I agree w/Marian + My two cents...
Marian has some excellent suggestions (as do others)...thanks for posting those!
But keep in mind, that while not all lawyers are scummy,
it's in a lawyer's best interest to prolong the case as long as possible -- that way their 25% commission is larger. (When you win all back payments, they get their share of those back payments as well.) In fairness, it's in the government's best interest to also prolong your case...
I never made enough money (consistently) to qualify for SSDI, as I had stopped working for years to take care of my mother, then my next job didn't pay so well...not enough to pay taxes for the first several years.
But years later I did eventually have to apply for SSI, and with the advice from a local support group member,
I got it on my first try. As did she, and several others in the group.
Her best advice: When filling out all those endless forms, do not try to make everything 'perfect' and 'readable', etc. If your brain fog is bad, and you can't spell something correctly, or you can't remember this or that, then cross it out there on the page and write "my brain isn't working today" or something to that effect.
Her point was, that
if your forms look like they're filled out by a somewhat competent person, then they'll look at them and say "Hey, this person isn't disabled...they can work."
You want to emphasize your
DISABILITIES,
especially if that includes concentration issues, brain fog, etc., as those will certainly keep you from holding down a job.
Just days before my last 'interrogation', I was about to be turned down. (A tumor was found on my pituitary gland, and they (and I) thought that might be the cause of my CFS. It wasn't...it turned out to be benign, and just affected my vision.)
Anyway, during that final interview (with the psych doc that they make you see) my brain fog was so bad, that 2 minutes after he read off a list of 6 words to remember, I could only remember 2. I was so frustrated, so worn out, I started balling like a baby. I couldn't stop for several minutes...the whole process had just been so grueling and demoralizing.
But I must've gotten through to the doc, as 2 days later I was approved.
Hope this helps,
Dan
p.s. brain fog is even worse now...it took me 45-50 minutes to write this.
