Advised to apply for SSDI by my doctor and very scared.

My doctor had me sit down with a social worker and get some information about applying for SSDI. I have been severely in despair over a recent failure in an employment situation. The prospect of trying to succeed in getting SSDI intimidates me tremendously. Not because I don't have a decent shot at it. I was advised by others in the past, including lawyers, that I do. I just don't know how I will survive while I am trying to get approved, which I know can take years.

I will turn 62 in the year 2015. That's less than 3 years away. I desperately wanted to be able to earn enough to manage until then. It's not looking too good at all. My doctor encouraged me to try accepting that. (This doctor is not a psychiatrist, but he is a very good, seasoned doctor.)

I know that, among PC members, there is a huge store of wisdom and experience relevant to what I am facing. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

It just came to me like a stroke of lightening that there isn't much to be lost by starting the process. At least, I think I should call the law office that I spoke to a year and a half ago. I am coming apart at the seems. I was hospitalized in mid-January.

Mainly, I am wondering about what other members might have to say about just the stress of starting to face this. I am in despair at times.

Rose,
I applied for SSDI in December of 2007 and was approved by February or March of 2008 and I went by myself to fill out the paper work and get the necessary forms for my therapist and psychiatrist to fill out. I also got approved on my first try which is unusual. It does not take years if u do it yourself and get denied the second time I would get a lawyer or even use a lawyer on the first try.

I can't remember exactly when I applied, but I was approved pretty quickly too, and on the first try, so it can happen quickly.

oh very good

I fear my doctor is looking for an easy solution. He doesn't know me that well. I am so afraid of trying another job assignment after the failure on the last one. I haven't worked hardly at all in over 1 and 1/2 years. I tend to think that is due to irresponsibility on my part. I'm sure that is what SSA will think. At least my doctor is willing to sign a statement to help me get Section 8 housing. My landlord takes that from my next door neighbor. So I wouldn't have to more necessarily. That would bring my housing costs down by possibly about half.

I keep seeing me ending up homeless.

My advice for you would be to contact an SSDI attorney and let them handle your claim. It will save you a tremendous amount of grief. Also, they work on contingency so they won't take the case unless they think you'll win. The lawyer will receive 25% of your ssdi backpay should you win..

Contacting an attorney can be expensive. Upwards of 3000 it did me. Just go through the process list ALL of your disabilities and the better yiur chance. There are 2 online applications and a paper application you'll want your recent w2's and a dew other things I'll come back and tell you I can't remember off the. Top of my head. Your smart to get it now because because the earliest you can start drawing ssi is 65/12 wo penalties . Hang in there, your not alone!

I really appreciate the feedback. I re-read these replies and think real hard on the options.

Here's what I have come to in my mind. I think I should get a lawyer. HOWEVER, I want to start the process as if I didn't have any lawyer. I am ordering some books an other materials used by people who file on their own. I plan to do all I can to get together everything that the books tell you to get together. By going at it, as if it were all on me to do it, I will pay attention to all the rules and regulations and criteria for approval of claims.

It's been my experience that if you want a lawyer to give you good service, it's a good idea to get educated about what the lawyer is supposed to be doing. So I plan to get as educated on this subject as I can get.

Because I put feelers out in the NET, I got a bunch of calls back from law firms just dying to take my case. I learned some important things from these conversations. One thing I learned is that, in the beginning, some law firms leave all the work to their paralegals. I'm not so sure a paralegal would do all that much better of a job than I would do myself. One paralegal told me how she just plugs in my answers to her questions into the firm's software, and the software "populates" a claim form with what "data" she has given it (gleaned from her conversation with me). I would rather "populate" that claim form my own self. I think I would give more detailed answers, which I've heard can make or break the case. Plus, I would take more time to think about my responses.

I know it takes a lot of work to become a paralegal and I'm sure they know lots that I don't. On the other hand, I happen to be a nurse. I might have a surer grasp about how some aspects of my psych disorder interfere with my competence on the job. Nobody knows my psych situation as well as I do myself. Nobody has the firsthand experience that I've had about how I have "decompensated" in work venues under the sort of stresses that I have not handled well and am not likely to ever do well with.

