I thought the same as the captain, above, until I went to the docs that the SSA sent me to. They were surprisingly nice. I've tried to come up with a theory as to why they would be.

Here's what I figure: The SSA doesn't want to waste its time. If they incentivize their docs to just try and paint all applicants as fakers, then they're just making a lot more work for themselves. They probably have some quality control mechanism for judging the performance of their docs, like how many times does a doc give an opinion that gets successfully fought against.

The SSA is trying to get at the truth . . . not about whether you have a disability, but does the disability truly interfere with you working? Any disability lawyer will tell you (google it and see, as I did.) that most applicants and their doctors submit all kinds of stuff, none of which qualifies as evidence that you can't work. It kind of takes the mind of a lawyer to make that argument.

When you are seen by the government's doctors, don't just say you've got this diagnosis or that. Focus on your symptoms, giving thought to how they interfere with successful emoloyment. You have to give these doctors information they can work with. There is plenty of stuff on-line telling you what they are looking for.