You are right. I just always hear that disabled are people on government assistance for their disability, not just people with disability. And then I didn't know artchic is getting benefits or can't work full time.

I know many people who have mental illness but would be offended if someone's refers to them as disabled as they aren't ON disability.

I think I just went by what I always hear from my husband. He has legitimate disability that makes work especially in his field very challenging yet he never received a penny from anywhere and always held a full time job so he often says "I have a disability but am not disabled". And I am a special ed teacher (All of my students have disabilities but only some are on SSDI). I never refer to them as disabled.

So I guess it's just choice of words plus English isn't my native language and certain words just have slightly different meaning and I wasn't entirely aware of the situation.