Disabillity reviews

[Davsey27]

I was curious for those of you who recently underwent disability reviews for Me/cfs,environmental illness,anxiety and depression or related mental comorbidities how were you able to get the mental health aspect of things properly documented when psychiatrist are not aware of me/cfs and how anxiety and depression are Comorbidities and some of them who downplay the role of mold and chemicals nueroimmune injury?


Appreciate any doctor suggestions in Arizona

 

[Rufous McKinney]

,anxiety and depression or related mental comorbidities how were you able to get the mental health aspect of things properly documented when psychiatrist are not aware of me/cfs and how anxiety and depression are Comorbidities

I hope you can get some updated info from folks going through all this recently.


- So how does that work? Psychiatrists would be expected to know even less about a neuroimmune disorder.
Regular doctors are who are often prescribing antidepressants.

Seems very messy. I'm sorry you have to figure all this out.

 

[Zebra]

Hi @Davsey27

When you say "Disability" do you mean Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)?

If so, I might be able to share my experience with you. Just LMK.

 

[Davsey27]

Hi @Davsey27

When you say "Disability" do you mean Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)?

If so, I might be able to share my experience with you. Just LMK.

Yes

 

[Zebra]

Hi, @Davsey27!

I apologize for delayed response!

When I applied for SSDI, I believe I included Depression and Anxiety after I listed several medical conditions.

My psychiatrist at the time typed up a one page "treatment summary" documenting the amount of time we'd worked together in talk therapy and the medications I was on to treat depression. I submitted this to SSA as part of my medical records.

In the opinion of my SSA case manager, this treatment summary was insufficient, so they arranged and paid for an appointment with a psychologist for an evaluation.

I was terrified of this appointment, but in my case, it turned out to be very helpful to my SSDI case.

The psychologist was professional, but also surprisingly compassionate. She documented that the depression and anxiety seemed appropriate given my circumstances and were secondary to my medical conditions.

She noted that my depression and anxiety were significant enough to affect my daily life, but did not prevent me from appropriately managing any funds I might receive from SSA.

This evaluation also included some basic cognitive questions, like who is the president of the US, cash/coin question, etc.

Is this helpful to you?

 

[Rufous McKinney]

The psychologist was professional, but also surprisingly compassionate. She documented that the depression and anxiety seemed appropriate given my circumstances and were secondary to my medical conditions.

Any idea why the original Treatment Summary was inadequate?

Sort of odd that the psychiatrist you worked with for a long time was NOT sufficient but a single meeting with another psychiatrist was sufficient.

It's encouraging you found someone compassionate, which should come with the territory of being professional.

Why are these psychological topics included in assessing the ME which entirely impairs our ability to do most or any work?

Being depressed about being sick every day isn't why we can't work.

I worked in my mild state for decades, but once this started getting worse, employment was very difficult. I had to use federal leave and 100s of hours of sick leave I"d already earned just to make it through the last 3 years.

 

[Zebra]

Any idea why the original Treatment Summary was inadequate?

I asked my treating psychiatrist this same question, and she felt that the mandatory in-person exam that the SSA set up hasd less to do with any inadequacy in her own treatment summary, and more about assessing whether or not I was a "malingerer".

 

[Rufous McKinney]

and more about assessing whether or not I was a "malingerer".

aha