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I chose SSDI because it was the lesser of two bad thing, drop dead at work, live longer and drop dead at home.

I will tell you that most of your doctors will make you feel like you’re a malingerer and a cheat, they’ll scoff at you and tell you they have people on dialysis, or awaiting transplants who still work. It took lawyers to convince the Doctors they weren’t doing their job.

I will also tell you it’s no easy thing being out on disability. I have private plan that supplements my income above and beyond SSDI to my 65% cap of my salary at the time I became disabled, and while SSDI encourages people to work part time very easy type jobs with no reduction in benefits, the private plans prohibit you from even doing volunteer work.

Then while on disability, you do feel guilty, bored, worthless, and the anxiety builds up. You want to jump back in to the labor force, but you know you’ll only last a few months, then you become afraid that it’s going to be taken away from you and you’ll end up dead on Skid Row.

You could be considered a malingerer and a cheat. If you can post on the Internet, you can work a job. Plenty of jobs that consists of entering data into a computer. I bet you have a phone you can use. Plenty of jobs require just using a phone and a computer. My sister works for Blue Cross/Blue Shield. All she does is use a computer and a phone all day. Makes in excess of $60k/year. Maybe it doesn't pay as much as your previous job, but why should I support you. Nothing guarantees you a great wage to live off of. I am almost totally deaf, wear hearing aids, and still have to read lips to communicate. My right hand does not work at all from an injury. I became left handed. I couldn't do the job I had worked most of my life at. I found a new job I could do. No where near as much money. I refuse to be disabled. There is work you can do. No one owes you a living to which you feel accustomed to.

I hope you did not misunderstand me. I am not faulting you at all. You sound like someone who should be getting it. We are lucky, the wife has a couple of doctors on her side. It’s really rare for them to make a statement with no wiggle room. You’ll get “it’s my opinion that Cableguymn’s wife won’t be returning to work in the near future” out of most any of them. But to get a “she won’t be working again. ever” type statement out of them is rare.

my wife feels the same way you do, on days shes doing alright she feels she should be doing something to get the bills paid. For about 10 months I really had money troubles. I had to sell my business and shift in to something else to keep up with the bills.

Turns out that shift really paid off for me. Like someone was watching over us.

Had that not happened we’d be living with family trying to get by while the gears of the SS office turn so slow you wonder if they are moving at all.