Disability restrictions and limitations

I'm looking at a disability form my doctor will have to fill out listing the restrictions caused by my Bipolar and BPD. I try to review these before each appointment so he does not feel bombarded, which is exactly what the insurance company wants.

I understand the disability concept of restriction, for example a person with impaired concentration should be restricted from operating heavy machinery. But how does "restriction" apply to a software developer like me? Would I be restricted from any task requiring sustained focus or analysis? Restricted from high-stress environments? Those examples sound ridiculous but they are true.

Wondering if anyone has opinions on what restrictions would apply to BPD or Bipolar patients, whether it's work related or not.

short version they want to know whether your mental and physical health problems prevent you from doing your job, disability is for people who are unable to work..

example does your mental and physical health prevent you from typing on a computer, coming up with software designs, does the vibrant colors required in computer software cause you to have seizures related to health problems like epilepsy....

restrictions means things like you can no longer type, you can no longer design computer software, you cant work with vibrant colors that are causing you seizures\headaches\....

theres no way you can study a form to make it so that your treatment provider wont feel bombarded. what those forms are for is your treatment provider looks at your history he already has on file for you and fills in the blanks on the form. you just had the form to your doctor and they either look in your file fill it in then sign it or they have their intern fill it in from stuff in your file and then the doctor signs the form.

sometimes the forms will need new information like the doctor listening to your heart, having you walk across the room, repeat a phrase or number , and look at an eye chart ...to assess your present mobility, eye sign and vitals. but for the most part everything disability needs to know is already part of your medical and mental health files right down to what medications you are taking and why.

I'm definitely unable to work, my job was managing scores of huge databases and doing loads of data analysis and network troubleshooting. My memory and focus was going and I was really messing up, I knew a pink slip was imminent. Your comment on "coming up with software designs" is accurate and true, but somehow it doesn't sound solid to me in the way a lifting restriction would. I think of restrictions as things that would be DANGEROUS to do. And how can software design be dangerous?

After rereading your posts, I realized that you didn't specify that this was for Social Security disability. If it's for private disability insurance, it's similar. I think that private disability insurers are better at evaluating professional job tasks than Social Security disability examiners are.

The type of forms that you're talking about are extremely difficult, in my opinion, to complete.

If you were able to do your job at one point and then became unable to do it, you sort of have to analyze what happened - what symptoms you started having and how they caused you to become unable to do your job consistently, reliably, and correctly. (Honestly, it takes the kind of mental effort that probably has become difficult just because of your illness.)

Back when I was having to fill out these types of forms, I often would get really frustrated because most doctors are not trained to know how to explain what needs to be explained. It's like you need a combination doctor/lawyer on your side.

I've been in a similar situation. I do feel like Social Security disability is much more oriented towards evaluating physical limitations than mental/intellectual ones.

One thing that Social Security does evaluate is if you're able to do a job consistently. If you found yourself doing okay for a couple of hours on some days then becoming unable to concentrate and starting to make errors, then that's important.

Also, if you showed a pattern of absenteeism, that's important. If you can get attendance records from your previous job, that would be helpful.

Do you think your former boss would write a letter discussing the problems that you had? I did not think to ask mine back when I was applying for SSDI. I think that it would have been helpful. If company rules prevent your boss from doing it, you might ask a former co-worker if there's one who knew what was going on with you.

Someone will probably correct me if I'm wrong about this, but when I was filling out the paperwork for SS disability, I also included ways in which my job affected my health negatively in addition to ways in which my health problems made it impossible to do my job properly.

I'm talking about things like when you end up doing nothing but working and sleeping and your social life disappears and then you end up with more emotional and mental health problems because of life balance or when your job and the mistakes you make there cause you so much stress that you start having emotional freak-outs at work. (SS may not care about that at all, but I did include it.)

(If this is for private disability insurance, they are probably wanting to know specifically how you can't perform your current job, so it's probably not as important to talk about how your job affects your health negatively.)

I think that your doctor is probably allowed to write a letter if he/she wants to, to go along with the forms provided by SS. If those forms don't even address the tasks that your job required of you, then I would just add relevant information on additional pages.

