Know Your Worth: A Veteran's Guide to VA Disability Ratings
Veteran Advocacy + Field Guide
A seven-part field guide for veterans navigating VA disability ratings — C&P exams, rating criteria, mental health formulas, VA math, Special Monthly Compensation, and how to appeal. Written by a medically retired Navy SEAL.
You Already Earned It — Now Learn How to Claim It
The VA disability system rates every condition using published federal criteria. Most veterans never read them. This post introduces the three regulations that shift the entire process in your favor.
Read the Rulebook Before You Play the Game
A step-by-step guide to reading the federal regulations that determine your VA disability rating, doing an honest self-assessment, and learning to describe your conditions in the language the VA actually uses.
Your C&P Exam Is Not a Test
A detailed walkthrough of the VA Compensation and Pension exam process, what the examiner is actually doing, how the DBQ translates your experience into a rating, and how to avoid the mistakes that cost veterans money every day.
Your Worst Day Counts More Than Your Best
The mental health rating formula explained at the level most veterans never reach — the decision points, the traps, the legal protections, and the emotional weight of reducing your mental health to a federal percentage.
VA Math Isn't Regular Math
How the VA combines disability ratings using the whole person theory, why your numbers don't add up the way you expect, and how to think strategically about secondary conditions, the bilateral factor, and TDIU.
The Money You're Leaving on the Table
Most veterans don't know that VA compensation goes above 100%. Special Monthly Compensation, overlooked conditions, secondary claim chains, and PACT Act presumptives explained with verified 2026 rates.
Nobody Is Coming to Save You
The series finale. How to fight a wrong rating, who can help you, what buddy statements actually do, and why your VA claim is a campaign, not a single battle.