The Social Security disability benefits people have turned me down, and we are filing another appeal, this time asking for a hearing (there is a prescribed sequence of appeals). Because the lawyer got the explanation before I did, we filed the appeal asking for a hearing before I saw their explanation.
According to the letter they sent me, they turned me down because I can still walk, sit, and stand and thus can do light work, such as editing. This means I am going to have to sit down, probably with my lawyer, and with![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
cattitude and adrian_turtle and maybe other people, and figure out how to explain that the problem isn't just, or primarily, my orthopedic issues. It's the neurological problems, and that even with the brain meds [1], I have lost some of of my ability to see patterns, and to identify and solve problems, and those are essential to the work I was doing and know how to do.
I am not looking forward to this: not only is it depressing, I usually try to conceal those problems, and find workarounds in day-to-day life, like taking a familiar route rather than finding a new and better one.
At least the explanation makes enough sense that there's something to refute.
[1] The relevant medication here is the Ritalin, which I have spent a lot of time chasing down in the last few months; the lsat I heard, we'll be lucky if they fix the current world-wide shortage of it and other drugs used for ADHD is fixed this year. I don't know whether we will want to tell them that my workarounds such as they are require a reliable supply of medication, that nobody has a reliable supply of right now.
According to the letter they sent me, they turned me down because I can still walk, sit, and stand and thus can do light work, such as editing. This means I am going to have to sit down, probably with my lawyer, and with
cattitude and adrian_turtle and maybe other people, and figure out how to explain that the problem isn't just, or primarily, my orthopedic issues. It's the neurological problems, and that even with the brain meds [1], I have lost some of of my ability to see patterns, and to identify and solve problems, and those are essential to the work I was doing and know how to do. I am not looking forward to this: not only is it depressing, I usually try to conceal those problems, and find workarounds in day-to-day life, like taking a familiar route rather than finding a new and better one.
At least the explanation makes enough sense that there's something to refute.
[1] The relevant medication here is the Ritalin, which I have spent a lot of time chasing down in the last few months; the lsat I heard, we'll be lucky if they fix the current world-wide shortage of it and other drugs used for ADHD is fixed this year. I don't know whether we will want to tell them that my workarounds such as they are require a reliable supply of medication, that nobody has a reliable supply of right now.
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It's a factor in the amount of disability you have, yes? Whether you have it or don't?
Maybe set up a worse-case scenerio: How bad off are you without it? And present THAT. Run that by your lawyer and see what they say.
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For fuck's sake. I continue to cheer you on!
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I hate it, and wish you much strength.
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Condolences - I need to start on my disability benefit review paperwork, and know exactly what you mean about focusing on impairments.