Ideally, I'ld like to procede as though I didn't have a lawyer. Except - I would run everything by an attorney before submitting it to the SSA. That way the attorney could tell me where I am lacking in knowledge about how to go about things. I'll probably get turned down once or twice. Then, if I go before an adjudicator, I would want a competent attorney, who's been following my claim, with me. I've read that it's a good idea to do that.

I think it is easier for the SSA to decline a claim like mine that is based on psychological problems than if I had something like advanced rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, I knew of an individual who had advanced RA and was turned down. To me his right to SSDI should have been a no-brainer, but he got turned down. I think he was too demoralized to appeal. It showed me what awful things can happen in that system.

Sometimes I think I don't really have a right to SSDI. I start thinking that the only reason I am depressed is that I let myself get that way, and that there is nothing wrong with me other than my own failure to push myself to take care of my responsibilities.

I think I'm going to go both ways at once. I think I'm going to put in a claim for SSDI, and, meanwhile, I will try my best to get and succeed at some kind of a job. Then whatever works out, works out. Mainly, I've got to get out of bed and stay our of bed and do something. I'll do the best I can to get back into the workforce, but I will make sure I get my psych problems well documented and keep a good paper trail of the psych difficulties I have. Luckily for me, I know how sloppy medical records often are. I will start making it my business to become knowledgeable about my past medical records - and they are quite extensive. I will ask pdocs to tell me exactly what diagnoses they are documenting.

Where I get my care, the pdocs are residents and they do a crummy job of keeping track of what meds they have prescribed me. So I think I will see if the pharmacies where I have gotten scripts filled can give me a print out of meds I've picked up.

A really good paralegal told me that it makes a big difference if I have a doctors who are supportive of my putting in a claim. Well, my PCP-MD is. Soon I will have a real heart to heart with my pdoc about how we have to have an explicit goal. That would be that I recover enough to be able to survive in the employment arena, or we establish evidence supporting that I have a claim for disability worthy of serious consideration by the SSA. A nurse at the psych facility where I go for care actually told me that these resident pdocs often need to be pushed into making themselves useful in helping me prepare evidence to support my claim.

I really would rather not be disabled. It's not how I think of myself. Yet, as far back as 2003, I was getting advised by counselors to apply for SSDI. It seems that I am able to function very well for intervals of time, even getting accolades for my diligent, conscientious performance. Then I will encounter a stressor that challenges a part of me that is weak and find myself pitifully overwhelmed and cope poorly and sometimes get fired. It is hard for me to know what to think of myself. The new doctor I just got is saying I am on the Bipolar Spectrum. I wish I knew more about what that means. He says he bases this on my seeming to be constantly moving around on a cycle - doing well, doing rotten, doing well, doing rotten . . . being a mature, capable person, then being an irritable jerk, and back around again. He says that intense irritability that comes and goes cyclically is a hallmark of Bipolar Spectrum disorder, as in Bipolar Type II. I have never met anyone quite like myself. My pdoc says he has met a lot of people like me. Well, I wish he'ld introduce me to one of them. I feel like I am just bizarre.

I have gotten so angry at my new pdoc because I feel like he knows nothing of what I go through. I may be wrong. He seems decent and surprisingly patient. I hope he can help me. But I don't believe medication is the holy grail. That's why I am planning to go swimming tomorrow. Medication has been helpful to me in important ways. But my state of mind is still very bad. If I can come out of that pool tomorrow with the sensation of "glowing" that I used to get back when I used to swim, them I will have some hope that my mind and body can contribute to healing itself.

In this long post, I am trying to talk myself into getting some hope. Having no hope is an awful bad place to be and I have been there since the second week of January. It is a state of mind that is not sustainable. I was even thinking that, at as a middle age woman, it is just too late to regain what's been lost.

I'll go to the pool tomorrow and bring a sandwhich to eat after my swim. I will try to be friendly with others I meet there. I will stay in the lounge area and read for awhile. I am so excited thinking up this plan. It means I will leave my apartment. This apartment has come to seem like my mausoleum. I must get out of it.

This is a long post, but, even if no one but me reads it, I think that in writing it I got my thinking on an improved wavelength.


