She thought she was going to get axed by her new supervisor so she said she hit her head on a cardboard box and went home and never went back. She had surgery to fix a bulging disc in her neck, and eventually achieved 100% total and permanent disability by gaining about 100 pounds combined with a whole lot of whining. When she comes to visit have to push her around in a wheelchair except when she wants to climb our stairs in the middle of the night to satisfy her kleptomania fueled urges to rifle through our stuff.
I went off service after 25 years with money contributed into our retirement fund by the participants. I was starting to have stress related issues. I get 50% less than my sister-in-law and could have gotten more if I used her tactics and claimed a disability. And believe me I have plenty of aches and pains... some from mishaps during my career. Some of my co-workers went off 100% disabled after jumping through plenty of hoops with doctors and others. A few eventually got themselves in trouble when video was taken of them playing soccer, water skiing, carrying bundles of shingles around while roofing, and various other activities that most people would not consider to be appropriate for disabled folks.
Worse yet is I go to the DeBakey VA hospital in Houston for all of my treatment. Look it up sometime. INCREDIBLY HUGE.
When some idgit starts talking about socialized medicine, I ask them if they have ever visited the VA. NO? Do you want to come with me on my next visit to DeBakey? Let's see what your opinion is after that trip.
I never claimed any PTSD. Given my service record, they always ask...and ask....and ask. But something happened once that made me determined I would NEVER do it even if it cost me 100% (before I knew what I was going to get).
I was taking some meds for psoriatic arthritis. It's part of the reason I retired when I did and why I was pulled from my duties and put into a 4-star staffing HQ. Well - this med had some very BAD side-effects (that I was not told about). It aggravated my already bad migraines...and it gave me some VERY BAD depression...and even suicidal thoughts - thoughts I have never had. CRAZY stuff.
Well - I had ZERO clue this was the meds. I thought it was probably PTSD. So - I was just sucking it up - until I watched a LONG commercial on this med (Otezla) and saw that it could cause these symptoms. SO - I read up on it and discovered more - and then decided to stop it cold turkey. Within days I was better - headache wise and no more depression.
SO - I had a neuro consult for my migraines and I just HAPPENED to mention this because it was related to my headaches ad I mentioned how the Otezla made me very depressed but that I was totally fine now.
SURE ENOUGH - they stuck that in my records - that I was depressed.
Given the push for red flag laws - I made the decision at that time - I was keeping my mouth shut if I ever had a problem - which thankfully I do not.