Can You Get VA Disability for Anxiety? Our Anxiety VA Rating Guide

If you are a veteran struggling with anxiety, it’s essential to understand how to qualify for VA disability for anxiety. Veterans are at a higher risk of developing anxiety disorders due to the stress and trauma experienced during military service.

This article explores the most common anxiety disorders that veterans face, the process of establishing a service connection, and how to effectively navigate the VA disability claims process to secure the benefits you deserve.

Getting VA Disability for Anxiety: Key Takeaways

• Common anxiety disorders among veterans: Conditions like PTSD, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) are prevalent among veterans. This is due to exposure to trauma or stress during military service.
• Proof of service connection: To establish a service-connected anxiety disorder, you must provide medical evidence linking your anxiety to in-service events, injuries, or illnesses. This can include service treatment records and personal or buddy statements from fellow veteran service members.
• Medical nexus letter: A crucial component of your claim is a nexus letter from a qualified medical professional. This letter establishes a connection between your anxiety disorder and military service, providing necessary medical rationale for your claim.
• Anxiety as primary or secondary disability: If anxiety is your most impactful medical condition, the VA may consider it your primary disability. However, it’s often secondary to other conditions such as PTSD or tinnitus. In these cases, the VA will consider it a secondary service-connected disability.
• Disability ratings and compensation: Your VA rating for anxiety ranges from 0%-100%, and higher ratings reflect more severe impacts on your daily functioning. The rating also affects how much money you receive in monthly VA disability compensation.
• Filing a supplemental claim: If the VA denies your initial claim, you can file a supplemental claim that includes new and relevant evidence. Some examples include updated medical records, a nexus letter, or lay evidence describing the daily impact of your condition.

Most Common Anxiety Disorders That Veterans Experience

A Yale study found that 7.9% of veterans screened positive for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Compare that incidence rate to just 2.9% in the general U.S. adult population. GAD symptoms include excessive worry and anxiety about everyday issues, often exacerbated by the stresses of reintegration into civilian life.

Other common anxiety mental health conditions among veterans include:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Caused by exposure to traumatic events during military service, often including flashbacks, nightmares and hypervigilance.
• Panic disorder: Involves sudden intense episodes of fear or panic, often triggered by reminders of military experiences.
• Social anxiety disorder: Can develop after military-related stress or isolation with symptoms such as fear of social situations.
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD): Intrusive thoughts and repetitive behaviors, which may arise in response to trauma or stress from prior military service.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)

This mental health condition is characterized by persistent and excessive worry about various aspects of everyday life. Generalized anxiety disorder is often accompanied by physical symptoms such as:

• Restlessness
• Fatigue
• Difficulty concentrating

It can significantly impact a person’s well-being but can improve with appropriate treatment, such as therapy, medication, or lifestyle changes.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects veterans more than any other service-connected conditions. In fact, PTSD accounts for 63% of approved VA mental health disability claims in 2019.

Typically, PTSD in veterans occurs in military personnel exposed to traumatic events while on active duty.

See a list of the most common PTSD symptoms below.

Emotional and psychological symptoms

• Remembering past traumatic events or reliving them in your head.
• Feeling numb, anxious, guilty, withdrawn, or uninterested in things you typically enjoy.
• Negative thoughts and feelings are more common for you than positive ones.

Behavioral symptoms

• You try to avoid certain people, places, or situations that remind you of past trauma.
• You indulge in unhealthy behaviors, such as excessive smoking, drinking, drugs, reckless driving, etc.

Physical and cognitive symptoms

• A good night’s sleep is rare for you (e.g., you have nightmares, insomnia, wake up often, or aren’t well-rested).
• It’s hard for you to pay attention or focus on tasks.
• You startle easily and feel hyperaware of your surroundings (e.g., heightened fight-or-flight response).

If you suffer these symptoms but have no official diagnosis, you can get screened online or at a nearby VA medical center.

