Video: Disability Dance
Tomasz Stasiuk June 16th, 2008
Losing limbs doesn’t keeps these kids from some serious dancing.
Archive for the 'Real Experiences' Category
Video: Taking The Dis Out of Disability
Tomasz Stasiuk May 5th, 2008
“Social Security Admits My Son Has ADD, But They Still Deny Him”
Tomasz Stasiuk April 30th, 2008
A mother called me recently. She was upset that Social Security had denied her son, even though the denial admitted that he has ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder).
How can Social Security deny him, if they admit he has ADD?
I explained that the diagnosis is only the first step in the Social Security evaluation process. While Social Security requires a medically determinable impairment, basically a diagnosed condition to explain the individual’s symptoms, the diagnosis itself is usually not enough to get a person approved for Social Security benefits.
The reason for this is, except for certain conditions, a diagnosis does not describe the severity of that condition. The child might have extremely severe ADD, or the child might have very mild ADD. If the condition is extreme, the child may be approved, but if the condition is mild, the child may be denied.
After discussing the severity of the child’s ADD, I encouraged her to come in to my office so we could continue to talk about her son’s case. I believe we may be able to show Social Security how the child’s ADD manifests itself and that the condition is severe and disabling. But, it is these next steps (nature of symptoms and the severity of those symptoms) which Social Security will use to determine if the child is disabled, not just the diagnosis.
photo credit: s-t-r-a-n-g-e
Blog: Conversations In My Head
Tomasz Stasiuk April 10th, 2008
Chica, of Conversations in My Head, has a great site discussing her ups and downs (no pun intended) dealing with bi-polar disorder.
My symptoms are constant and unpredictable. There are stretches of time where I find myself uninterested in hobbies, the kids, days where I want to sleep all day and days when I can’t sleep. There are days when I’m on top of the world, where I organize and reorganize the cabinets in my home, only to crash into an irritable and anxiety ridden state. Bipolar affects the way I live and how I breathe. Unlike regular mood swings, my mood swings hit heaven or hell. It affects my activity level, my judgment, and behavior.
Are You Disabled?
Tomasz Stasiuk April 4th, 2008
The Bipolar Blog has a great series of posts on applying for Social Security benefits. The first article presents this situation:
My wife feels disabled. She used to teach junior high school Spanish full time for over $60,000 per year. She can no longer work as a full-time teacher, because the stress triggers mania. Believe me, she tried several times to return to teaching, and each time she experienced a serious breakdown.
She did receive some disability payments from the Social Security Administration for several months when she was completely unable to work. Now she’s working as a teaching assistant earning about $15,000 per year.
She can’t do the job she wants to do and was trained to do. She no longer has the same earning potential. That makes her feel disabled, but that’s not how the Social Security Administration sees it.
The article goes through the Social Security disability analysis and is a great review of how disability cases are evaluated.
photo credit: s-t-r-a-n-g-e
Video: Living with Social Phobia
Tomasz Stasiuk March 10th, 2008
VA Ratings in Social Security Claims
Tomasz Stasiuk February 29th, 2008
CT Blue talks about the often unspoken cost of war: veteran’s coming home with disabilities.
According to a new report from the Pentagaon “1 in 5 American servicemen and women who have been in Iraq are coming back with brain injuries.”. The same report says that “17 percent of the soldiers returning to war could have a traumatic brain injury”.
A lot of vets who apply for veteran’s benefits also apply for social security disability. If the VA makes a finding that a vet is 100% disabled, that finding is not binding on social security.
Although the VA’s rating is not binding on Social Security, Social Security will frequently give significant deference to the VA rating, especially when the VA has assigned an 100% rating.
If you are in this position, hang in there. Even if Social Security does not automatically approve a claim where the individual has a 100% impairment rating from the VA, there is a very good chance that the claim will be eventually approved. However, that may mean that the individual may have to appeal and take the case in front of an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ).
Social Security disability claims with less than 100% VA disability rating are more like non-service related disability claims. That is, you have to obtain medical documentation of the diagnosis, signs and symptoms, and try to get a statement from a treating physician describing the workplace limitations caused by the disability.
Read the entire CT Blue post here.
photo credit: greefus groinks….
Living With Depression
Tomasz Stasiuk February 1st, 2008
The Pink Report has an revealing article on the gradual descent into depression:
Depression isn’t just feeling sad, or discouraged. It is a deeply penetrating darkness. Every fibre of my body feels hopeless. Nothing brings a smile to my face– not my children, not the sun, not a windfall of money, not even Jude Law. I will never feel happy. I have no positive attributes, I am nothing special.
Read the complete article here.
Please note, I am not advocating the “multi-vitamins” which the author says helped her. However, the author does not appear to be trying to sell these and provides a truly compelling portrait of depression.
Video: Social Anxiety Disorder
Tomasz Stasiuk January 31st, 2008
bishi4me video blogs about her daily life and how she deals with social phobia:
