disability questions

these questions are so weird... i mean i understand needing to know but i dunno how to answer some of them

the first one is "describe what you do from the time you wake up until going to bed."

how the heck am i supposed to answer that?
all i do is try to survive on a moment to moment basis, i dunno what im doing throughout the day... i dont go anywhere because agoraphobia... ptsd and blahblah... i like to read when i can focus well enough to enjoy it... same with video games... then i eat, try to eat, and drink lots of coffee, and then sleep...

unless i have some beers with moms... but then again i dunno, because sometimes im not me and the other me does things i wouldnt do...
like talking to strangers, pretty girls, blahblahblah

oh man this giving me a headache... i dunno how to fill this out...
my case manager just left the office too so i dont think i have one right now till they assign a new one to me... and i have 14 days from date on the letter to send it, which its dated the 13th... stress stress stress everywhere i turn ahhhhhhhhh

have anyone here answered these kind of questions before...?
what do you put when you cant remember what you do on a daily basis...?

great, now im feeling like a fraud- FML

they want to know what your daily routine is and whether your health issues affect your daily life.

to answer that question just keep a pad of paper and pen handy and write down every thing you are doing....

example...

heres a tip... everyone has their own routine of what they do every day, even those who are most severely impacted by their mental and physical health problems knows what their daily routine is. if a person is so severely impacted by their physical and mental health that they can not take care of their self usually they are residing with in a hospital or nursing home setting... since you live at home and take care of your self and your basic needs then you do have a good daily functioning routine to take care of your basic needs. even children have their own routines that they do every day. my 6-7 year olds know when the alarm goes off they get up, use the bathroom, get dressed in the clothes they helped pick out the night before, eat breakfast, go to school, come home do their homework or after school program and friends houses then their daily routine is dinner and they know when their bedtime is.. they also know in that routine they get to do other things too like play with their toys, tv, and ... well you get the picture.

Im assuming from your past posts that you do not have a caregiver who tells you what to do and you dont live in a mental facility where they tell you what your daily routine is and when to do it...

I know I know you are probably getting tired of hearing this but many people when they post here post what they are doing from day to day or have listed something about their daily routine in their posts. maybe you can re read your posts and they will tell you what your daily routine is. I cant tell you what to write on there I can tell you what my daily routine is but the paper wants what your daily routine is.

my daily routine is wake up, shower breakfast work, if its my turn to take the children to school and day care I do that on the way to work. then pick them up after work, then home spend some time with the children and my wife, dinner childrens baths tv or book time tuck children in bed. then its my wife and I time. sometimes in there I do my own leisure activities too, some days my wife and I also take part in a college class that we both enjoy and can do together. thats my basic daily routine from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed.

tip try not to read more into these SSI/SSDI questions on the forms. they are meant so that even the most severely impacted person can fill them out, if they cant then its their 24/7 care givers or 24/7 mental or physical health facilities job to ask the questions and write out the answers.

Just remember you want to emphasize how difficult things are. Don't ever answer a question in a way that sounds like you don't have problems.

So you might answer "I wake up about 10 AM but remain groggy until 12 PM. I am unsafe to drive until at least 12 PM. I eat a bowl of cereal about 11 AM and a sandwich about 1 PM. I attempt to (do some task) in the early afternoon but need to rest frequently/have difficulty concentrating resulting in ______/am often unable to attempt the task because I feel/have these symptoms. For dinner I eat ______ which can be hard to prepare because of blank. I read when I can, but sometimes am unable to focus. In the evening I read or watch tv when I am able to focus; if I am not I ______. Once a week I visit my mom; this is challenging because ______. Occasionally I go out with friends but have limited tolerance for this because I become easily overwhelmed by the noise. I try to shower about 9 pm (which I succeed at about 3 times per week) and take meds and start trying to sleep about 10 pm. It takes me 3-5 hours to fall asleep even following good sleep hygiene practices and with good med compliance."

(I made this up obviously but does it help? If not let me know and I'll try again)

Our age old NoOne presented that didnt know the answers because its been decades.l.l so we were denied. :/

thanks all, im just nervous because i don't want to be denied again...
im going to try my best to fill it all out and hopefully they will talk to my doctors or have me see their doctor so i can explain...

Think about what you do on a daily basis and how it is hard for you. maybe even think of a day when its been really difficult and use that as a model for your average day to increase your chances of being taken seriously for benefit

What you said about trying to survive on a moment by moment basis sounds like a good thing to say really.

