Mental Health & Sleep Claims

Mental health and sleep claims demand more than a diagnosis; they require consistent storytelling across every record. Use the PTSD Claim Guide to map stressor events into a sharp VA Form 21-0781 stressor statement before you ever open the portal. Pair it with the VA Form 21-10210 Lay Statement Guide so your personal narrative locks onto dates, duty stations, and symptoms the rater can verify.

Therapy documentation keeps the momentum. Request Your Vet Center Records to capture counseling notes, and apply the prompts from Get Your Claim On Track with a Solid Personal Statement so family members describe the same panic episodes, avoidance patterns, or hypervigilance you report in treatment. Daily symptom trackers and crisis plans show how often you need intervention, which matters for higher ratings.

Sleep disorders carry their own hurdles. Follow the Sleep Apnea Claim strategy to secure a diagnostic sleep study, CPAP compliance data, and secondary nexus opinions that connect breathing issues to PTSD, toxic exposure, or weight changes driven by medication. Track Your Sleep Apnea Episodes and Win Your Claim walks you through logging choking, daytime fatigue, and partner observations that prove severity when the study is a year old.

If VA lowballs the evaluation, close the loop with airtight evidence. Document Everything with Buddy Statements to capture spouse or roommate testimony, highlight favorable findings with Lock In VA Favorable Findings, and be ready to cite specific CFR 4.130 criteria during appeal calls. With that dossier you can defend the initial grant, pursue secondary conditions like migraines or GERD, and keep future increases on the table.