Citation Nr: 18148170 Decision Date: 11/07/18 Archive Date: 11/06/18 DOCKET NO. 13-25 401 DATE: November 7, 2018 ORDER Entitlement to a total individual unemployability (TDIU) is granted. FINDING OF FACT The Veteran’s service-connected disabilities render him unable to secure or follow substantially gainful employment. CONCLUSION OF LAW The criteria for a TDIU have been met. 38 U.S.C. §§ 1155, 5107; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.102, 3.340, 3.341, 4.3, 4.15, 4.16, 4.18, 4.19. REASONS AND BASES FOR FINDING AND CONCLUSION The Veteran served on active service from February 1966 to January 1968. In a September 2016 Board of Veterans’ Appeals (Board) decision, the board remanded the issue of entitlement to TDIU. The Board finds that the RO complied with its remand directives. See Stegall v. West, 11 Vet. App. 268, 271 (1998). The Veteran contends that his service connected disability of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevents him from obtaining a substantially gainful occupation. Entitlement to a TDIU requires the presence of impairment so severe that it is impossible for the average person to follow a substantially gainful occupation. Consideration may be given to the veteran’s level of education, special training, and previous work experience in arriving at a conclusion, but not to his age or to the impairment caused by nonservice-connected disabilities. 38 U.S.C. § 1155; 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.340, 3.341, 4.16, 4.19. In reaching such a determination, the central inquiry is “whether the veteran’s service-connected disabilities alone are of sufficient severity to produce unemployability.” Hatlestad v. Brown, 5 Vet. App. 524, 529 (1993). The fact that a veteran is unemployed or has difficulty obtaining employment is not enough to warrant a TDIU. See Van Hoose v. Brown, 4 Vet. App. 361 (1993). The law provides that a total disability rating may be assigned where the schedular rating is less than total when the disabled person is unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation as a result of service-connected disabilities, provided that, if there is only one such disability, this disability shall be ratable at 60 percent or more, or if there are two or more disabilities, there shall be at least one disability ratable at 40 percent or more, and sufficient additional disability to bring the combined rating to 70 percent or more. See 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a). The Veteran has a combined disability rating of 70 percent for PTSD with alcohol and cocaine use disorders from April 1, 2018. As such, the Veteran met the schedular requirement for TDIU under 38 C.F.R. § 4.16(a) as of April 1, 2016. Records show that from January 24, 2018 to April 1, 2018, the Veteran was assigned a temporary evaluation of 100 percent due to a psychiatric hospitalization in excess of 21 days. The Veteran was hospitalized from January 2018 to March 2018. Treatment records from that hospitalization at Bay Pines VAMC describe the Veteran as in a dissociative state almost delusional in nature, including visual and auditory hallucinations. The Veteran was diagnosed with PTSD-dissociative type as well as substance use disorder. The Veteran was afforded a VA examination in August 2018. The examiner opined that the Veteran’s PTSD led to occupational deficiencies in most areas. The examiner found that the Veteran’s emotional instability, difficulty in establishing and maintaining effective work and social relationships, difficulty in adapting to stressful situations and his chronic sleep impairment, disturbances of motivation and mood, impaired short-term memory and memory loss would all impact his occupational and employment activities. The Board finds this opinion to be highly probative. A VA examiner in 2017 found notable irritability towards perceived slights and an oppositional demeanor. The examiner also noted depressed mood, anxiety, suspiciousness, chronic sleep impairment and difficulty in adapting to stressful circumstances, including work or a worklike setting. The examiner opined the Veteran has occupational and social impairment with occasional decrease in work efficiency Similar symptoms of dissociation, depression and poor sleep were also reported at a VA examination in March 2015. The Veteran stated he hallucinated and specified that he heard voices that he did not recognize and perceived individuals transforming into the male perpetrator responsible for his in-service military sexual trauma. Symptoms, consisting of auditory and visual hallucinations wherein the Veteran transposes the face of his attacker onto other people, have been reported to multiple examiners and providers over the years. The Veteran is not currently employed, has not been employed full time since approximately 2000, reporting only sporadic part-time work over the years. His highest education level is a GED. While there are indications that he has taken some college classes over the years, it does not appear that a degree was ever obtained. The Veteran reported to providers that his attempts at part-time work and to continue school were overwhelming and that he stopped both due to symptoms associated with his service-connected PTSD. While no examiner has opined that the Veteran was unable to work, the Board finds that the evidence, when taken as a whole, shows the Veteran’s service connected disability renders him unable to secure and maintain employment. Considering the above, and the Veteran’s overall disability picture, we find the Veteran is unable to work due to his service connected disabilities. Consequently, the Veteran is entitled TDIU. John Crowley Veterans Law Judge Board of Veterans’ Appeals ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD V. Woehlke, Associate Counsel