My life as an essay question.

[naamah_darling]

I filled out the functionality report this week, which is a many-pages-long form that they send you when you apply for disability. You have to fill it out and send it back, and they use your answers to help them decide how fucked up you are

Comments

[0ccam]

You did a good job with this post.

[thediva_laments]

One of the things that always amazes me about you, just one of many, is how you can take experiences like these and write so eloquently about them and make the bullshit involved feel so universal. I have never filled out that form, but I know what it's like when people/society in general/my family try to shame me because my brain doesn't work "normally" or because I wasn't built to think about things or do things the way they were.

All of this is to say, thank you. Thank you for sharing this process with us even though it sucks and is patently unfair and not made to help the people who need it. We're pulling for you.

[petranef]

This.

No one else could have been so articulate about this, naamah. Even under these circumstances of great difficulty, only you can write like this. And that makes all the difference in the world. Even if you can't see it from where you are at the moment.

You matter.

[fabricdragon]

agreed.. absolutely

[poptartodoom]

You are a fucking rock star. That paperwork is awful and demoralizing and you kicked the shit out of it. Way to go!

[spiffikins]

I cannot say that I completely understand, as I have not had to do this for myself. But my youngest brother was diagnosed with ADHD and Pervasive Development Disorder - NOS when he was a child - and my other brother and I recently went through another round of "prove to the government that he's too fucked up to live on his own and needs assistance

[naamah_darling]

IQ too high? Wat. The Fuck.

OMFG I wish him and you the best. That is some gem-grade stupidity right there. I am glad that they were eventually willing to listen.

[spiffikins]

Despite it all, at least in my brother's case, he had my mom to work through the paperwork to get him on disability in BC - and he had my brother to get the same paperwork done when he moved to Ontario after my mom died - disability isn't federal in Canada, it's on a per-province basis, and you have to start over from scratch if you switch provinces - they don't take into account the fact that you qualified in another province, at all

[brightlotusmoon]

This is a wonderful wonderful post. It also sums up how I felt about filling out those gods damned forms. SO MANY THINGS TO WRITE. My husband helped me, of course, and at some point I actually told them that writing long-hand was painful and caused injury. I hated filling everything out mainly because there was no Sometimes choice and also I was crying so much.

My friends have all told me that sometimes it's "easier" to get accepted when you have a mental disability over a physical one. I'm not sure how. Maybe the SSA doesn't want a mentally ill person to stereotypically go off and hurt people so they give them money every month?

[songblaze]

I'd say it's because they assume that workplaces can make accommodations for a physical disability. What you'd need as an accommodation has to be completely and utterly ridiculous before you qualify. There's also more acceptance of variability in mental conditions than there is in physical conditions, which IMO is patently absurd. That's part of why so much of the questionnaire is yes/no rather than yes/no/sometimes. Either you can or you cannot, there is no variance *rolls her eyes*

[brightlotusmoon]

Rrrgh, that pisses me off. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety long after I stopped working, but I can only imagine the weird things.

You know what is really interesting? Ans soon as I told my lawyer that my financial situation was fucked up, that my husband and I had almost drained our life savings, they gave me a court date.

Then I spoke to a friend who is on SSDI, who said that yes, they actually care a lot about how poor you are. I didn't have the money to see all the specialists and get all the tests I needed, and she says that if you're having trouble paying all your bills, they will take that into consideration. So now, rather than having a court date late this year, I have one in July. All because I said "We're too poor to wait for this shit."

[naamah_darling]

Because workplaces are SO EAGER to accommodate people with disabilities, amirite? There's NO WAY that cuts down on the number of places you can get in to apply to, let alone work. *disgusted look*

Orbital death laser. I should have gone into science.