Well, the letter from SSDI was, of course, a denial. Apparently I am not quite disabled enough.
I guess I just need to find an employer that doesn't care if I can't show up for a few months at a stretch. I never knew it was that simple.
Dark thoughts here. This was basically the last lifeline.
How many denials?
Do you have SDDI attorney?
@LnzyHou First one on this claim. And no; not yet.
@aspecurian @LnzyHou
I really believe that SSDI doesn't actually look at any records unless you have an attorney. It screens out the people who are too unlikely to qualify for an attorney to take their cases. Unfortunately, it means they have to have delayed benefits while the back payments accumulate enough for it to be worth an attorney's time.
@LnzyHou @EileenKCarpenter One of my old therapists was a procter for the decision process and said pretty much that I would qualify after a bunch of hoop jumping. I knew it would happen but dared to hope.
@LnzyHou @aspecurian
The other thing I tend to notice -- SSD sometimes requests a consultation exam to supplement the records that are submitted.
There is a list of doctors that they direct applicants to see, but they always give the applicant's own PCP the first choice of being the one to do the evaluation and fill out the paperwork.
People want their own PCP to do it, but I think it's better if you get the SSD doc to do it. They tend to make objective assessments, and when THEY sound alarmed at how disabled you are, it can't be dismissed as a doctor just trying to be nice to his/her own patient.
An attorney will chart the course to success
@LnzyHou @EileenKCarpenter Got to grease the wheels of the justice industrial complex somehow, I guess.
@EileenKCarpenter @LnzyHou Definitely did not have the option of my own doctor.
He was the one who got the ball rolling by giving me a letter of disability, so I guess I had to see a shrink in a strip mall and get my X-rays retaken in a chiropractor's spare room.
Goddamn government hatchet artists.
@aspecurian @LnzyHou
Social security has a little booklet that lists what is considered total disability (one limb missing, no, two limbs missing, yes, etc). So it helps if your doctor has pointed out where you meet the criteria, as that is what the consultative doctor starts with.
An important factor is how you manage to do basic life tasks for yourself. If you can shop, cook, do laundry, care for your kids and pets, you could get a (low paid) job doing those same things.
@aspecurian @LnzyHou
The records have to answer why you would not be employable as a home health aid or animal shelter employee. For instance, it needs to specify what help you have needed when you've had bad spells.
@EileenKCarpenter @LnzyHou I think I know where they tripped me up.
Asked questions about my function, which I took to be about the physical stuff (since I already had a mental exam) and I answered solely about my physical disabilities.
@EileenKCarpenter @aspecurian
Any folks I know have gotten three denials (some kind of game)
ALL had SSDI attorneys.