Anxiety in American veterans is a real and pressing issue. According to the Department of Veterans Affairs, mental health conditions like anxiety are among the most commonly claimed service-connected conditions in veterans.
In addition, roughly 12 percent of veterans who served in the Gulf War have been diagnosed with mental health conditions like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and more. In truth, that number is likely higher but many veterans choose to self-medicate and never tackle their mental problems head-on. In today’s post, we’re discussing receiving VA benefits and a VA rating for Anxiety.
What Rating does VA give for Anxiety?
The VA rating schedule for Anxiety ranges from 0 percent, 10 percent, 30 percent , 50 percent rating, 70 percent, and the maximum of 100% VA disability rating for anxiety. Many say 30% is the most common anxiety VA rating, but from our practice’s experience, we’ve seen many veterans stuck at 50% VA ratings for anxiety and 70% ratings for anxiety.
How to get 100% VA rating for anxiety
To reach a 100 percent VA rating for anxiety, a veteran must have extremely severe symptoms and prove an inability to work. These symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, inappropriate behavior in public, danger of hurting oneself or others, inability to perform activities of daily living, disorientation, and even memory loss.
Can you get benefits for both anxiety and depression?
Simple answer: No, you cannot get VA benefits for both anxiety and depression at the same time. It is important to note that all mental health conditions are evaluated using the same VA rating criteria for service connection compensation. So, the VA rates anxiety in the same way it rates depression or PTSD or OCD.
This means that a veteran can only be rated for one specific mental condition to avoid the VA’s rule against pyramiding; in simple terms, you cannot double dip benefits for several mental health conditions.
VA Diagnostic Codes for Anxiety
The VA’s diagnostic codes for anxiety disorders, as well as other related disorders, are as follows:
- Generalized anxiety disorder (9400)
- Phobias and social anxiety disorder (9403)
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (9404)
- Other specified anxiety disorder (9410)
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (9411)
- Panic disorder and/or agoraphobia (9412)
How do you prove Anxiety is service-related?
In order to prove service connection for your anxiety, you will need to show three important things to successfully prove your VA Disability claim.
- A current diagnosis of anxiety from a healthcare provider,
- An in-service event or incident that caused your anxiety disorder,
- And a medical nexus statement (evidence linking your anxiety to service) from a medical professional that connects your condition to the in-service incident.
This medical evidence will be imperative in your veterans disability claim no matter if it’s for anxiety or for back pain or any other medical issue. There is also the possibility of a different service-connected condition causing you anxiety. Let’s talk about that below.
Secondary Service Connection for Anxiety
As with other mental disorders, it’s also possible to receive secondary service connection for anxiety. This is the case when a veteran has another condition that causes anxiety. For example, a veteran with back pain may have trouble completing tasks in a work-like setting or at home.
Perhaps the veteran’s service-connected back pain forces you to take days off from work or have to leave work early from the excruciating pain. This inability to complete tasks then leads to anxiety because your work performance is deteriorating. This is a situation where anxiety can be service-connected as a secondary condition caused by your primary back pain condition.
However, the burden of proof is still on the veteran here. It’s important for the veteran to obtain medical records that show the connection between their back pain and anxiety.
VA DBQ for Anxiety and Depression
DBQ is short for Disability Benefits Questionnaire. Veterans can use the mental health DBQs to submit medical evidence from their health care provider to support their anxiety VA claims for disability benefits. The DBQs are intended to be completed by the Veteran’s health care provider, and all clinician information blocks at the bottom of the DBQs must be completed and the form signed and dated by the clinician completing the DBQ.
The VA Rating Criteria for Anxiety
- 0% VA rating – This category is for veterans who have the diagnosis but do not show enough symptoms to impair work performance or social functioning or to require regular medication. No compensation is awarded at this level.
- 10% VA rating – In order to meet this rating, a veteran must have mild symptoms that impair work performance and social function only during times of high stress. This rating is also appropriate for veterans whose symptoms are managed by continuous medication.
- 30% VA rating – This rating requires a generally regularly functioning veteran to have work and social impairment with occasional decreases in work performance due to symptoms from their diagnosed disorder. At times, veterans in this category may be unable to do certain tasks related to work due to their symptoms. These symptoms range from depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, weekly or less frequent panic attacks, trouble sleeping, to mild memory loss.
- 50% VA rating – This rating requires a veteran to have regular impairment of work and social functioning due to their symptoms. The symptoms may range from a flattened affect (not being able to show any emotion, good or bad); “talking in circles;” panic attacks that happen more than once a week; trouble understanding complex commands; poor short- and long-term memory; impaired judgment; trouble with abstract thinking; disturbances in motivation or mood; and trouble making and maintaining relationships.