I know someone who works in our local social security office. the one thing that will get a case flagged and put in what this friend calls "the questionable file" file is when the application doesnt match the treatment providers forms..

what that means is so many times people hide things from their treatment providers but put it on their SSI application. then when social security contacts the treatment providers for verification and documentation it looks kind of like this.....

client on application ...

I have trouble keeping my home clean and my health problem makes it unsafe for me to drive, or climb stairs, and affects my work because I cant keep track of what I need to do because I have a dissociation problem.

caseworker with Social Security reviews the application and contacts treatment provider and Department of motor vehicles...

to treatment provider....

Amandalouise has applied for SSI we need to know whether you have any documentations where this client has complained that their mental or physical health problems causes them to have problems keeping their home clean. does your records show this client can not climb stairs and drive. have you reported to DMV that this client is unable to safely drive a vehicle. is this client on any medications that can be blamed for these problems.

to DMV ...Amandalouise has applied for SSI to process her application we need to know whether she has a license to drive, whether there are any restrictions on her license and whether there is a history of unsafe driving on her part.

treatment provider to SSI ....Amandalouise's diagnosis are.... there is no record of complaints to being unable to clean or other wise care for self, yes this client is able to climb stairs and drive safely.

DMV to social security....Amandalouise has a license with no limitations and no history of automobile accidents nor tickets for unsafe driving.

caseworker denies application because wat was stated on the files did not match with what was obtainable through documentations.

my point.... dont worry about how you are wording it, just be 100 percent honest with what your problems are as they are documented by your treatment providers. if you try to put things you have not already discussed with your treatment providers and havent been diagnosed with thats a sure fire way of getting denied.

if you want to put down things that you have not been diagnosed with the best thing to do is not to, ask your treatment providers for an updated diagnostic evaluation and then be 100 percent honest about your problems going through the new evaluation. that way Social security will have all the information that they need right away rather than putting your file in the questionable or automatically denied.

also something to be aware of... the process for you may take many years normally and now it may be even harder and longer....

for example...if you live in a location that is going sanctuary city or is a sanctuary city SSI is considered federal funds. the presidents ongoing struggles with immigration and his statement of cutting out federal funds for sanctuary city states ..............may or may not........... impact people with SSI/SSDI and other federally funded grants, like school grants.... at this point no one knows for sure whats going to happen with this as the issue is still up in the air and it hasnt been disclosed on what federal funds will be with held from these states that have sanctuary cities like NY.

my point right now you are applying for it during a very uncertain time in the USA so it might impact how long and what kind of process you have to go through in order to get your SSI awarded to you. so the best thing to make it easier for you is to not try to over think it, or manipulate the questions with fancy wording. just be 100 percent honest and you will be fine.

also ....I know many people who have hoped to send in the application and then get told to go see someone and then explain things to that person and they never got a call or letter telling them to go see someone. you cant hang your hopes on whether you can see someone after your application goes it. it may be what ever you put on the application and what they get from your treatment providers of already documented information is all that they need to either deny or approve the application.

just be honest, they will know if you are trying to manipulate the questions and putting undocumented stuff on the forms.

I had my SSDI hearing in front of a judge back in September and received my denial a few weeks ago. I've been trying to get it for almost four years now. Anyway, just pointing out that I have a bit of experience with this particular issue and yeah, I found questions like the one you quoted, incredibly frustrating. I could not answer it in a way that I was comfortable with. Personally, I had to make something up that might approximate my experience. For instance:

Well, I usually wake up sometime between 3am and 9am - not always, but usually. The reason I wake up is always the same though - pain. The longer I sleep, the more it feels like someone has been beating my kidneys with a two by four all night until just the act of breathing and my lungs pushing against my kidneys is enough to take my breath away. So, I make my way to the couch - sometimes walking, sometimes crawling, and gingerly take shallow breaths for one to three hours until the pain subsides enough that breathing no longer hurts. If I woke up at 3am, then I'm usually laying back down about 5am. If I woke after 6am, then I'm usually up for a while.

There is no 'normal' - no 'routine'. Some days I can take a shower - many days I can't. Some days I can get something to eat for myself - many days I can't. Some days I'm not able to stay awake for more than an hour or two at a time - and during the time that I am awake I am all but catatonic; other days, like today, I can actually post something.

I am sorry that you've been denied and I hope for the best for you during this next stage - truly I do, but it can be very difficult. I have chronic heart disease, chronic kidney disease, chronic liver disease, myasthenia gravis (a rare auto-immune disease), hypertension, DID, etc., etc., etc. My primary care physician has said, and written a letter to disability, that I cannot work. My T has done the same. My neurologist has done the same. Still denied.

