(C) Daily Kos
This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered.
. . . . . . . . . .



It's the Waiting That Kills. Especially waiting for Disability. [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2023-07-11

Please excuse the roughness of this Diary. It’s somewhat of an emotional topic for me, and I don’t think I can give it a polished voice without making it too… clinical.

For the last several months I’ve been waiting for the results of my Social Security Disability hearing. Now, Now I’m waiting to find out if my lawyer is going to decide to drop my case, or take it to the appeals board. Since the results were denial.

For a little perspective. An old boss of mine recently told my wife “of course he’s disabled, just look at him.”

I’ve got ADHD, Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome, Severe Asthma, Major Depression, PTSD, and I’m missing half of my pointer, middle, and ring fingers. I have chronic pain in my back from a formerly pinched nerve, An occasional limp and numbness in my legs and toes (it’s from the pinched nerve). On top of all that. Three years ago I became Diabetic. Thank goodness the medecine for Diabetes is extremely effective on me. Even with all that. I guess I don’t meet the standard of “being unable to work any full time job.” Never mind that I’ve never been able to keep a full time job for more than three months… One of my psychiatric symptoms is losing my verbal filter under stress. Or having outbursts of sudden anger and yelling.

Every day after the hearing I found myself checking the results. As each passing week, and then month ticked slowly by. I found myself getting more and more worried. Under greater and ever increasing stress. Trying to quit smoking by putting a nicotine patch on, and then ripping it off and smoking a cigarette (please no comments about the Asthma my smoking habit predates my Asthma case, and I am trying to quit).

I’m reminded of the episode of Last Week Tonight where John Oliver covered how so many states make it purposely hard to apply for benefits. Especially, Disability benefits.

I just found out a couple of days ago that it was Disability Pride month, which of course is more than a little ironic in a society as Ableist as America.

[END]
---
[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/11/2180646/-It-s-the-Waiting-That-Kills-Especially-waiting-for-Disability

Published and (C) by Daily Kos
Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified.

via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds:
gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/

You are viewing proxied material from magical.fish. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.