I am like one buried alive, and I want my apartment to become my home again and stop seeming like the crypt in which I am shut up and decaying.

I read it. but I lOst my key poker. keep In touch goodd luck.

Hi Hankster, I'm not familiar with what you call a "key poker." ??

a stylus. but I found a plastic fork in bed and that is working well! your fired record will work in your favor, I think. also your continued attempts to find work.

This really isn't the case with ssdi attorneys. They work on contingency basis, meaning they don't get paid unless they win... So their objective is to win. They take 25% of whatever the backpay amount is. This 25% is automatically deducted from the backpay. This is common practice for an ssdi attorney. If the attorney you speak to doesn't work on contingency basis then you need to find someone else.

My advice would be to let them take care of all the filing and paperwork for you, since their familiar with ssdi law, and know what information is relevent to ss. You're qualifying for disability is based on if you meet the social security criteria... not because your doctor says that you're disabled. You can read about ss criteria by googling social security blue book.

There are people who win doing their own claim, but there are also many who have lost and lengthened the process because they tried handling it on their own.

I have been working steadily ever since I received disability, you are allowed to work, and do meaningful things, in my case, childcare and being a teacher aide..yes, minimum wage, yet, with disability it all works out, and I am left feeling fulfilled!!

It's not a death sentence....it can free you up to do something you really love

CBOXPALACE - I expect that I would want the attorney to do the paperwork and the filing. But I want to understand the process and monitor what is going on. Attorneys have told me that they win about 80% of the time. That means that they lose about 20% of the time. To an attorney time is money. The attorney, I suspect (and I may be wrong) is not going to invest an amount of time that far exceeds the value of his expected 25% fee. That's why I think that if the claimant can help with gathering medical history and other relevant info, it makes the case more worthwhile to the attorney. Remember that a good deal of the work a law firm does is actually performed by para-legals. They are using software that allows them to plug in information and then the software spits out a form. My concern is that I might provide more detailed responses than the para-legal would. You are very right in saying that the pros know what SSA is looking for. So, certainly, I would say I need them to make sure that the information presented is relevant to the claim. To sum up, I think it should be a collaborate effort. I would not try to do this on my own.

Junerain - I am very interested to read how you have things worked out. I believe I can work to a limited extent. But, since employer after employer tells me that I am not quite up to par, then I think I need the security of a disability check. I would try to work as much as I could, but I've been doing that for a year and a half. I don't make enough to even hit the limit that is imposed on those with SSDI.

Thanks all of you, it means so much to hear from people who have actually gone through the process.

Don't need a lawyer for this..

True, and if they don't think you have a case they can win, their not gonna take it. Also, here's what happens... They decide to take your case, they gather info from doctor/therapist.. They file the claim with ssa based on that information THEY obtained from your doctor/therapist. It's sent to ssa... For the moment the lawyer is done... Once DDS has it, your lawyer is out of the equation for the time being. DDS will decide if your disabled and send you a letter stating if your approved or denied. If your denied your lawyer goes back to work filing your appeal. It's in their best interest to get you approves as soon as possible. The more involved it becomes.. the more it's costing them... not you.

I should add once DDS has it and everything is in order.. their gonna have you go see their doctors, and get their input. In my case I had to go to both a psychiatrist and psychologist. I saw the psychiatrist for probably an hour, and the psychologist for a few hours.

Wrong, and here's why.. This is what you're paying your lawyer to do, and their going to do it regardless.. It's their job, not yours. When I first applied.. The law firm I used did an initial telephone interview with me asking me a series of questions related to my mental illness. They chose to take my case. They obtained medical records, and also sent sent questionaires to my doctor, my therapist, and to me. These were extensive questionaires (about 10 pages long) asking RELEVENT questions they would need answers to for filing my claim. They provided my doctors/therapist the criteria used by social security in determining if someone is disabled. Your doctor can say your disabled all he wants to.... The real question is do you meet the criteria set forth by social security.

So.. you can go and spend lots of time gathering paperwork etc, and the lawyer is still going to get the information they want from the doctor/therapist.

Correct! You'll probably never meet your lawyer unless it goes before a judge.

