Getting Disability for Depression???

Boy do I have experience in this area. Both for myself and my partner. I went through many years of therapy before I could reach the point that I am at today. I suffered from PTSD from my childhood, I was abused as a child and also a survivor of childhood sexual abuse. I was physically abused during my first marriage and so on. I could write a book. I never went on disability but there were times I would have to take a leave of absence from work to get some intense therapy and healing.

My partner is bi-polar, has PTSD, also a survivor of childhood abuse and sexual abuse (rape by her brothers). In the last four months, she has been in a mental health facility at least once each month. She is not on disability but she is currently on leave of absence from her job. In the last year and half, she has deteriorated rapidly. She has pseudo seizures that can happen anytime or anyplace. Her only forewarning is that she starts feeling "ants crawling on her brain". She hears voices telling her to kill herself and she has tried to commit suicide. One night this week she locked herself in the bathroom for the entire night crying and talking to the voices. I couldn't get in. Finally the next morning she was begging me to let her out of the bathroom. She thought I had locked her in there. It took me an hour to convince her she had to stand up and unlock the door. When she finally got out, she fell into my arms crying and exhausted.

No, she is not on disability yet, but as the former director of disabilities for the state of Kentucky, I have convinced her that she really needs to apply for disability and she has an appointment next month.

Please don't assume that all disabilities must be physical in nature. Actually mental disabilities can be much more crippling than physical ones. While I had good success eventually with years of therapy and finding the right combination of medications, a lot of people never do. Just pray that it never happens to you.

The last part of your statement is what I learned. I was coming from a physical meaning of disability. I didn't know depression could be so problematic. So why is it classified on such a low degree of severity then, is it because it's capacities can range from minor to severe? I hope your partner gets help, because yeah, you really can't function if your mind won't let you.

I do apologize if I offended anyone. I didn't purposefully mean to. I still think that people with crippling depression need more than just a check every month. I really think it's important for a psychiatrist to really be working with them that CARES. If the money helps alleviate a burden on the mind, then that's what's needed, but they should not be pushed aside and given up on just because typical avenues haven't worked for them. My family member is struggling with disability right now. Her doctors just load her up on pain meds and send her on her way. When she calls back cause they either don't work or stopped working, they either give her more and tell her to wait. No compassion, no desire to help, just here's some money, here's some food stamps, here's some health insurance, try not to let the door hit you on the way out. Oh, and make sure you're back by the 15th, so that your 800.00 for you equates to 1500.00 for me. I gotta keep your cycle going you know.

Yeah. Can you tell America's standard of healthcare makes me a little irritated?

My partner sees a psychiatrist and psychologist regularly, like every two weeks. Guess who pays for her health care? I do! I pay $466.00 per month for her COBRA insurance. We're not married because our state doesn't recognize same-sex marriage. But let's just say I was totally out of the picture. She is not on SSI or SSD or any state or federal programs. Where would she live, how would she be able to eat, how would she be able to have medical care, how would she pay for her medicines, some that cost over $200 per month AFTER her health insurance co-pay? Her out-of-pocket medical expenses this year alone have exceeded $50,000. That is just hospitalizations, not doctor visits or medicines. She has no savings left. She is penniless. No one can really think she is enjoying any of these. We were used to taking 3 vacations per year because we could afford it. There are no vacations this year. Her employer WILL NOT let her come back to work while she is having seizures. She has to be able to do her job 100% without any limitations. So no if she gets SSD, it wont mean we get to resume vacations, it means she will be able to pay for her healthcare and that will probably be all.

She used to be such an active person. Now I watch her stay in bed for the biggest part of the day and the rest of the day I watch her talk to people that are not even here. She will not leave the house unless it is for a doctor's appointment. It has even taken a toll on me, watching a once vital person spiral out of control and become the vegetable she is today. She had a horrible event happen in January 2012 that turned her world upside down and she has deteriorated since then.

