First thing you need to know is Depression can sometimes sneak up on you. One day you are driving to work and you can’t stop crying for no apparent reason. You have a headache for days or you can’t sleep but then sometimes, you sleep too much. You start thinking about past failures and have trouble making decisions, remembering things. You start eating in the middle of the night, snap at co-workers and stop going out with friends. And while you hate to admit it, you begin to have frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, wondering if anyone truly cares about you. Intense feelings of hopelessness, anger, guilt, all while trying to work and parent, all while not really caring and wishing you could be somewhere else, anywhere else, or not here at all. The worst part is you’re not really sure what is happening to you and you start questioning your own sanity. Add in being a Veteran, struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder or a brain injury and it can become life or death, in fact, Veterans are at a higher risk of suicide than those who haven’t served. Over 131k Veterans have committed suicide since 2001 and it is the 2nd leading cause of death for Veterans under 45.
The second thing you need to know is the VA is overburdened, underpaid and like most government entities, slow to evolve. Wait times vary but the current timeline for initial claims is 118 days, and up to 2-4 years to finalize appeals. While there are many reasons for this, it usually leads to Veterans suffering even more by the very government they got hurt fighting for. Sadly, older Veterans are beginning to die off and since appeals with no dependents listed die with them, it only adds to the disfunction. The VA has come a long way with treating Veterans but when it comes to mental illness, there are a lot of qualifications. The VA rates depression as psychiatric disability and is based on the Veterans to function socially and occupationally. Once the Veteran is rated service connected using a medical diagnosis, medical Nexxus and a stressor, there are different ratings starting at 10% and going up to 100%. It’s also important to remember when it comes to psych issues the VA will normally combine the psych events into one category for awarding purposes. They will not grant an award for PTSD and a separate for Depression. Although each condition can be similar or different. There are helpful ways to improve your chances, however, like a paper trail of the symptoms or a buddy statement from someone that has experienced your situation first hand. And while hiring an attorney doesn’t speed up the claim, it does provide assistance in navigating the complicated appeal process.
So, what exactly is the VA looking for? The VA rates depression based on the severity of symptoms and their impact on a Veteran’s ability to function. Here are the possible disability ratings for depression:
In some cases, a Veteran’s depression and anxiety are so severe that they have a difficult time securing and maintaining substantially gainful employment. The VA encourages these Veterans to apply for total disability based on individual unemployability (TDIU) benefits and more importantly, provides monthly compensation at the 100% level even if a Veteran’s combined disability rating is less than 100%. In other words, a Veteran may get a rating for depression at 50% or 70% but if they can show that they are unable to work as a result of their depression, they may be entitled to TDIU.
Even if the VA assigns the correct rating and the Veteran get what they deserve, the Veteran can suffer great hardships during the long process. This is why the 3rd thing you need to know is there are other resources out there. You can call the Veteran crisis line that can help Veterans 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year where the specially trained responders are caring, resourceful and compassionate. A Veteran in need can turn to their local VSO, DAV, VFW or American Legion for assistance and there are many support groups available for anyone suffering from depression and many other mental illnesses. Depression is debilitating, exhausting and overwhelming to deal with but when a Veteran is armed with knowledge, they at least have a fighting chance.