Quote:

My concern is that I might provide more detailed responses than the para-legal would. You are very right in saying that the pros know what SSA is looking for. So, certainly, I would say I need them to make sure that the information presented is relevant to the claim. To sum up, I think it should be a collaborate effort. I would not try to do this on my own.

The information you provide them will determine if they want to accept your case or not. Before they submit anything... Their going to be in contact with ALL your doctors/therapists. The information THEY obtain from your doctors/therapist is what their going to use. The information you provide... all that's relevent for is helping them decide if they want to take your case. You don't need paperwork from that. They'll get it from your doctors... NO, it's not a collaborative effort... What you think is relevent or a detailed response, may actually be irrelevent and not needed. They know what needs to be done, what information is relevent, and how the system works... Remember.. Time is money.. for them.. the more involved it becomes the more it's going to be eating into their paycheck...

Cboxpalace - thanks. Maybe I'm making myself feel overwhelmed with more burden than I need to. Sounds like you know how the claim works its way through. I think I was getting so paranoid that the lawyer and paralegal would not do the best job that could be done.

The unfortunate result seems to be that I'm frozen and not making a move. Someone told me that that's a bad thing to do. This person told me that the longer I wait to file, the lower my benefits will be if and when I do get my claim approved. He said the more time you are not in the workforce, the lower your benefit will be (unless I guess if you can get the onset of your disability backdated.)

Thanks for the explicit breakdown of how the process unfolds.

I get it and so does my son. He gets ssdi and ssi two different things but from the same place. Got it quick and back pay to. Good luck

Rose, here's an explanation of the process:

http://www.disabilitysecrets.com/overviewpart2.html#b

Perna - great web site. Thanks!

go to the forum on this website www.ssdfacts.com .. it's better than the one above, and you can read and ask others about their experience with the process.

Generally you can make a case for your first day of disability being the first day you were unable to work. I don't know what your work history is or when you left your last job, but as an example...when I first applied for disability, my last day of work was October 11, 2000. I tried to go to work on the 12th but never made it in the door. Even though I didn't officially apply for disability until January, my "official" date of disability for SS purposes was Oct 12th. Lots of people find they can no longer work but don't apply for SS right away. Maybe they're thinking they're going to go back, or maybe they're taking some disability leave through work...whatever the reason, they don't apply right away. But if you can document that you left work due to your disability, then you can usually claim the first day you were unable to work.

I wouldn't wait too long if you have made the decision to apply, but be sure to go as far back as you are entitled to, because it is this date they will also use to calculate when your benefits start, ie: six months from your disability date, not your application or approval date.

I hope things go smoothly for you and you feel better soon.

Thanks very much to all above. The website in a recent post is very informative. The response above is also very helpful.

I am reading a book I recently ordered on the subject of SSDI/SSI. It seems no one book, nor any one source tells you everything that is good to know. So I welcome all input. I want to know what to expect, and I understand more now.

If anything, when applying for SSDI, find an attorney that works on a contingency basis, i.e. does not get paid unless (s)he wins your case. That way, the most you will pay out-of-pocket are administrative fees (mostly for photocopying medical records. Make sure you get a schedule of those fees up front).

The way my attorney explained it to me, if he wins my appeal, social security will take 25 per cent off the top, up to a maximum of $6000.00, for the attorney's If the 25% is more than $6000, he will only get $6000.

I'd check with you community's bar association, or legal aid society for a list of SSDI legal practictioners. Once you make a decision on who to hire, I'd ask the attorney if they could file the initial claim for you, since those forms are extremely confusing.

I went on-line and filled out pop-up things here and there. I got a lot of calls back, all sounding like they wanted to take my case. I settled on one that seemed competent. The person who called me - the "paralegal" - took so much information down that I felt more assured that the initial application will be carefully put together.

It is a firm that is not headquartered in my state. They represent people all over the country. I have yet to receive the "contract" in the mail. I have to sign it and send it back. Then they will officially be my representatives. They said I would be categorized as being "In Dire Need." I'm not sure what they need to substantiate that. I guess they will tell me. Meanwhile, I am trying to read tips available on Internet sites.

Good steps you took! You are on your way..good luck and give yourself a pat on the back for taking those steps!