C&p Exam With Ves Group

[Grizzly]

I had been trying to get the VA doc for a few years to figure it all out. I was very active with exercise up until about 5 years ago and then it seemed like my body gave up. I went from running 3 miles 3 times a week to no able to run to the end of my street. Ankles, knees and muscle in lower extremities ache. Many days i feel like I had been to the gym doing squats for the first time after a few days. Even hurts to the touch. Doc cant find anything.

 

[Mastranios]

Many make the mistake of telling the examiner how they feel at that moment. You need to keep in mind what it is like when you are at your worst. They will not compensate you for when you're feeling good but when you are at your lowest. DO NOT show up in a business suit like you're applying for a job. If you spend most your time in a torn shirt and shorts and sandals, then show up that way.

I am not asking you to lie about anything, but rather show the absolute truth. This is an ugly disorder, show the ugly.

Sarg

Shouldn't be an issue. It's early in the morning and I don't sleep anymore.

Thanks all for the advice. 3 more days, I'll post how it goes.

 

[Mastranios]

Over the years I've put my family & myself through some hell. However in the past 2 yrs I put in some hard work and I've made a lot of improvements. I started taking bupropion a few months ago to quit smoking and realized that it actually helped with my PTSD. I actually feel like a normal human being again. I feel great 95% of the time in stead of 5%. Reason I bring this up is cuz what your speaking of here, I believe is what my va counselor is trying to get me to do. He has me going to see a rep from the VFW to put in a claim. Mostly for ptsd and some other physical issues. Truth is, I'm not sure I feel right going for this now. How do I speak of how I was in the past when I'm not like that now? I'm not good at NOT being honest. Am I waiting my time with this? Is it worth the few different days I'll have to take off work?

I guess only you can really answer that. I thought about cancelling mine the first round of anti-depressants but after 3 weeks of feeling great I went into an even deeper slum. I've been on them for a few months now (maybe 6) and I'll go three or so weeks feeling good then two weeks just destroying my life because I am in such a rut. After month 3 the three weeks of feeling good seemed to shorten and now it seems like I am one week on, one week off. Increasing the dosage helped, for a month and then went right back into the rut.

I'm talking about 72 hours no sleep, suicide thoughts, crashing my car on the freeway because of a panic attack, pushing my wife so far away that I really didn't think we could recover. (A civilian has only so much understanding of PTSD and how it affects me) Among those is constant paranoia, anger over the most idiotic shit, the constant feeling of remorse and regret, and the nightmares. Jesus H. the nightmares.

I don't mean to rant.

 

[reddevil1111]

this shit IS cyclic. And every time it gets better, we always think we are cured. We want to be. Over and over guys say this.

My goal is to have as much of that "better" part and less and less of the "rage"

It is NOT easy.

 

[Mastranios]

C&P exam was done today, it was hard rehashing some of those memories but I know she got the gist of how severe my problems are. She apologized for what I was going through multiple times, even to the point of holding back tears. My whole body was shaking trying to organize my thoughts and talk to her.

But the good news is that she read off to me exactly what she was uploading to the VA, many "exceptional" "aggressive" "extremely" etc. keywords so I think that will be a good start for me to get rated.