Shit just got real. How long can somebody realistically expect to be on disability for PTSD and what type of help should that person be getting while off work? After all, the end goal of being on disability is to recover so you can get back to work. Its been a long 8 months and it seems like something is finally going to happen. I have to admit, I was pretty upset with the thought of going in to an inpatient treatment centre. Its hard enough leaving the house, never mind checking yourself in to a strange place for a few months with strange people. Anyone thats been diagnosed with PTSD \ OSI knows that the evaluation process is exhausting. In my experience, Ive had 4 thorough evaluations over the past 18 months. It seems that each evaluation resulted in a poorer diagnosis each time. 3 of the 4 sessions ended with medication changes and no real therapy solutions. The diagnosis went from classic PTSD to chronic PTSD to complex chronic PTSD to severely complex chronic PTSD. So what do I do? I just kept doing what I was doing and saw my shrink semi regularly. I was eventually taken off of all the benzos and put on to something much more beneficial. That was a nightmare in itself. I had no idea what a grip those 3 different benzos had on my body. It took a hospitalization to learn that I should never have been on those meds in the first place. Once I leveled out, I really did start to feel better with only the occasional bout of depression and anxiety. The Cognitive Behavioural Therapy really worked well too. I got myself to the point where my hyper vigilance started to calm down somewhat. Everything started to feel like it was coming along and I even looked in to what would be required to get my ass back to work. Then the insurance company got involved. According to the psychiatrist that they sent me to for an independent exam, there is more going on upstairs than I had originally thought and they werent going to clear me for work unless I went to treatment. And, if I refused treatment, they were going to stop my benefits. There are two things here that really pissed me off and triggered my resistance: 1) I shouldnt have to hear about a new diagnosis from case worker at an insurance company, especially if it involves a treatment recommendation; and 2) I felt like I was being backed in to a corner with nothing but really shitty choices. Now that Ive had time to cool down, Im starting to see the potential benefit. Ive been off for 8 months and nothing has really worked they way it should have. So, I may as well suck it up and give it my best. I should be gone in the next few weeks and Ill hopefully find out which centre I will be going to. The only fight I have left is trying to convinve the insurance company that I only want to do this once so I want to go to the best centre available and to a centre that has exposure to Veterans and PTSD. The insurance company is pushing for what I would consider a second rate centre so they can benefit from the cost savings. Either way, Im going to go - I just hope I get the best help available. An added bonus is that it looks like Koda will be able to come with me to treatment which will make things SOOOO much better.
Posted on: Fri, 09 Jan 2015 18:18:40 +0000
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