While I agree there are some people who are on disability that should not be, I refuse to judge anyone without hardcore evidence to the contrary. Let me give you a point in case. Before I retired one particular case comes to mind. A man had applied for disability based on a back condition. We denied his case for disability and he appealed. While we were in the appeal process, we had one of our investigators "tail him". This man with the disabling back condition was filmed playing golf, mowing his yard (push mower), loading his boat onto his truck by himself and unloading his boat at the boat dock by himself, etc. I've done all of these things in my lifetime and yes you must use your back to perform all these functions he was captured on film doing, especially playing golf. Needless to say, when we presented our case at the appeal hearing, he was denied.

My partner not only has mental disabilities, but physical ones too. She has sciatica, she has COPD (she will be on oxygen in less than a year), she has insomnia, she is manic, personality disorder and all kinds of mental disorders. She does not want to even live. I have to lock all of our medications in a safe. I've had to safeguard the house from razors, box cutters, my gun, knives, etc. I wake up in the middle of the night to find our furniture all re-arranged and she will never remember anything she says or does during these episodes. I've had her wake me up in the middle of the night and tell me to hurry up and get ready that we have company coming over to spend the night. I walk into the living room to find our sectional couch made up into 3 beds with pillows, blankets, a stuffed animal for each one. No one is coming over but the voices tell her they are. The voices are mostly her dead relatives telling her to come to them.

So really, come change places with me for a week and see if you still believe people cant be disabled mentally. I could honestly use the break. I've gone from being her partner to being her caretaker as well as caretaker for my elderly parents. Every time I leave the house to help out my parents or just do normal every day life stuff, I have to constantly worry about what is going on at my house.

Please understand that I'm not scolding you for your post, but trying to give you some insight into the daily life of a person with mental illness. I don't know about your neighbor but I do know from first-hand experience how mental illness has affected my life and my partner's life.

Wow. I just cannot believe this thread.

I had depression, anxiety, agoraphobia and various eating disorders for 12 years. At some points I couldn't leave the house, and that wasn't just when I had Agoraphobia.

I barely went to school, nevermind college or work. Do you really think someone who's trying to kill themselves is fit to go to work?

I would like to add that now a few years on, I have a good job that is well paid, I am renting my own house and saving for a mortgage. So whilst it can ruin your life and put it on hold, if you are able to get help, medication and therapy, you can go on to live a normal life.

Just LOL at this thread and the OP. I find it hard to believe in this day and age anyone is so cray to think this way. I think you possibly have more issues than any of us 'schizos' ever had. :noway:

I have bipolar disorder. Which unfortunately meant in my third year of university I had to take time off and go on disability. This was only a temporary stop gap so that I can get well and go back to univesity. I suffer with severe, psychotic depressions and yes, when depressed, I am not be able to work. I can't get dressed, I can't leave the house without panic attacks. i lay in bed all day and cry, and the psychotic symptoms I experience during my depressions mean I am often terrified people are plotting to kill me or demons are after me. I can also experience hallucinations, although this is very rare. Whilst deeply depressed, I once become so convinced my boyfriend was trying to kill me I attacked him. I have had treatment ranging from hospital to nurses visiting my home every day. I find your attitude very offensive. You have no idea what this ladies depressions are like, even if you have suffered depression, every one has different experiences of depression.

As a schizo on medication who currently cannot work I take mild offence to that.

But to the point of the thread, yes clinical depression can be crippling to the point where a person cannot work. Is it really your place to be judging the veracity of someone else's mental illness?

Do you have personal experience with it, or...?

I'm very sorry. I shortened the work out of sheer laziness. I will go back and fix it.

And yes I do. I was clinically depressed for a long time. So was my brother. He was hospitalized because of it, and on meds. But disability was never offered to him to help. My mom has a mental disorder, that I will not disclose. But no disability. I was just wondering is all. I have mental illness rampant in my family, but disability for it? It still doesn't seem right.

I

It may work differently where you live, but disability benefit is applied for, it isn't just offered to you. And yes, depression can prevent you from leaving the house, let alone prevent you from working depending on it's severity.