That's insane, yagr. I am sorry you don't live in a country that has a functional social net.

i forgot to put on it the surviving moment to moment part but my mom said it was the best i explained it thus far so hopefully its good enough...

i wish i could see one of their doctors and explain to him so that he can tell them that i cant work because apparently they arent listening to me or my doctors...

in another thread you stated you didnt know how to explain or talk about your problems to your treatment provider that you are having communication problems in how to get yourself to open up and tell them things....

heres where my curiosity / thought provoking reality testing question comes in......

how is this going to work?

you know telling a complete stranger who you have never met before and who is being paid by Social Security to be non bias, to only look at the facts not let their emotions and your emotions tell them what to do, and to make a judgement based on diagnostic testing, when you in the past few days/ weeks have been posting you cant tell your own treatment providers what your problems are.

a bit of a quandary huh.

heres a tip/ info social security isnt going to do anything that your treatment providers havent already done. if they send you to see someone it will be to a complete stranger who has absolutely no dealings with you or your treatment providers. they will have information from your treatment provider and social security on what your diagnosis's are and what your application statements of what your problems are. the job of the specialist is to confirm or deny your documented history affects your life so severely that you can not work. they do this by doing a psychiatric evaluation (same thing you went through a year ago when you received your diagnosis's)

then they report to SSI what the facts are (what the test results are and whether you are physically and mentally unable to work in even the most generalized job/ career. it doesnt have to be the career / job of your choice...)

the report will show the facts not what you want or dont want.

example dr so and so writing to ssi

I saw amandalousie on such and such a date, administered this test with a score of such and such, and that test for a score of such and such interview score was such and such, compared to the past diagnostics scores I can confirm (or deny.......) that this client has ....(list of mental and physical health problems) with a severity of (scores from tests) which does (or doesnt) qualify this person for the state standard of being a fully disabled person unable to work even a part time general minimum wage job. my recommendation is......(treatment options that can improve this persons life)

my worry is that since you are unable to talk with your own treatment providers you will not be able to communicate with some stranger who is doing the same thing your own treatment providers are trying to do, talk with you and have you go through diagnostic evaluations.

the only difference here is the SSI specialists are picked because they dont get involved with the clients. they dont take time to get to know you better. their job is a one time visit of diagnostics.

my suggestion would be to put off applying for SSI until you figure out how to communicate with your own treatment providers. I would hate for you to get denied and then go through years of heck with SSI, and paying lawyers for fighting an appeal with SSI when you can apply later when you are much more open and comfortable with talking about your problems first with your own treatment providers who may have the time to take it slow and easy with you before you have to deal with someone who frankly is supposed to be by the books and cool demeanor lets get down to business kind of person that SSI sends people to if they need confirmation or denial of the persons diagnosis and severity level.

We have this difficulty of an Other totally not with the program that usually shows up and crash and burns it for us. Kinda legit pisser...actually.

i need more practice with talking and communication

trust... and stuff...
i dont do it on purpose though, i just get so nervous and anxious.. i hate talking about the problematic stuff... i dont even like thinking about it, wish i could just make it go away...

i have never been able to talk about stuff before so im trying to learn..

its so difficult... sometimes im ok... sometimes im not... when they was telling me i was bipolar i told them the only way im bipolar is if i have ultradian cycling because of this... i can be happy sad mad hurt disconnected distant present and afraid all within a few given moments... and sometimes the moments get locked or stuck on...

im just a shell... thats all i am... a nobody... that reflects whats inside to the outside world so that the inside cant get hurt by the outside... im just a shock absorber... blah...

not a human... just a wrapper... i guess thats why i just dont feel anything most of the time or feel so much i cant tell what im feeling...

Hi ES, I'm sorry you're struggling. I agree with AL that it's probably better to put off this application for disability until you have documentation to support your claim. The reason for this is that SSA is seeking to verify your claim, not find ways to help you figure out what's wrong. I hope that makes sense.

Also, for anyone who is not following the news, there is a strong likelihood that programs associated with SSI, such as Medicaid, will be severely altered due to efforts by the new president and congress to "block grant" Medicaid. This would mean that, instead of the federal government covering eligible people as costs and enrollments rise, it will only give a capped amount of money to states and each state will have to decide how to spend it and what to cut in order to make the money cover everyone, and that will diminish over time as costs increase.

I know many many people on SSI who were born with significant disabilities and they want nothing more than to get off SSI and be employed. They have wanted this even before the current political situation that now threatens benefits. Sorry for the dire news, but it is scary out there for people who are already receiving these benefits.