I don't think that restrictions necessarily mean that it would be dangerous for you to do something. It might be something that it's better for you not to do because it would aggravate your health conditions or something that you're not able to do because of your health conditions.

If you have a friend or relative or former co-worker who can do the actual filling-out of the forms for you, it can be good to let them do that. I know that may sound strange, but seriously, if you get approved for private disability benefits, they very likely are going to require more forms every six months to a year and they can, may, and have judged people negatively just because they were able to put in the intellectual effort to fill out their forms.

Okay, now I'm having flashbacks and grinding my teeth.

it can be dangerous in many different ways depending upon ones mental disorder...example if someone with schizophrenia happens to be at work doing their designing of software and have one of their delusional hallucinations that their software they are designing tells them that the others that work there are out to get them, are going to kill them, that person with schizophrenia may think this means to harm\kill others on the job.

another example if you are keeping up with the news you will see many instances where people in many walks of life and jobs with mental disorders have committed crimes and other avenues of harms to one self or others because their mental disorder affected how they did their job, even if the job is something mundane or simple or extremely complicated there are many different ways mental disorders can affect that persons job to the point where that person while doing their job becomes a danger to their self and others.

the job doesnt have to be like working heavey machinery, or driving (all those warning sticker type things) for that person with a mental disorder to have a mental problem that results in that person having a critical/dangerous problem.

my point its not exactly about the job, its about the person and how their mental disorder symptoms affect them. thats why treatment providers, work places, department of motor vehicles and other public avenues sometimes need to "restrict\limit" what a person with the mental disorder does and places like social security/work places have to determine/ decide how the mental disorder "restricts\limits" a mental disordered persons abilities. in other words whether this person is disabled or not to that state and countries definition of being disabled and unable to work and able to receive the funding called disability, SSI, SSDI which ever the person is applying for.

The form is for private disability and you are right, anyone who could accurately fill out these forms and extremely manipulative questionnaires could be said to NOT be impaired. My doctor does the actual filling out not me.

One firm rule is not to blame the job or crazy hours or your idiot boss who almost drove you to suicide, you must blame the illness. This new set of questions actually relate to my daily activities while out on disability. So I am not doing software work yet my doc has to state something like "Joe is restricted from any work requiring a high level of concentration".

It really makes no sense. What does make sense is that the insurer is demanding answers to questions that have no reasonable response.

That's great that you have a supportive doctor.
I know. I found the amount of paperwork and the detailed level of information about my day-to-day life that they wanted to be harassing.

I think it may help to realize that chances are, these forms were designed with physical disabilities in mind. If you think back, it was physical disabilities that would get people off of work.....

I say this as someone who had a hard time filling out those darn forms, too. (For SSDI they do send some directly to the patient to fill out.) It was maddening b/c it felt like my disability didn't fit into any of those stupid blanks! But, in the end, my anxiety does prevent me from being able to hold down a job because of the extremely unpredictable nature of it all. Its just a matter of figuring out the right way to say it all so that they understand your symptoms and why your symptoms prevent you from being able to work or hold down a job.

All of these responses have been helpful, thanks. It is telling that neither my doctor or lawyer knew how to describe my R&Ls. What got submitted was pretty bad, examples

"Dan is restricted from
- any task involving others
- any task involving any level of complexity
- any task involving deadlines"

Sadly, this was the best he could do. Since the insurer knows I go food shopping they could easily say this was a task involving others. The potential violence topic is interesting since I do in fact have those fantasies in the workplace, nothing concrete just fantasies.

The same day this was submitted I had to do a phone interview with the insurer UNUM. Among their questions:

"Did you work a full day on your last day at work?"
me: yes

"Did you complete all your duties on your last day at work?"
me: yes I had to

"So you were able to do all the duties of your job on your last day at work?"
me: <no answer, just confused>

The above trick questions can now easily be used to refute any R&Ls provided by my MDs, no matter how well those are written. I am learning a lot, but too late in the game.

Your insurer has a particularly bad rep. I would be very careful to keep any identifying information out of your posts on this forum. If you do a search for your insurer's name + "class action lawsuit", you'll find plenty of results.