[Grant00&]

i've had mental problems since i was 14 years old in 1995 and i've been on ssi for 15 years i got it in 2000 when i was 19 and i've always seen a doctor up until 2007 because of a bad experienc i had however i recently just got back into therapy and found .this whole continuing disability reviews thing is new to me because my mother handled this and she's no longer alive. my question is can i trust social security doctors? i'm usually very private about my business so i'm feel awkward asking this question

[Skeezyks]

Hello Grant00&: It's been a few days since you posted this Thread. Welcome to PsychCentral! I'm sorry your first post has received no replies up to now. Unfortunately, I don't know the answer to your question. I have never had any involvement with Social Security Disability. In general, however, my thinking would be that if these are doctors Social Security is sending you to, no. You probably can't trust them. This does not mean that you should not be honest. But my thinking would be that you would probably not want to share more than is asked for.

I used to work in the workers compensation system in my state. And if an insurance company sent an injured worker to see a doctor of the company's choosing, it was generally not in the injured worker's favor. But, there again, this is just my experience having worked in a different system. Hopefully there will now be some other members, here on PC, who will see & reply to your post, & who will be more knowledgeable. My best wishes to you.

[Rose76]

I didn't feel they were out to get me. From 2000 until now is a long time to not be seeing a doctor. It would be better to have an on-going relationship with a doctor willing to advocate for you. What you must be mindful of with the pdoc that SSA sends you to is that this doctor will know next to nothing about you. You'll have about an hour to communicate your disability to this doctor. Start now making a list of the ways your disability gets in the way of you working. Start jotting down notes. Then review them before your doctor's appointment and bring them with you, in case your mind goes blank.

[CaptainChaos79]

The 10 scariest words in the english language are as follows "Hello. I'm from the government and I'm here to help." -Ronald Reagan
Now he was the best president of this country during my lifetime hands down and he didn't trust those bastards so if they are on the governments payroll you better make damn sure you have a better more credible doc on yours

[Rose76]

I thought the same as the captain, above, until I went to the docs that the SSA sent me to. They were surprisingly nice. I've tried to come up with a theory as to why they would be.

Here's what I figure: The SSA doesn't want to waste its time. If they incentivize their docs to just try and paint all applicants as fakers, then they're just making a lot more work for themselves. They probably have some quality control mechanism for judging the performance of their docs, like how many times does a doc give an opinion that gets successfully fought against.

The SSA is trying to get at the truth . . . not about whether you have a disability, but does the disability truly interfere with you working? Any disability lawyer will tell you (google it and see, as I did.) that most applicants and their doctors submit all kinds of stuff, none of which qualifies as evidence that you can't work. It kind of takes the mind of a lawyer to make that argument.

When you are seen by the government's doctors, don't just say you've got this diagnosis or that. Focus on your symptoms, giving thought to how they interfere with successful emoloyment. You have to give these doctors information they can work with. There is plenty of stuff on-line telling you what they are looking for.