I did mine without an attorney. I figured I could fail the first stage on my own and for free. But I was approved so I never had to do the attorney thing. I was an OT so I spent my entire career filling out government assessments; I just figured this was assessing myself.

One thing to know is you don't pay for your medical records; social security gets them. That's a common misconception and reason people say they use an attorney.

The key is to emphasize as much as possible what you CAN'T do. The normal tendency is when it says "can you do your grocery shopping?" to answer "Yes". But you really need to say "I can do it once every 4 weeks but have great difficulty due to being overwhelmed by noise and other stimulation. I am exhausted when I finish and must rest for 2 days afterwards. I also have difficulty putting everything I need on a list and then following the list in the store without having to go back through the store several times". Everything you write, make it about difficulty.

The other thing I had was my therapist filled in his form and was very specific in detailing my deficits. My pdoc never even was asked to fill out anything nor was my family doctor (I also have asthma and severe allergies to things like cleaners that made healthcare work impossible). It helped my therapist to have a copy of what I had filled out and we also talked our way through the questions before he filled his part out. Just a few weeks after his form went in I was approved.

I also recommend giving everything you can. When it asked me to list every doctor I'd seen I went back as far as I was allowed and included every doctor I could think of, even if it wasn't really related.

If you need any help please feel free to PM me. As weird as it is I kind of enjoy this sort of thing and hope that one day I'll be well enough to volunteer to help people fill out the forms. (I don't like the stress that goes with my own but I do like trying to make it all work).