I got approved first time around, just 3 months after I applied. I know there's a popular belief that SSA denies you first time around, just to see if you're serious. That's not true, according to a lot of lawyers who specialize in helping clients get SSDI. I spent a lot of time reading books and watching videos put out by those kind of attorneys.

The main reason why a lot of applicants get denied is because they depend on their diagnosis, or a list of multiple diagnoses, to get them approved. The SSA usually doesn't care what your diagnosis is, or how many serious sounding diagnoses you have been given. There are a few exceptions: If you have Lou Gehrig's disease, or you are on dialysis for kidney failure, or you are blind, you will be automatically approved. Those are the only diagnoses that get you automatically approved. For anything else, you have to establish HOW your illness interferes with you working. If the illness is psychiatric, that usually means you have to say some unflattering things about yourself that people don't like to admit.

Most people don't want to say, "I'm a failure in the workplace." A lot of applicants want to say, "I'm a very good employee, but the stress and strain of working is just too much for someone with my mental diagnoses." That will automatically get you turned down. You have to say: "When I've tried working, I have failed over and over to meet the demands of the job." Then you have to give specific examples of how your work performance was unacceptable. People shy away from saying negative things about themselves, which is why the SSA is not convinced that an applicant couldn't work, if they really wanted to.

It is illegal to discriminate against persons with disabilities. An employer is forbidden to assume that having a diagnosis means you can't work. So, naturally, the SSA is going to comply with that same law. The SSA must not assume that having a disability means you can't work. Some people really can't succeed in the workplace, due to their disability. The SSA wants to know the specifics of how and why. Getting fired helps make your case.

There's a big long thing you fill out about how you get through your daily life. In that thing, you need to show you have serious problems. You don't say, "I babysit my grandchild and do a good job of that." Instead, you say, "I have a big problem babysitting my grandchild because I have gotten very upset trying to cope with any misbehavior. I've broken down crying and had to call the parents to come get the child."

You don't have to argue that you're a babbling fool who can't tie her own shoe laces, but you have to give examples of how you are unreliable coping with the responsibilities of the jobs you've held.