100%. So that that's a key one. Work problems, you know. If you've been written up for for one of these outbursts or anything, that's gonna be huge as well. So, and these don't just need to be um like on paper things, these have to be like real life events that you're talking about and making them build your case even more for the increase or service connection. It all it all kind of coincides together. I know we focused on a lot of the anger part, but you also got to look on the other side of the depression part, yeah, of isolation, of not leaving your house, not taking care of yourself, not cleaning up your taking care, you know, bathing, showering, changing your clothes, you know, you're keeping your house house a mess, you're not paying your bills, you're not uh getting food, you're just throwing on the ground, you're not you're not taking care of yourself also. So depression can also, you know, lead to that aspect of it where you are not seen for days calling out of work, staying in bed, or drinking drugs, you know, to try to help numb what you're going through. Yeah. And it is obvious that, you know, family members see everything. You know, they they they see even even you not talking to a family member that you know that changed that changed over time because of your mental symptoms, even them seeing that you're not talking to them, that also shows um some symptoms of you being isolated and not wanting to talk about your symptoms. You know, that that that that's what hits the depression. Um but uh they you know often oftentimes veterans overlook um their symptoms. But once, you know, once a veteran once a veteran's family gets involved, friends and stuff, get them involved into your claim, get a statement, and you know, especially those ones that's been around you for a long time. Oh, yeah, that's huge. Mental health claims are about impact, not just uh diagnosis label. Um, veterans don't have to be dramatic, but they do have to be specific. So, you know, documenting some of this stuff because I know me and James's memory is great. Um, our memories our memories aren't that great. Um, yeah, but me and him talk a lot more with things that we need to remember and things we need to talk about. So um I know our memories over here are are terrible. So um sometimes documenting this down and having a journal of just writing things that are embarrassing but are going to help your claim. Yeah, like so the more clear about daily life impact is explained, um, the stronger the picture becomes, right? So Cody being a police officer and probably spending most of his days being a police officer and how he battled with his disability is something that he would have written down every day, different situations. And that's kind of more uh what I'm talking about myself with having uh being a facility manager in New York City and dealing with subordinates and how I used to snap at some people and where my attitude would go would be things that I would be also writing down and making sure that when it came down to presenting this to the VA that I was ready, that I can give them examples of how that disability impacted me. So the VA is supposed to rate impact, not just labels. Thank you for joining us. Like, subscribe, and we'll see you on the next one. So I know we lighthearted on this podcast, but if you guys are struggling, absolutely call 988 and press one. Do not be another statistic. If you do not want to talk to them, text 838-255. Do not be another 22. Just don't. The war room by veterans educating veterans.