VA Rating for Bipolar Disorder

Understanding Your VA Rating for Bipolar Disorder

A service-connected bipolar disorder can profoundly disrupt your day-to-day life. Furthermore, the complexities of bipolar mean that it is often not well understood by the VA, leading to ratings that are perhaps not what they should be. As a result, even with serious and debilitating symptoms, veterans are sometimes denied the help they need – and deserve. If bipolar disorder is interfering with your ability to work specifically, maximizing your VA rating for bipolar disorder is critical. This is where the disability attorneys of Veterans Law Group do their work.

Every veteran has stepped up and served his or her country, often at unimaginable personal cost. Veterans’ benefits aren’t charity or a handout – they’re repayment of a small fraction of what your country owes you for your service. Period.

However, the VA is a Federal bureaucracy. It employs hundreds of thousands of people. It’s the single largest healthcare system in the country, with over 1,200 locations. If it were a country, it would have a budget around the size of Portugal’s. It’s not uncommon to find yourself facing this massive administrative machine all alone. And this is where an experienced VA disability attorney can make a big difference.

If your benefits have been denied, or your condition hasn’t been properly rated, our attorneys have the experience, the strategy and the assertive representation you need to cut through the red tape and get the benefits you deserve. You’ve completed your mission. This one’s ours.

Understanding the VA Disability Rating Levels

The VA’s rating range for bipolar disorder is from 10% to 100%, depending on how serious the symptoms are and how much they affect your daily life. Representation by a lawyer, who presents lay testimony and organized evidence can help boost your VA disability rating and your compensation. Your family, friends and coworkers can provide information about how your symptoms affect your day-to-day life. An experienced VA disability attorney can build a case, have your testimony and evidence heard, and help you get the compensation you deserve.

The VA rates disability from service-connected bipolar disorder according to the following symptoms. Please not that these are general descriptions – your Veterans Law Group attorney can provide you with much more specific information:

10%

For a 10% rating, symptoms are transient or sporadic. Or, if your symptoms are more severe, medication can control or eliminate them.

30%

This disability rating is perhaps the most common. It is appropriate if the aforementioned symptoms are worse than 10% but still manageable. Your symptoms might interfere with social interaction and job performance, even though you are “generally” able to function “satisfactorily.”

50%

A 50% rating is appropriate if symptoms include lethargy, speech impairment, memory and/or thought impairment, weekly panic attacks, difficulty in understanding complex instructions, or trouble maintaining healthy social relationships.

70%

At this level, you are likely finding it difficult to keep a job. Specific symptoms include suicidal thoughts, near-continuous panic attacks or depression, inability to manage stressful situations, and neglect of personal hygiene.

100%

Generally, at this disability rating you either are unable to leave your house or need constant supervision. Some total disability symptoms include gross thought impairment, hallucinations and/or delusions, disorientation as to place, time, and situation, and possibly being a danger to yourself or others.

VA Rating for Bipolar Disorder: Reach Out to a Dedicated Attorney

Getting you the benefits you deserve is what our firm is all about — all day, every day. Because of our extensive, hands-on knowledge of how the VA functions, and which factors will help your cause the most, we can put together the strongest possible case for increasing your disability rating. Furthermore, we can present your case in a way the VA will understand and respect.

For a free consultation with an experienced VA disability lawyer, contact the Veterans Law Group. We represent veterans anywhere in the United States.