Bipolar in the miliarty

[Dmans442]

Good evening everyone, I am hoping that someone has maybe had or heard of this type of experience.

I served in the Marine Corps, in Desert Storm, back in 1991. I was honorably discharged in June of 1992. I worked the same job for 16 years until last November 5th when I suddenly quit, but for very good reasons. After taking a couple of months off, I started contemplating enlisting in the National Guard, hoping to kinda relive the glory days of my youth, lol. I am 44 years of age now. I first tried to enlist in January, but my cholesterol was too high so I was originally disqualified. After waiting forever for a waiver, and going thru a lot of soul searching and inner turmoil, I finally enlisted March 20th, one day before they dropped the are limit to 35. I went to the annual training in June and I had a really hard time of it, spent a lot of time in tears for the first few days. I talked to my squad leader, who had me talk to my platoon commander and they basically put me on light duty for the duration of the two weeks, and we returned June 15th. When I returned, I started seeing two psychologists affiliated with the VA, and they both diagnosed me with Bipolar Disorder, and they encouraged to apply for SSID. These two doctors filled out forms that my Guard Unit had given me, about my ability to handle an overseas deployment. It was the opinion of both doctors that I would not be able to handle going overseas. These forms were submitted to my Guard Unit about 2 weeks ago, and this past Tuesday I went to the Army's website and I am now red flagged with a Medically Nondeployable Profile.

I am wondering where this whole thing is going to go from here. Will I be discharged or not? At this point, I am not MOS qualified and haven't received any part of my enlistment bonus, so I am assuming that they will probably ask me to leave the Guard. Both of my VA doctors have the opinion that the bipolar was probably around since childhood, but never diagnosed, and they believe that it was really aggravated during the time in the Corps, so I am contemplating applying for a VA disability pension.

Maybe I am just venting, lol, any advice or information that can be shared would be appreciated. Thanks

[Dmans442]

To clear one thing up, that I forgot to mention beforehand, I served in the Persian Gulf during Desert Shield/Storm back in 1990 and 91, that is why I qualify for VA benefits.  I still wonder what exactly made you angry about my original posting.  Maybe you could explain that.

[magavex]

I just read your post and maybe I'm wrong, but it seriously angered me. Why would you qualify for VA benefits?! It sounds like you didn't complete your training and as soon as you re-enlisted, you were dx. If this has been an ongoing issue, you should be medically discharged but w/o VA benefits. My parents, husband and myself were in service all three retired except for myself. They are all eligible for VA because they completed their time in service.

Good luck to you.

[bastet56]

If you can't get a pension through the VA at least fight for your medical benefits. Treatment for bp as well as any hospital care you may need can be very expensive. The VA will go through your service records and try to determine if you showed any sign of bp while on active duty. Good luck

[ILADVOCATE]

If you want to know about benefits issues including Veteran's Assistance you might find your local independent living center to be of help. Once you know about the criteria you could decide from there:
http://www.ilru.org/html/publications/directory/index.html