- 70% VA rating – In order to meet the criteria for this rating, a veteran must suffer from impairment in most, if not all, of the following areas: work, school, family relations, judgment, thinking, or mood. There are many symptoms that may cause impairment, among them suicidal ideation (thoughts of suicide); obsessive rituals interfering with daily activities (for example, compulsive hand-washing); illogical, obscure, or irrelevant speech; continuous panic or depression affecting the ability to function on one’s own; impaired impulse control (for example, irritability with periods of violence in response to minor inconveniences); spatial disorientation (getting lost or disoriented); neglect of personal appearance or hygiene (intentionally or unintentionally not showering or brushing one’s teeth); difficulty adapting to stressful circumstances, including at work; and inability to make or keep up professional and personal relationships. Even if you do not have any other disabilities, a single mental condition rated at 70% means you may be qualified to receive individual unemployability benefits.
- 100% VA rating – The highest possible rating for anxiety. A veteran rated at 100% is considered totally disabled. As such, the requirements for this category are very severe. A veteran who receives this rating must be totally impaired due to symptoms such as overall impairment in thought processes or communication; persistent delusions or hallucinations (believing things that are not true or seeing and/or hearing things that are not there); inappropriate behavior (for example, undressing oneself in public); persistent danger of hurting self or others (including suicide attempts); recurrent inability to perform activities of daily living (this includes feeding oneself, bathing oneself, dressing oneself, and using the toilet); disorientation to time (being unsure of time of day, date, or year) or place; memory loss to the degree of forgetting the names of close relatives, one’s own occupation, or one’s own name. This rating entitles you to the same benefits as an award of individual unemployability.
Common types of Anxiety disorders in veterans
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder
- Panic Disorder / Panic Attacks
- Social Anxiety
Below, let’s cover each of these anxiety disorders a little more in-depth.
General Anxiety Disorder VA Benefits
General Anxiety Disorder (GAD, sometimes known as Generalized Anxiety Disorder) is most common among veterans who were involved in a conflict. This anxiety disorder is characterized by excessive, persistent worrying that is hard to control, and by psychological and physical symptoms of anxiety that together, can cause significant personal distress and impairment to everyday functions. Some symptoms of GAD include:
- Poor sleep and sleep impairment
- Being irritable
- Fatigue
- Difficulty concentrating, and/or mild memory loss.
- Headaches
- Physical pain in the neck, shoulders, and back
- Disorientation
Such symptoms of general anxiety disorder can often make it difficult to complete tasks on a daily basis. Disruption in thought processes, as well as physical symptoms, cause domestic and occupational tasks to be more challenging.
Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder VA Benefits
Panic attacks are intense periods of fear or feelings of doom that develop over a short time. Panic attacks are associated with sudden overwhelming fear, chest pain, and shortness of breath, sweating, and sometimes a feeling of being detached from the world.
Panic disorder involves recurrent panic attacks along with the constant fear of having continuous panic attacks in the future and avoiding situations in which a panic attack may arise.
Veterans with Social Anxiety Disorder
Social Anxiety Disorder can also be referred to as “social phobia”. Veterans who experience frequent and unending fear of social situations or situations where they are expected to perform in some way may be suffering from a social anxiety disorder. Veterans may also experience fear in appearing anxious or acting in a way that will produce embarrassment or humiliation.
These social impairment symptoms can considerably interfere with a veteran’s work life, relationships, and normal day to day living.
Help for veterans with Phobias
A specific phobia typically involves a strong fear and avoidance of one particular type of object or situation. Unlike panic disorders and social anxiety, there is no fear of a panic attack occurring or fear of humiliation or embarrassment, rather a fear of direct exposure to the phobia causes a panic-like reaction. With a specific phobia, the fear is always out of proportion to the real danger posed by the object or situation.
Typically, fear and avoidance are strong enough to interfere with a veteran’s normal routine activities, work efficiency, and social relationships. Agoraphobia is a common specific phobia that most veterans with an anxiety disorder encounter. Agoraphobia is the extreme or irrational fear of entering an open crowded place, of leaving one’s own home, or of being in a place from which escape is difficult.
This can also make things difficult for the veteran and his family relations. There are also issues such as adjustment disorders that merit its own discussion.
Getting Help on VA Disability Claims for Service Connection
If you are a veteran or know of a veteran who is suffering from an anxiety disorder, the good news is that there are help and resources available to receive disability compensation. Click this link for a list of resources provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs. If your VA claim has been denied for Anxiety or other mental conditions, do not hesitate to contact us!
