No attorneys this time

I had a comment on a prior post that was comment spam and as I addressed it I decided to post it. The post was one of my sidebar ones and is about the process by which I obtained social security disability. For those who don't know I applied in February and was approved in April through a process that puts information into the reviewers' computer system and if the computer determines that you absolutely will be approved you are not reviewed as closely by people, saving time and money on their part and knocking what is usually years off the approval process. Not many psych patients are approved this way and it was a complete shock when I was. I believe I made the reviewer tell me 4 times. But the comment seemed to be more of a post, so here it is. And by the way, I am using paragraphs but blogger isn't following through on my orders for some reason. Sorry about that. Lest there is more comment spam that I don't catch: I DID NOT USE AN ATTORNEY. I do not necessarily think this is the route for everyone, but for me it was the right thing to do. I did a lot of research prior to deciding that I could do the first step without assistance. The reason that I decided that is that I was professionally trained in filling out government forms and in analyzing people's abilities and need for assistance. There was nothing in the first round that was not beyond the scope of what I did for 11 years as an OT and so I was comfortable trying on my own. I also knew that most people fail the first step just on general reviewer principle and so I decided to not spend money on an attorney at this point. I didn't think it was going to make much difference. And I was right, although not in the way I thought I would be. The way that I was approved meant that little that I did had much meaning. I was approved because the computer read my doctor's forms and hospital records and spit out something that indicated there was no chance I wasn't going to be approved via mathematical formula. And so I was approved before undergoing the usually process. An attorney wouldn't have mattered any more than paperwork from my cat would have. There's no way to know that your claim will trigger this as not many do, but when it happens it is your history that matters. When I started filing Dr. Brain showed me just a small portion of the written files she had for me and she had many years of computer files plus 3 long hospitalizations on the psych unit and one medical hospitalization with a battle of psych symptoms with psych and medical staff. She said she had documented for years with the knowledge that the records might someday be needed for this. Dr. Mind's office had another enormous file. It was those things and not an attorney that worked so fast for me. I am all for using an attorney if you feel safer. Most people probably should. Most people haven't evaluated people's independence for years prior to applying. This was just something God prepared me for. Copyright 2006 www.masterofirony.blogspot.com