Anxiety, depression, and PTSD are separate disorders that often occur together. However, veterans may not realize their anxiety and depression diagnoses could ultimately prove to be side effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Returning servicemen and women may suffer from major depressive disorder and anxiety disorder so severe that life becomes a series of challenges that impede their work, family life, and social relationships.
If you are continually depressed or anxious, you may want to claim (or are already receiving) veterans’ disability benefits for either or both of these diagnosed conditions.
That being said, it’s possible your anxiety or depression may actually be a side effect of yet-undiagnosed PTSD. When this is the case, anxiety and depression become factors that can significantly support a VA disability claim for PTSD, as well as help argue for higher ratings.
Is It Anxiety, Depression, or PTSD?
Servicemen and women may experience different levels of trauma in different harrowing situations. It’s understandable when traumatized veterans don’t realize what they’re dealing with. Confusion abounds because depression and anxiety disorders can be complete diagnoses themselves, alongside PTSD side effects and symptoms. Sometimes, symptoms may not appear until years after the event.
In this post, we discuss the importance of these shared symptoms and how to go about identifying whether PTSD is the underlying condition affecting you or a loved one. It’s all about getting maximum VA disability with the strongest VA claim.
- It’s possible for a veteran to be diagnosed with all three: PTSD, major depressive disorder, and anxiety disorder. VA ratings are based on the severity of your service-connected condition, but only one overall rating is typically given for mental disorders. The more separate, distinct side effects and symptoms you have, the more compensation you may be able to receive.
- Importantly, if PTSD is one of your diagnoses, you open the door to appropriate VA ratings, leading PTSD healthcare services, and specialized PTSD treatment programs within the VA network across the U.S.
- Service-connected PTSD can trigger anxiety or depression, in which case your VA claim for depression or anxiety may be service-connected on a secondary basis.
- You may qualify for Total Disability Based on Individual Unemployability (TDIU),
What Is PTSD?
Posttraumatic stress disorder is a trauma- and stressor-related disorder that can happen to you after you see or experience a terrifying event. All conditions in this classification require exposure to a traumatic or stressful event as a diagnostic criterion. [<<Link to the new PTSD blog post (check final URL)]
The VA follows the diagnostic criteria in the APA/s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5).
If you are a veteran of any branch of the U.S. Military and think you may have a PTSD claim against the VA, contact Marc Whitehead & Associates for a free consultation. We can help you verify the stressor, establish a nexus, and convey the extent of your disability to the VA, ensuring your case is meticulously developed and presented.
For a free legal consultation, call 800-562-9830
What Is Depression?
The VA reports that depression is nearly 3 to 5 times more likely in those with PTSD than those without PTSD.
Major depressive disorder is a chronic psychological condition that may cause you feelings of sadness, worthlessness, hopelessness, detachment, numbness, and overall low mood. You may sleep too much or not enough. You may eat excessively or too little. Some cases of depression can be the result of a traumatic event. [<<Link to the new MDD blog post (check final URL)]
While each person’s experience is unique, these feelings can be so strong that they obstruct a person’s daily life, relationships, and social and vocational functionality. Individuals who suffer from severe depression may think about hurting themselves or suicide.
Common symptoms of both PTSD and depression include:
- trouble concentrating or keeping your mind focused
- insomnia
- loss of enjoyment or interest in things that used to bring happiness
- irritability, bad or reactive temper
- emotional detachment
Conversely, PTSD produces the following effects, whereas depression generally does not:
- Intrusive memories – these include flashbacks, where you relive the stressor or traumatic event, often set off by a trigger causing unwanted distressing memories and nightmares.
- Avoidance – you avoid situations, people, places, or activities that remind you of the traumatic event.
- Negative thoughts – you experience negative thoughts about yourself and others that did not exist before the traumatic event.
- Hypervigilance – a state of heightened alertness that can cause physical, behavioral, emotional, and mental symptoms such as sweating, fear, paranoia, and mood swings.
What Is Anxiety?
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), mild levels of anxiety can be helpful on occasion, alerting one to danger and to be on guard as a reaction to a stressful experience. However, anxiety disorders affect a person far above normal feelings of anxiousness.
The person with an anxiety disorder has unrelenting or recurring anxiety that prevents them from effectively engaging in life. Anxiety can range from relatively mild (nervousness and worry, fraught with a sense of unease) to severe (recurrent, debilitating panic attacks). Severe anxiety disorders can cause people to adjust their lifestyles to accommodate or elude anxiety, such as avoiding activities.
In a 2013 comparative study, generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) occurred in 40% of veteran participants diagnosed with PTSD. These veterans had more severe symptoms and impairment than in patients with anxiety alone. The study proves the high frequency and severe disabilities associated with anxiety in veterans and stresses the need for improved awareness of anxiety in the overall military population.
