How do I make sure I get a medical retirement and not medically separated?

Currently a O4 with 13 years of service in the Air Force going through a mental health crisis. I have been diagnosed with adjustment disorder with anxiety and depressed mood. I have been on at least six different medication none of which has improved my condition. It has been almost six months after my initial diagnosis. I have few questions. No medboard or medical separation has been initiated yet but I'd like some advice on how to prepare myself for the worst.

1. What can I do now to protect myself from getting medically separated?

2. I heard that adjustment disorder is not medboardable but chronic adjustment disorder (lasting longer than six months) is a medboardable case. is this true?

3. Should I be fighting to get a new diagnosis now?
 
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Honestly i believe the military uses adjustment disorder to prevent from diagnosing as PTSD for an AD member. Ive had adjustment disorder diagnosis for about 15 months even though it most definitely should be PTSD. I think they do this to prevent people's career from being on the line (since most people want to stay in or separate vs getting an MEB). Thats my theory.

1. If you're medboarded and AFPC decides you need to be pushed through a full MEB and you're found unfit, you'll need a 30+ rating for your mental health condition. I believe the vast majority of MH cases are rated at 50% (DOD) and recommended retirement (TDRL).
 
hellovietnam said:
Currently a O4 with 13 years of service in the Air Force going through a mental health crisis. I have been diagnosed with adjustment disorder with anxiety and depressed mood. I have been on at least six different medication none of which has improved my condition. It has been almost six months after my initial diagnosis. I have few questions. No medboard or medical separation has been initiated yet but I'd like some advice on how to prepare myself for the worst.

1. What can I do now to protect myself from getting medically separated?

2. I heard that adjustment disorder is not medboardable but chronic adjustment disorder (lasting longer than six months) is a medboardable case. is this true?

3. Should I be fighting to get a new diagnosis now?
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1. Seek treatment. If after enough time treatment doesn't improve then they may put you into in a limited assignment or straight into code 37 which is full IDES.

2. You are wrong. Any and all mental health conditions are med-boardable especially if you have 8 or more years of continued active service because the military can't argue that the condition existed prior to service. Whoever, is saying that tell them to stop spreading misinformation.

3. No. You are looking at it all wrong. Now if the diagnosis isn't correct or doesn't include everything you may ask if you have other mental health conditions. Its very common for Soldiers to be multiple diagnosis for mental health such as an adjustment condition and depression or anxiety etc. Or even other mental health conditions. So basically if your diagnosis doesn't match your symptoms I would ask if my current diagnosis is correct or if I am missing other diagnosis's etc. All mental health is lumped into one rating for DOD purposes so the symptoms matter much more than the diagnosis. The severity of your symptoms is what determines your mental health ratings if you were to be put into IDES. Go check out the VA ratings for mental health and you can see what symptoms correspond with what percentages. If you are forced out and found unfit the rating matters most.

So just focus on getting treatment and be honest about your symptoms. If you are put into full IDES your goal would be to get the correct rating. If your mental health is so bad that they are going to find you unfit then your rating for mental health is probably going to be 30% or higher. 30% is what you need to get medically retired. If they do medically retire you look up and find out as much as possible about TDRL and your rating will not be permanent and the AF will review you after you get out to see if you get better. While medically retired on TDRL you want to keep seeking treatment and make no changes to include working until you are put on PDRL. That is because if you get out and then life is better and you get a job and 6 months later they can look at you and say see he's much better. Then change your rating to 0% and give you a one time severance payment instead. Now picture this happens and life gets harder and now your mental health is worse again. Guess what? You are screwed. You are now PDRL 0% forever and no medical retirement or tricare for you or your family. You can get the VA to raise your rating but when it comes to your medical retirement it is lost forever.
 
Provis said:
1. Seek treatment. If after enough time treatment doesn't improve then they may put you into in a limited assignment or straight into code 37 which is full IDES.

2. You are wrong. Any and all mental health conditions are med-boardable especially if you have 8 or more years of continued active service because the military can't argue that the condition existed prior to service. Whoever, is saying that tell them to stop spreading misinformation.

3. No. You are looking at it all wrong. Now if the diagnosis isn't correct or doesn't include everything you may ask if you have other mental health conditions. Its very common for Soldiers to be multiple diagnosis for mental health such as an adjustment condition and depression or anxiety etc. Or even other mental health conditions. So basically if your diagnosis doesn't match your symptoms I would ask if my current diagnosis is correct or if I am missing other diagnosis's etc. All mental health is lumped into one rating for DOD purposes so the symptoms matter much more than the diagnosis. The severity of your symptoms is what determines your mental health ratings if you were to be put into IDES. Go check out the VA ratings for mental health and you can see what symptoms correspond with what percentages. If you are forced out and found unfit the rating matters most.

So just focus on getting treatment and be honest about your symptoms. If you are put into full IDES your goal would be to get the correct rating. If your mental health is so bad that they are going to find you unfit then your rating for mental health is probably going to be 30% or higher. 30% is what you need to get medically retired. If they do medically retire you look up and find out as much as possible about TDRL and your rating will not be permanent and the AF will review you after you get out to see if you get better. While medically retired on TDRL you want to keep seeking treatment and make no changes to include working until you are put on PDRL. That is because if you get out and then life is better and you get a job and 6 months later they can look at you and say see he's much better. Then change your rating to 0% and give you a one time severance payment instead. Now picture this happens and life gets harder and now your mental health is worse again. Guess what? You are screwed. You are now PDRL 0% forever and no medical retirement or tricare for you or your family. You can get the VA to raise your rating but when it comes to your medical retirement it is lost forever.
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I keep seeing people, such as yourself, mention “if you have 8 years or more of service”. What if I’m going through a similar issue and I don’t, what if I only have six years of AD army service, but it most certainly is service connected/aggravated (my words not my doctors). What does eight years and not eight years imply for mental health conditions when it comes to medical boarding…
 
HELPMEplease said:
I keep seeing people, such as yourself, mention “if you have 8 years or more of service”. What if I’m going through a similar issue and I don’t, what if I only have six years of AD army service, but it most certainly is service connected/aggravated (my words not my doctors). What does eight years and not eight years imply for mental health conditions when it comes to medical boarding…
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If under 8 years then its not automatic. You can have service connected health issues. Its just not automatic. So then it just depends on the circumstances.
 
