Should I use AI to write my VA Disability personal statement?

by Deborah Miller, PhD, HSPP - Lead Psychologist and owner at vetnexusletter.com

Personal (lay) statements can be a crucial part of your VA disability claim, especially if there are gaps in the objective evidence to support your case. However, many veterans find it difficult to know how to describe their experiences in a way that will be helpful to their claim. With the availability of new AI tools, many veterans turn to AI to help them write their personal statements. While this can be very useful in organizing information, there are also some major downsides to using AI if you don't understand its limitations.

The most important thing to remember is that AI cannot take the place of your human voice. A "personal" statement should be just that - personal. While AI-written statements seem polished and professional, they can be vague and generic, or too similar to other AI-generated documents.

I read veteran personal statements and lay statements written by family and friends every day as an independent examiner. Previously, veterans may have submitted personal statement that were written by hand, contained grammar and spelling errors, and weren't well organized. But they very obviously reflected that veteran's own personal experiences that led to their current disability, and how it was affecting their daily life. Even though it wasn't perfectly written, it got the job done and contained important information only the veteran could provide, because they lived it.

Now, I get a polished, error-free document - but it feels like anyone could have written it. Often, the statements submitted by friends and family reflect almost the exact same wording, the same phrases, paragraph by paragraph, as what was written in the veteran's personal statement. This doesn't give me much confidence that the statements are reflecting the actual personal experiences of the veteran, or observations from family/friends, lending less credibility to these types of AI-generated documents.

Here's an example from a recent statement I read, regarding how a veteran's PTSD caused obesity, which then led to sleep apnea (a common experience):

"I believe my PTSD symptoms, including chronic anxiety, depression, stress, and ongoing sleep disturbances, have affected my overall health and ability to maintain healthy lifestyle routines. These challenges have made managing my weight increasingly difficult."

OK - at first glance, this is well-written, professional, and brief. But it doesn't really tell me HOW, day to day, the veteran's PTSD led to his weight gain. It just tells me what the veteran believes about his PTSD and weight. Compare that statement to this:

"Before service, I used to enjoy exercising, going to the gym several times a week, and doing outdoor activities like hiking, playing basketball with some friends each week, and general leading an active lifestyle. I did not have any binge eating habits prior to my military service, and this helped me maintain a generally healthy weight. After trauma during service, I began having sleep issues and nightmares, which made it difficult to follow my normal exercise routines. By my discharge date, I had already started to gain weight, though I was not yet considered obese. After discharge, my PTSD symptoms got even worse and I no longer had the structure of the military to force me to exercise and watch my weight. My sleep was awful and I had no energy. Work in a normal job was stressful, and I was having trouble getting along with people because of my trauma symptoms. I started just going home from work and laying on the couch, snacking and eating junk food as a way to help myself feel better after a stressful day. When I couldn't sleep because of nightmares, I would just go to the refrigerator and eat whatever I could find, which helped me feel a little better in the moment. This was ongoing and continued for many years, especially since I was not getting any treatment for PTSD until recently. I eat when I feel stressed, and I never have energy to go to the gym and I rarely even want to go out of the house because it makes me anxious. This pattern has been consistent, and despite efforts over the years to control my weight, I eventually became obese and I continue to find it difficult to do the healthy habits that were easy for me before service."

This is just an example, but it contains important elements:

1. A specific timeline of onset and progression, all linked to military service.

2. Specific, personal details about the mechanism of connection, not just a statement about the connection.

3. Real-life examples

4. Information about the ongoing, chronic nature of the problem to present day

This is an important formulation for ANY personal statement:

1. How things were BEFORE military service.

2. What happened during service that is related to your current disability

3. Initial onset of symptoms related to current disability

4. How that disability progressed over time

5. How things are going now - symptoms and the ways they specifically affect your daily functioning

My advice would be to use AI as a tool to help you write your OWN personal statement with your own personal details, not to write something you can copy and paste without adding your own voice. Ask AI to give you a good outline of a personal statement using the elements above to support the type of claim you're working on, then prompt AI to ask you questions about specific details of each part of this that would help make the statement more personal, and add details that strengthen the connection between your current disability and your military service. This will help you (and family/friends who want to use AI to help them write their statements) to write strong, credible statements that will fill in gaps in your claim.

If you need help with other evidence to support your claim, Dr. Miller is available to complete exams, DBQs, and nexus letters for any claim related to mental health. Contact her here: LINK.