Common symptoms of both PTSD and anxiety include:
- avoiding feared situations
- hypervigilance
- panic attacks
Many types of anxiety disorders exist that may be associated with PTSD, including:
- agoraphobia (intense fear of being in public or crowded places from which you cannot escape)
- panic disorder (recurring panic attacks)
- specific phobias (you have an extreme, irrational fear about an object or situation)
- social anxiety or social phobia (intense fear of becoming humiliated and embarrassed in social situations)
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Proving Service-connection Is Different for Anxiety or Depression vs. PTSD
Veterans’ disability claims for PTSD have a different requirement than other mental disorder claims, such as depression and anxiety. The requirement for evidence of a specific in-service stressor – as opposed to an in-service event – separates them.
- Types of PTSD stressors include:
- combat
- noncombat
- military sexual trauma
- fear-based (fear of hostile military or terrorist activity)
- prisoner of war
- personal trauma (assault, battery, robbery, mugging, stalking, and harassment.)
VA defines an in-service stressor as a psychologically traumatic event that the veteran experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury or a threat to the physical integrity of themselves or others.
- Service connection for depression and anxiety claims require an in-service event (rather than a stressor)
VA defines an in-service event as the occurrence of an injury or traumatic event during service resulting in a current, chronic, ongoing disability.
For the VA to grant service connection for PTSD, the VA must have credible supporting evidence that
- You have a diagnosis of PTSD
- The stressor occurred during military service
- A link, established by medical evidence, exists between the current PTSD symptoms and the in-service stressor.
An exception to proving the stressor: When PTSD is correctly diagnosed “in service,” it is not necessary to verify the stressor to establish a service connectionunder 38 CFR 3.304(f) as long as the claimed stressor is
- related to the veteran’s service, and
- consistent with the circumstances, conditions, or hardships of that service.
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How Does VA Rate Multiple Mental Health Disorders Like Anxiety and Depression vs. PTSD?
All mental disorders (aside from eating disorders) are rated with the same criteria and rating schedule: 0, 10, 30, 50, 70, or 100 percent.
However, according to the VA’s pyramiding rule, a veteran cannot be compensated for the same symptom’s functional limitations twice.
Because mental health disorders are evaluated using the same criteria, veterans with PTSD and any other mental health conditions will be given one combined disability rating.
NOTE: A caveat to this rule may apply when there are separate, non-overlapping symptoms involved. If you can positively differentiate the symptoms attributed to each diagnosis, the VA might grant ratings for more than one mental health condition. A VA rater will undoubtedly scrutinize the claim for overlapping symptoms.
Is Anxiety or Depression a Secondary Condition to your PTSD?
Anxiety and depression are often successfully linked to a service-connected disability, even long after you leave the military. For example, you may be able to service-connect your anxiety or depression because it is caused (or aggravated) by your already service-connected PTSD. This is referred to as a secondary service connection.
Secondary conditions can have a substantial impact on your VA disability rating. Any further disabilities you have can raise the severity of your overall disability and possibly prompt an increased disability rating percentage.
You would file a VA disability claim for anxiety or depression secondary to your service-connected PTSD. Notably, a secondary service connection requires a “showing of causation.” You must prove a secondary service connection through a medical nexus letter.
Our team can help you obtain the appropriate expert medical opinion on the nexus issue and the most qualified professional to prepare your nexus letter.
Will Your Anxiety, Depression, and PTSD Qualify for TDIU / IU?
TDIU stands for Total Disability Due To Individual Unemployability. It is also referred to as Individual Unemployability (IU).
A veteran awarded TDIU receives the same level of compensation and additional benefits as a veteran who has received a total 100% rating.
If your disability is rated less than a total 100% evaluation, but you are unable to obtain or maintain substantial gainful employment, the VA allows you to apply for TDIU. This benefit is based on the severity of your unique disability case and its impact on your ability to stay gainfully employed.
Generally, you must have a single disability rated at 60% or a combined evaluation of 70% percent to be eligible for TDIU.
For example, if your current anxiety is determined to be a side effect of PTSD, and your PTSD gains service connection, the severity of your combined disabilities may enable you to reach a 70% VA rating. If you can establish an inability to get and keep gainful employment, you may apply and qualify for TDIU.
The VA will evaluate your service-connected disabilities, employment history, education, and past work history and job training. Veterans who are over 65 years old and certain veterans who are still working may still qualify.
Marc Whitehead & Associates handles TDIU cases across the U.S. and would be proud to assist you.
Getting Maximum Benefits for Anxiety, Depression, or PTSD
Let us help you understand your options at no cost. Our accredited veterans’ attorneys will review your case to determine whether your anxiety or depression diagnoses could prove to be side effects of PTSD.
Call us at (866) 860-9551 to discuss your case. Our advocacy on behalf of disabled veterans and their families is long-standing. If you need help requesting a supplement claim, a decision review, or need to appeal a decision at any stage, we are your strongest ally.
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