Danny had the DD-214. He had most of his medical records. What he didn't have was 45 minutes in a row when his hands weren't shaking too badly to fill out a form, or the stomach for reading through paperwork that asked him to put difficult parts of his service into words.

So the folder sat on the kitchen table for three months.

The benefits were important to him, but opening the folder simply brought him closer to memories he was already working hard to avoid.

Sound familiar? Keep reading to learn why this kind of avoidance can happen, what the research says, and how the right support can make the process feel more manageable.

Why This Isn’t Procrastination

A VA claim can require someone to describe painful experiences in bureaucratic language, often while trying to make sense of records, diagnoses, and supporting evidence. For a person living with trauma symptoms, that process can stir up memories and emotions they have spent a long time trying to keep at a manageable distance.

Add active substance use or early recovery, when discomfort can already feel difficult to tolerate, and a stack of forms can become a formidable task.

Avoidance can serve a purpose. It can create temporary distance from something that feels overwhelming, even when that same avoidance makes it harder to take the next step.

That pattern can show up in both recovery and benefits navigation. A person may be learning how to face difficult feelings in treatment while also facing paperwork that brings some of those feelings back to the surface.

What the Research Shows

The Department of Veterans Affairs has acknowledged the burden of its application process. In July 2026, VA announced proposals to reduce the disability compensation application from 15 pages to five and the survivor-benefits application from 20 pages to seven. The agency said the changes were intended to reduce unnecessary paperwork and make applications easier to complete. The simplified forms were projected for use by December 2026.

Research on care management points to the value of having another person help a veteran stay connected to care. In a 2025 study of rural veterans with PTSD, participants described care managers as useful for coordinating care, offering personal support, and helping them prepare for and follow up on treatment.

A 2018 randomized trial of MISSION-Vet, a case-management intervention for veterans with co-occurring mental health and substance use disorders in VA homeless programs, found significantly more case-manager contacts among veterans in the intervention group. The study supports the value of case management for treatment engagement, while its broader behavioural-health outcomes were more limited.

Taken together, the research supports a practical point: support with navigation and follow-through can make it easier for some veterans to stay engaged with services.

What Helps

The first step is having someone stay with the process. A staff member, case manager, peer specialist, or trusted support person can sit beside a veteran and work through the application in real time rather than handing over a folder and expecting the rest to happen alone.

The second is making the task smaller. One section, one document, or one phone call can be far easier to approach than an entire claim sitting in front of someone at once.

The third is treating avoidance as useful information. If a veteran has left a claim untouched for months, that may signal that the task is emotionally loaded, confusing, or overwhelming. It gives the care team something to work with.

Where This Fits Into Treatment

A veterans program that includes benefits navigation as part of care can address a barrier that falls between treatment and everyday life. Staff can help a veteran work through an application during a treatment day, break it into manageable sections, and notice when a particular question is becoming difficult.

That kind of support can also create room for pacing. A veteran may be able to complete a section, take a break, talk through what came up, and return to the task when they are ready.

The goal is practical as much as emotional. Completing a claim can mean gaining access to benefits that support housing, treatment, financial stability, or other parts of daily life, depending on the veteran's eligibility.

Summary

VA has proposed shorter benefits applications, while research on veteran care management suggests that personal support and help navigating services can improve engagement.

For veterans dealing with trauma, substance use, or early recovery, paperwork may become easier to approach when the process is broken into manageable steps and handled alongside appropriate support.

Why not choose one section of the claim today and ask someone you trust to sit with you while you work through it?

Helpful Tools

Our self-guided program includes tools from CBT, DBT, ACT and more, so you can discover what works best for you. Check out The Mental Wellbeing Toolkit today – it's "like 10 therapy sessions in one."

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