I took early retirement from my job because I simply could not do it. The stress and anxiety of deadlines, inability to concentrate, outbursts of anger on the job, medical absences, memory loss from my meds, etc., etc., contributed to my decision. I wanted to be able to retire early and receive my retirement benefits before they fired me, because I was really afraid that would happen. Money was really, really tight, though.

It took me 14 months to get my disability. I won't lie. It can be a long and arduous process. I used a disability lawyer from the get-go. If you don't get disability, you don't pay him anything. If you do, they take his fee (I think it was about $3500) from your back pay award. My monthly amount is $1633 and when I was finally awarded, I got over $10,000 in back pay, because if you are disabled, then they count back to the time you first filed and then award you the back pay. The $10,000 was after they deducted my lawyer's fee.

I got denied the first time. Almost everybody gets denied the first time. Even though everything was documented from all my doctors, and through my employer about the many leaves of absences I had to take, they sent me to one of their doctors before they made their decision. Their doctor was an absolute joke. Dirty lab coat, inside seam of her pants splitting down her leg, and she hardly asked me any questions. Her report came back saying I was able to do manual labor lifting 50 pounds a day. Really? I have arthritis in my hip and knees and I'm supposed to lift 50 pounds several times a day? I was furious. I filed a complaint with social security about her and got back a letter saying they were investigating her.

So, my lawyer and I filed an appeal. After answering many more questions and filling out more forms, I finally received disability about 8 months later. They classified me as totally disabled, not likely to improve, and I will have reviews of my status every 5-7 years.

I don't mean to discourage you, because in most cases getting disability is worth the hoops they make you jump through, but I do want to let you know it can, in many cases, be a long, drawn out process.