Thinking about your PTSD symptoms, answer these questions before filing an anxiety VA claim:

1. Do your symptoms last longer than 30 days? Symptoms may come and go but if they bother you for weeks or months, tell your doctor.
2. Do symptoms negatively impact your daily life? Do you struggle to keep a job, maintain relationships, or complete daily activities?
3. Do the effects of your symptoms upset you or your loved ones? This means you think about hurting yourself or others, suffer debilitating panic attacks or have other upsetting experiences.

Panic Disorder (PD)

Panic disorder causes sudden, frequent episodes of intense fear or discomfort (i.e., panic attacks) and disproportionate fear or overwhelming anxiety.

Below are some common symptoms people experience during a panic attack.

Physical symptoms:

• Trembling
• Dizziness
• Hypertension (i.e., high blood pressure)
• Shortness of breath
• Sweating
• Rapid heartbeat
• Nausea or stomach pain
• Chest pain

Psychological symptoms:

• Fear of losing control or dying
• Irrational thoughts
• Feeling detached from reality

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

This lifelong chronic mental disorder, which can vary in its severity over time, has two main symptoms:

• Intrusive, obsessive thoughts
• Compulsive repetitive behaviors or mental acts that you perform in order to alleviate anxiety or prevent a feared consequence

Veterans, especially those with combat experience, are at increased risk for developing obsessive compulsive disorder.

How to Prove Your Anxiety Disorder Qualifies for VA Disability

Provide evidence linking your anxiety disorder to your military service in order to qualify for VA disability. Here are some examples of how to prove your VA disability for anxiety claim is valid:

1. You completed active or inactive duty service (ex: reserves) and currently have a physical or mental disability.
2. If your anxiety disorder began during active duty, you can prove a direct connection to your military service.
3. A pre-existing condition worsened while on active duty, showing a direct link to your service.
4. You developed a service-connected condition but failed to show any symptoms or receive a diagnosis until after discharge.
5. You meet the requirements for a VA presumptive condition, so you do not also need to prove a service connection for anxiety. An exception to this is: if your anxiety disorder symptoms are identical to that of your VA presumptive condition. An example might include former prisoners of war (POWs) who suffer any ongoing state of anxiety.

Tips for Establishing a Service-Connected Anxiety Disorder

If you already have an anxiety medical diagnosis, start gathering proof supporting your military service connection.

Is your anxiety the most severe or impactful of all your service-connected disabilities (based on your anxiety VA rating percentage)? If so, the VA will consider it your primary disability. That simply means your anxiety VA rating number is the highest one you’ve ever received.

It is often the case that anxiety is secondary to other conditions such as tinnitus, depression, and PTSD. In these cases, your anxiety is considered a secondary service-connected disability.

To prove your anxiety mental health disorder is service-connected, you must provide:

1. Proof of an event, injury or illness that occurred during military service. This proof can come from medical records, personal statements, witness statements, or other military records. See examples of acceptable proof.
2. A medical letter (nexus) that establishes the connection between your anxiety and your service. This letter must be written by a qualified medical professional who is familiar with your medical history and the military service records relevant to the claim.

Medical Proof That Supports Your VA Disability for Anxiety Claim

Examples of acceptable medical documentation to include with your VA disability compensation claim may include anything in our list below.

Service treatment records (STRs)

• Documented visits to medical personnel during service for stress, anxiety, or related severe symptoms.
• Notes or diagnoses regarding mental health concerns, such as excessive worry, panic attacks, or insomnia.

Personnel records

• Records indicating exposure to traumatic or stressful events, such as combat assignments or hazardous duties.
• Evidence of disciplinary actions or performance issues during service that may indicate undiagnosed anxiety symptoms.

Incident reports or unit records

• Reports about specific traumatic events, such as accidents, injuries, or enemy attacks, that could contribute to anxiety.
• Verification of exposure to combat or other high-stress environments.

