Hey veterans, I am back here with another video.
I wanted to follow up on one that I recently did on VA PTSD ratings and beauty pageants,
and how those two things can possibly be similar.
If you saw the last video, I talked about how, in judging the severity and what the
correct rating would be for a PTSD in one veteran's particular situation, one thing
that VA looks at is how the person's personal appearance, their hygiene and related matters
are affected by the PTSD or depression.
And again, as someone slips into the more severe forms of that condition, often times
they let their personal appearance go, their hygiene is somewhat lacking at times, they
don't shower, they don't shave, they don't cut their hair as often as they should, they
don't change their clothes as often as they should.
So I've talked previously about incorporating some of that evidence into your claim, but
I also want to talk to you about, what does that mean in terms of your C&P exam, or your
personal hearing in front of a VA adjudicator that's going to be deciding your claim.
My advice to you on this is be yourself.
And by that, I mean don't pretend to be any better off than you are, and of course, don't
pretend to be any worse off than you are.
I don't want you to ... If you shower every day, I don't want you to go two weeks without
a shower.
However, at the same time, be mindful of looking your absolute best the one day a year that
you're going to look presentable at that hearing or that C&P exam.
Be yourself.
Just go as you normally are, be yourself, and don't do anything out of the ordinary
so that they can clearly and accurately asses how you present and how this may be affecting
you.
It's just the same as any other sort of disability, you want to let them see how it truly is.
You may say, "Well, I can't do that.
My wife is not going to let me do that."
Maybe that's the more accurate way of looking at it.
I had this come up in a hearing recently.
And the hearing officer was asking about, how often do you shower?
How often do you do these types of things?
And the veteran, I thought, did a good job with it.
Because he said, "I did get a shower last night because I knew I was coming here today.
I still have some standards about me that I want to ... That I know I have to meet.
I knew it was an important day.
But if it weren't for having to come here today, I wouldn't have gotten a shower.
I didn't really feel like it."
And then we talked through that some more.
"Well, how often do you take a shower?"
"About twice a week, that's what I'm down to at this point.
That's all the energy I can muster."
So again, if your appearance at that exam, at that hearing is out of the ordinary, explain
that.
Explain that, "I'm doing a little bit better today, appearance-wise, than I normally would."
Or, "I've just had a bad couple of days, I apologize.
That's why I haven't really been able to take care of my appearance like I know I should."
But as much as anything, just be mindful that they're looking you up and down.
They are judging that book by its cover to an extent.
Now, they are going to delve into other issues and how this affects you, so I don't want
to overstate the importance of this.
But it is one factor being used to judge what level your PTSD should be rated at.
So keep that in mind, learn more about PTSD and similar issues at our website, winyourvetclaim.com.
If you need help with your appeal, reach out to us for a free consultation, we'll see if
we can assist with that.
In the meantime check out our other videos, we have plenty of information up, and articles
on the website as well about PTSD and related issues.
So I hope you find those of benefit to you.
If you did, give it a thumbs up, check out the others, share it with a friend, and stay
tuned for additional videos that we hope to have coming to you sometime in the near future.
Thanks, have a good one.