Provis said:
If under 8 years then its not automatic. You can have service connected health issues. Its just not automatic. So then it just depends on the circumstances.
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Oh okay. That makes sense logically. Thank you sir for the info!
 
Provis said:
1. Seek treatment. If after enough time treatment doesn't improve then they may put you into in a limited assignment or straight into code 37 which is full IDES.

2. You are wrong. Any and all mental health conditions are med-boardable especially if you have 8 or more years of continued active service because the military can't argue that the condition existed prior to service. Whoever, is saying that tell them to stop spreading misinformation.

3. No. You are looking at it all wrong. Now if the diagnosis isn't correct or doesn't include everything you may ask if you have other mental health conditions. Its very common for Soldiers to be multiple diagnosis for mental health such as an adjustment condition and depression or anxiety etc. Or even other mental health conditions. So basically if your diagnosis doesn't match your symptoms I would ask if my current diagnosis is correct or if I am missing other diagnosis's etc. All mental health is lumped into one rating for DOD purposes so the symptoms matter much more than the diagnosis. The severity of your symptoms is what determines your mental health ratings if you were to be put into IDES. Go check out the VA ratings for mental health and you can see what symptoms correspond with what percentages. If you are forced out and found unfit the rating matters most.

So just focus on getting treatment and be honest about your symptoms. If you are put into full IDES your goal would be to get the correct rating. If your mental health is so bad that they are going to find you unfit then your rating for mental health is probably going to be 30% or higher. 30% is what you need to get medically retired. If they do medically retire you look up and find out as much as possible about TDRL and your rating will not be permanent and the AF will review you after you get out to see if you get better. While medically retired on TDRL you want to keep seeking treatment and make no changes to include working until you are put on PDRL. That is because if you get out and then life is better and you get a job and 6 months later they can look at you and say see he's much better. Then change your rating to 0% and give you a one time severance payment instead. Now picture this happens and life gets harder and now your mental health is worse again. Guess what? You are screwed. You are now PDRL 0% forever and no medical retirement or tricare for you or your family. You can get the VA to raise your rating but when it comes to your medical retirement it is lost forever.
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I have been told by multiple sources as well as ChatGPT that "adjustment disorders" even chronic ones are not considered a disability and will not be included in the Narsum as "unfitting" and therefore will not be ratable by DOD during the medboard process. Are you saying this is inaccurate?
 
hellovietnam said:
I have been told by multiple sources as well as ChatGPT that "adjustment disorders" even chronic ones are not considered a disability and will not be included in the Narsum as "unfitting" and therefore will not be ratable by DOD during the medboard process. Are you saying this is inaccurate?
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that is incorrect. It can be rated by DOD. All conditions for mental health are rated by symptoms for %. Whether fitting or unfitting is based on symptoms and how they affect your ability to do your job. As far as service connected or not if you have 8 years active duty or more all conditions are service connected. If not automatically it just depends on if the condition was caused by service. Most conditions are caused or aggravated by service.
 
Provis said:
that is incorrect. It can be rated by DOD. All conditions for mental health are rated by symptoms for %. Whether fitting or unfitting is based on symptoms and how they affect your ability to do your job. As far as service connected or not if you have 8 years active duty or more all conditions are service connected. If not automatically it just depends on if the condition was caused by service. Most conditions are caused or aggravated by service.
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Thank you for the reply. There seems to be an unending fountain of misinformation regarding this topic. Does being a pilot change anything? I thought if a condition is unfitting, it doesnt get listed on your Narsum and if it's not listed on your Narsum then it doesn't get rated towards the 30%. Also, isnt the question of fitting vs unfitting rather black and white per regularions (especially for pilots)? What else besides commander's impact statement is considered for "ability to do job" portion? Thanks again.
 
hellovietnam said:
Thank you for the reply. There seems to be an unending fountain of misinformation regarding this topic. Does being a pilot change anything? I thought if a condition is unfitting, it doesnt get listed on your Narsum and if it's not listed on your Narsum then it doesn't get rated towards the 30%. Also, isnt the question of fitting vs unfitting rather black and white per regularions (especially for pilots)? What else besides commander's impact statement is considered for "ability to do job" portion? Thanks again.
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The NARSUM lists every condition. It also states if medically unfit or not. Then iPEB votes. The iPEB typically votes the same as the NARSUM. I strongly recommend hiring a private attorney. The process is not easy to understand and there are a lot of things that you can do to change the outcome. A lot of it depends on building a strong case from the beginning. If you are AF there are some unique differences from other branches as they end up doing a mini IDES that they don't count as IDES to see if they can put you somewhere to keep you in with different duties. AF has Code 31 & 37. For example the Army if you get referred to IDES you are most likely going to be kicked out with severance or medically retired. I will send you some options but know that just like the criminal justice system not everyone who goes through it gets the same treatment or fair results. A lot of it depends on your unique circumstances and your ability to have competent representation. There is no way a JAG assigned to you for IDES can give you the same time and attention with each one having dozens of cases going on at the same time compared to a private dedicated attorney that has 3-5 clients at each stage.
 
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