Buddy statements

• Statements from fellow veterans (buddies) who either witnessed or can confirm behavioral changes during or after the event.
• For example, a colleague testifying to your withdrawal from group activities or visible distress during stressful events.

Military awards or commendations

Awards that indicate previous combat exposure or a related traumatic event, like:

• Combat Infantryman Badge
• Purple Heart

Documentation of specific stressors

• Military Sexual Trauma (MST)-related event reports, such as harassment or assault, which can lead to anxiety disorders.
• Witnessing the death or serious injury of other service members.
• Natural disasters or other non-combat-related traumatic events (e.g., vehicle accidents).

Post-deployment health assessments

Records of self-reported mental health issues during post-deployment health screenings.

Who Can File an Anxiety VA Disability Claim?

U.S. veterans with at least a 10% percentage rating qualify for VA disability compensation and may therefore file a claim. You must have at least one service-connected condition, meaning that it occurred during active duty, inactive duty training, or active-duty training.

Understanding What Your Anxiety VA Rating Means

Your VA disability rating for anxiety can range from 0%-100%. The percentage indicates how much your condition impairs your ability to function both at work and in daily life. The higher the percentage number, the greater the impact your condition has on your overall daily activities.

The most common VA disability rating for veterans who receive compensation for mental disorders is 70%. At this percentage rating, you likely have a hard time maintaining full-time employment or cannot work at all. Mental health disorders make up 6.9% of service-connected disabilities, ranking these issues as the 5th most common VA disabilities.

Common symptoms of veterans with a 70% anxiety VA rating may include:

• Suicidal thoughts
• Obsessive focus on rituals
• Social isolation
• Almost constant panic attacks or depression
• Emotional outbursts, consisting mostly of irrational anger
• Inability to manage stressful situations
• Sleep disturbances
• Chronic fatigue
• Neglect of personal appearance and hygiene

How Your VA Rating for Anxiety Affects Your Monthly Compensation

Additional compensation is available to veterans with a disability rating of 30% or higher who have a spouse and/or dependents. Please note that veterans with 10%-20% VA disability ratings for anxiety won’t receive additional benefits for a dependent spouse, child or parent.

Filing a VA Supplemental Claim for Anxiety Disorders

If the VA denied your original claim, you may appeal by submitting new and relevant evidence.

You must meet three requirements to qualify for a VA supplemental claim:

1. The VA already denied your original claim.
2. You did not already appeal the original denied claim, therefore, it is not currently under dispute.
3. You have new and relevant evidence to support your existing claim. Alternatively, you can request a new claim review due to a change in federal law, such as the PACT Act. 

New and relevant evidence can include but is not limited to:

• Medical reports. Examples can include a new anxiety diagnosis, or updated treatment records you did not submit with your original claim. Pro tip: For assistance locating documents from your private insurer, VA medical centers, and other federal facilities, complete VA Form 21-4142.
• Medical nexus letter. A document written by a qualified medical professional that provides an opinion connecting your condition to your military service.
• Lay evidence (personal statements). Statements from you, family members, coworkers, or friends describing the impact of your condition on your daily life or job.
• Workplace documentation. Proof of job loss, reduced productivity, or work accommodation requirements due to your anxiety symptoms.

Pro tip: The VA recommends submitting your supplemental claim within 12 months of the date of your original claim’s decision letter.

Important: If you’re already getting disability for anxiety but your condition worsens, you can file to increase your current compensation amount.

Talk to a VA-Accredited Attorney for Free

If you believe your existing VA anxiety rating is too low or were denied benefits, let us help you. We can connect you with a local VA-accredited attorney to file your claim or appeal, if needed. This service is completely free and doesn’t require you to do anything else afterwards.

These attorneys always work on contingency. That means unless you receive more VA disability benefits, you owe your attorney $0.

We’ve helped more than 10,000 veterans connect with professional legal help through this website. You don’t have to fight the VA all on your own! Click the button below to start your free online VA benefits quiz and see if you may qualify:

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