I was lucky, the first Pdoc I had in 1994 when I first had my problems because of the way my career was going & ended up with burnout & other issues, he got the SSDI through immediately with no denial or anything....I had so many hospitalizations, I guess there wasn't much question & then after several years, they made it permanent without having to go through the reviews every few years. SSDI is also based on what your income was at the time you became disabled, so being an aerospace engineer at that time with 15 years experience, it help get a higher SSDI amount.....still didn't cover the hospital expenses though.

My husband got denied on his first application also. We ended up just going through my pdoc (who was also his pdoc) & they got the second application through without any denial & without the need to pay a lawyer or anyone else.

It's really not a problem to do it yourself...you just have to be determined NOT TO GIVE UP.