Background: medically separated in 2012 with severance pay, rated 0% for my knee. During my med board the Army labeled my mental health an "adjustment disorder" and excluded it, so the knee was the only thing found unfitting. The VA service-connected me right after separation for PTSD (claimed as depression and insomnia), and I'm 100% P&T now.
I recently got my actual service treatment records and found that while I was going through the med board, the Army had already diagnosed me with recurrent major depression and insomnia, had me in RESPECT-Mil with PHQ-9 screening, and had me on an antidepressant. There's also a note from my Afghanistan deployment where a provider wrote "stress reaction with some elements of PTSD." None of it was ever evaluated for fitness.
I've got a supplement going in to my pending ABCMR case arguing the adjustment-disorder call was wrong and those conditions should have been rated. Two questions for anyone who's been through this:
I recently got my actual service treatment records and found that while I was going through the med board, the Army had already diagnosed me with recurrent major depression and insomnia, had me in RESPECT-Mil with PHQ-9 screening, and had me on an antidepressant. There's also a note from my Afghanistan deployment where a provider wrote "stress reaction with some elements of PTSD." None of it was ever evaluated for fitness.
I've got a supplement going in to my pending ABCMR case arguing the adjustment-disorder call was wrong and those conditions should have been rated. Two questions for anyone who's been through this:
- Has anyone actually gotten ABCMR to add a mental-health condition the PEB omitted and convert severance to a medical retirement (or TDRL)?
- Did a private psychiatric nexus letter make the difference, or did it come down to the ARBA medical advisor's opinion? Trying to decide how much to invest in an outside opinion.