I live with someone who suffers from depression.....I think I am becoming DISABLED! :frown:
Seriously, it can be BAD!

This post gets my vote.

1) Schizophrenia and depression are two completely different disorders. They can impact each other, but they're different in the same way the being obese and having diabetes are different, but impact each other.


2) Living with someone who has depression, as in someone who's clinically diagnosed with depression, not someone who's sad because they're having a bad day, is hell. Pure hell. Like one of the rings in the hell described by Dante. It's also like standing on the edge of a pool and not being able to help save the person you love as you watch them drown. Between the helplessness that the caregiver feels and the crap they have to deal with, it wears everyone down.

If the woman mentioned by the OP is scamming the system, that's it's own form of mental illness right there. Something's not right in her noggin. If she IS depressed, yes, it can be debilitating to the point of being unbelievable.


Things depressed people (clinically depressed people) might do / I've seen them do:
- Not eat
- Binge eat (eating an ENTIRE pound of brick cheese in one sitting, with an entire bag of pepperoni in one sitting and an entire box of Triscuits. Just because. )
- Not bathe for days. DAYS.
- Not change their clothes for days
- Not shave. Not brush their teeth
- Sleep a LOT. Like, all the time. Like more than the dog sleeps and then have insomnia for days
- Get easily upset about things that "rational" people don't get upset about
- Get eerily quiet and zone, staring out into space
- Not want to leave the house to go to work, school, the store
- Become easily argumentative
- Lose interest in their family and friends
- Live in squalor / in a mess / in clutter
- not seek help for depression because they're too depressed (maybe feeling hopeless or worthless) to see their behavior as needing help or being beyond help.

I used to work with people with extreme depression. Depression can be far worse than certain physical disabilities, without a doubt.

Just think, people who commit suicide are depressed - for whatever reasons. If people can be depressed enough to take their own life, then I'm sure people can be depressed enough to not work.

As for receiving a disability benefit it depends. Some people get depressed to the point they cannot get it together to even wash themselves, take basic care of themselves. Some can't leave the house unsupervised, etc. So yes, I do think certain individuals should get some kind of disability entitlement. It should be means tested, based on someones individual circumstances.

Ok, I have battled, (still fighting) breast cancer, and talk about depression..................IT IS FOR REAL !!!!

Wow. I just cannot believe this thread.

This.
:noway:

I don't agree with getting disability for it...

Severe depression is crippling so it is understandable that one may apply for disability. Depression affects people in different ways.

I got to page two and then, oh shoot, I think I have ADD because I can't continue reading.

This thread is depressing 1/10 would not get out of bed/off the floor/off the couch for.

I can't speak for depression but I have a friend who gets disability for being obese. In my eyes she can get up and lose the weight but everyone is not willing and able to do that. Now I applied for disability when I got diagnosed with Luekemia in 2009. They turned me down saying I didn't have a debilitating disease. Not to mention I have a disabled child that for as long as she live she will never be able to walk talk or feed herself. Yet to them I wasn't needy, but I didn't cry about and I continued to work and take care of my child while doing chemo. I just finished another 6 month round of chemo and I worked through it all. We all have our crosses to bear and only god can be the true judge. I like to believe that the man upstairs knew I was wrong enough and here I am 4 years later still living.

Wow Sashoi- impressive working through all that. Hope you beat the leukemia!

Yes! Depression can be very crippling, especially if you are Bipolar. Depression and Bipolar is protected by ADA because the disability association know it's crippling and that's why they protect people who are depressed. A lot of people judge other people who are Bipolar and Depressed which is why it should remain confidential. It is something only your doctor and family should know about and no one else because people look down at you and judge you. I am surprised this woman told you the truth because I wouldn't have for exactly that reason.

Sounds legit to me! My uncle was told by his therapist that even with medication, his job as a school teacher was causing too much stress for him and his depression and that he couldn't go back to that career. He does work now, but not as much and definitely doesn't make as much as he used to. I can see how some people with depression would qualify for disability and also how some others might not (myself as a good example of that).