I am tired of this ("lazy" assumption)

I am on SSI and SSA because I have a mental disability.

I have an axis one and an axis two disorder.

It's "inivisible" though; I am not in a wheelchair.

Also, when I was 11, they detected some lesions on my brain, and I also have a vision problem.

But I hate it when ppl think I am lazy or don't want to work.

I got on SSI when I was 5. I was put in County Mental Health then because I was really emotionally disturbed and was upsetting the other children and the teachers could not deal with it.

For the rest of my life, so far, I have been on disability. My father, I think, collected railroad retirement or something, and now i have 2 checks.

I do not mean to abuse the system! I really think I need this money. With an axis one disorder to go with my axis two disorder, plus my physical disability, plus that ad on tv that talks about "Social Security being for mental AND physical..." Why do so many ppl assume that people abuse the system?!

I am sharing this because this attitude that I get in general adds to my mental health problems. I do not abuse anything. And I don't need MORE guilt about collecting benefits!

Carol

I know what you mean. Just looking at me, I appear pretty normal. But I have both mental and physical ailments that put me on disability. It is frustrating. No one has ever said anything to my face about it, though.

I am reminded of a story a friend of mine tells. She's on disability, but nobody could tell by just looking. She has a placard for disabled parking. One time she parked in one of those spots, and some lady came up to her and told her off about it. My friend calmly explained to her why she was disabled. The lady huffed, "Well, you ought to wear a sign that says that!"

My friend's teenage daughter was there and heard the interaction. She responded to the lady, "In that case, you need to wear a sign that says _ITCH on it!" I thought that was great!

Payne, that is one for the record books!

Carol, look at the horrendous time you went thru last year just trying to find a therapist. Please don't take that post personally. I'm not. We are contributing the best we can right now.

Unfortunately, this is a negative stereotype, and I think many people confuse sadness for depression etc. I would often hear things like, "well, I was depressed and I just told myself to get over it and I did" which implies that I'm lazy. What they fail to realize is more than likely they were sad (not depressed), which is an emotion like happiness. You're sad.. you'll get over it. That is not necessarily the case with major depression or any other mental illness. They assume to know what mental illness is or depression is because they confuse being sad with being depressed/mental illness.

1. You are NOT abusing the system!!
2. I think this is the way society is trending unfortunately. While many of us appear normal on the outside were less than normal mentally. I do not discuss my issues anymore with people for reasons that I described above. I'm already hard enough on myself, and don't need people making me feel worse. It's unfortunate, because appearances are deceiving. I had a friend, he was a profession musician with a few hit songs in the 70's, and to look / talk to him you'd think his life was great, but he struggled with depression. This guy who looked great, seemed to have it all ended up taking his life because he was depressed.
3. There are people who do abuse the system. The moment they get approved for ssdi they then stop seeing their doctors, stop therapy, stop taking meds.

Oh, I know that is so frustrating! I had a friend tell me once, when I told her that I was trying to get disability, "Why don't you just get a job at a daycare? That's an easy job," But it's NOT an easy job. One of the last jobs I had was at a daycare and it turned out that I had a serious hernia, and the job made it worse--plus I threw my already-screwed-up back out even more because it was my job to carry around the little ones, to pick them up and put them on the changing table etc, because none of the other women could handle it.
Even a couple of my friends who were disabled themselves got after me about applying! and their disabilities werent "visible: either!!!! Like one of them told me that all I needed to do was sell my house, learn how to drive, move to a bigger city, and that would solve all my problems. Like how is that going to make me not disabled? The other one told me that what the problem was that I just didn't want to learn how to drive!

F them.
Do you.

do i what?

"Do you" is a slang term that simply means that you do what you believe is right. People are always going to be questioning the things you do. However there's no telling whether those questions will be legitimate or worth your time to answer.

ok, that's what i thought--i dont keep up on these things; just wanted make sure; thanx!

don't let that get to you... fight for people like you who feel the same... I'm so sick and tired of the apathy all around us... people are so quick to attack anyone on any aid... I think it's funny most don't realize the ones on food stamps, assistance, etc .. 2/3 are single moms trying to raise their kids.... they'd change their tune FAST if they were ever put in your position or the position of a single mom with no family who got ditched or the father got locked up or.. died... I tend to find that the ones with decent families, fairly smooth childhoods, good opportunity, support, etc.. they're the ones who do it most.. because they have NO CLUE how hard that is.... you didn't do anything wrong, so don't let people make you feel that way.

One lady told me, after she found out I was being treated for clinical depression, "Well, I just tell myself I'm okay."

I don't think you are abusing the system. I think people want to call people lazy for not being able to work when there is nothing obvious. People act like SSI is thier money and they get to decide who to give it too. Everyone pays for it and the government decides who qualifies. I think many people with MI would rather work than face thier illnesses everyday. Especially for the tiny bit of money to live on.

I wonder how much better she actually felt? Sometimes we need medication! Depression can actually disable us, too.

Carol

thanks for your support.

Carol

Good point. I think this lady doesn't struggle with depression, and, unfortunatly, people who dont have it dont understand it (as I'm sure you're quite aware). Seems like the people who don't have it are the ones with the most advice! They think they can just tell us to snap out of it, and we're supposed to be magically cured.