I was told I was permanently disabled at age 56 from an incident which occurred when I was 17. I had a powerful seizure at 17 which left me with acute and chronic deficits. Until then, I was a national honors student with an All American Fitness award. One of my deficits was recurring major depressive episodes on intervals of about 8 years. I would go down for 6 months and it would take me 18 months to recover. They were epic struggles for survival with horrible anxiety and severe insomnia. I even experienced racing thoughts and other odd symptoms. I never stopped trying to understand the incident at age 17 and one day shortly after receiving an early retirement (not health related), I found a case history in a British Neurological Paper that matched every detail of my experience at 17. What a eureka moment that was, after suffering in ignorance for 40 years.
My incident was an epigastric aura followed by a temporal lobe seizure which included at least 2 dozen epileptic discharges. The paper said the worst case scenario was when "the post ictal psychosis segues into an affective disorder of MDD or BPD". I was a worst case scenario.
I was seen by an epileptologist who did the MRI and EEG. My EEG at age 56 showed significant pathology in my temporal lobe consistent with a history of epileptic seizure". I was told I was disabled. When I returned to the city I lived in, I dropped the paper off at the SS Admin office and that was it. I began to receive SSDI that very month. My daughter was in high school and she received a $1k per month stipend which she saved for college. I had been able to fund a 529 plan for her as well. I didn't ask for it, and it wasn't absolutely necessary, but it sure did help. Several years later I was beginning another episode of MDD. I went to the VA hospital and they TDO'd me, in spite of the fact I had exhibited no behavior suggesting I was a threat to anyone. They kept me over the weekend, gave me no treatment, and restricted my 2A rights. They wrote in my discharge papers that I was totally and permanently disabled from meaningful work. (as if anyone had asked them.) I have been back to work for over 3.5 years. I have received monetary awards and recognition for outstanding work each of my three years. I represented myself pro bono and pro se in court and had my 2A rights restored. As Rod Zombie said in his song "More Human than Human", "I want more life f**er, I ain't done."