Your's being a completely different VA system, Zip, I wouldn't be able to offer advice. It could be wrong and I don't want to do that to any Vet. I'll take ignorance over bad info any day.
But I will say this...if a supposedly professional mental health "professional" can't treat a Veteran with respect or wants to turn him or her into a "sheeple", they don't belong in the field. Treating PTSD doesn't mean turning us into what they are.
Zip, you're a sharp, intelligent man. A Veteran, who should be respected and admired. People like you and I and this board don't ask to fit in, we make a place. Search for a job intelligently, I sought and got jobs that put me in the field a lot. Away from people, gutteral relationships with contractors, I was no sheeple nor was I headed for the top but I brought home the bacon. The beast helped me carry it in.
As far as how to communicate with medical people, I learned that lesson a long time ago when I first started going to the VA. I go way out of my way to be overly, outwardly, obviously faux respectful to people. They know it. I know it. And there ain't a damn thing they can do about it.
You can do this Zip, I have every confidence. You got it in ya, ya just need to find it.
Sarg
