Doc recommended I remain unemployed and apply for disability. I haven’t seriously looked into it yet and of course I want a job more now that somebody official insisted otherwise. I’ve only met with the doctor twice. Anybody on disability? I’ve heard it’s a long process to get started and you can’t be working. I already feel like a bum as it is any suggestions?
Getting disability benefits has it’s ups and downs. Make sure to consult with your pdoc about decisions regarding work/not working. They are the ones with the insight into your condition.
As far as benefits go it can enrich your life. It’s not a significant amount of money here in the U.S. But it can significantly improve your quality of life and help you gain more independence. (Since a lot of us live/and or rely on family when we’re ill.)
Take care 
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Benefits- It leaves you with no purpose in life. It makes you unattractive to others. It makes you dependent on the government which could pull the rug out from under you at any time. But if you are sick enough to not be able to work it’s nice to have especially if the drug that works the best for you is very expensive and you can’t recover completely.
Work- You have a purpose and you are more accessible to the normies who you likely will have to hide your illness from and won’t understand why you act the way you do unless they know someone who’s sick too. But if you can handle life with a cheap drug or recover completely then there’s no question that’s what you do. However homelessness is potentially lurking if you are very symptomatic with the drugs you are taking or not taking them at all because there is no safety net for you.
(If you are only well with a very expensive drug and have decent transportation available it would be best that you volunteer because you’ll go stir crazy siting on your butt all the time. If something like haldoperidol works well and you can handle other meidcal expenses then benefits are likely not necessary. If you do best on an expensive drug and don’t have good transportation or can’t walk to the job site than you might as well be a dysfunctional functional on benefits and find other ways to exercise to get rid of the restlessness. If you are physically becoming disabled as well then stay on benefits.)
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Thats a great explanation.
Volunteer is a good idea for someone who is on benefits. Even if it’s just 1 day a week. Then they will feel more purposeful and also not feel so idle.
Good post @Blizzard
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Makes you unnattractive? You mean, your facial features change once you get it?
Here on benefits I would be homeless, rents would take all of it
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You can work and get ssi at the same time, just under 15 hours, if not you get less ssi
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I’m not talking physically. As an old song goes, “Nobody Loves You When Your Down and Out”. This is especially true for us guys. A study once put a handsome man’s face on a personal ad indicating he had a minimum wage job and he received fewer phone calls than an average looking guy who was put down as having a high paying job. An attractive woman posing as a waitress received more phone calls than a less attractive woman posing as a lawyer. Money matters more for guys.
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why do the poor have more sex?
Benefits, in my case, are definitely better than working. It is impossible for me to make the kind of money I make, with company disability, by working.
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The rich can afford better birth control so there’s less proof they had it.
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actually, due to the internet, people of higher class have less sex in global terms. people have sex when they cant afford anything else
I don’t imagine they enjoy it that much. It’s just how they survive and it sounds like it’s not legal in most places.
Since it’s all they got, i imagine they enjoy it more
Volunteer until your ready to work. Covers a lot self esteem problems and still part of the community. Helpful to fill missing gaps in your resume and employers love that you have volunteer.
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This is a very well though out argument, @Blizzard, and I agree with it completely. The only thing I would add is to mention that expensive brand-only drugs often have patient assistance programs for uninsured patients, and often the drug reps provide the clinics with free samples. That’s how I get my expensive injection despite being an uninsured working person. It’s also how I got Abilify when it was brand-only.
But yes, if one is able to work and still get the meds they need, then they certainly are better off working. Disability benefits are for those who truly cannot function well enough to support themselves through work, people for whom work is not a feasible option. I know a lot of sz/sza’s are on disability benefits, but that is because a lot of sz/sza’s really cannot function in the working world. I feel fortunate that I am able to work, don’t think SSDI will ever be an option anyway, since it takes so long to get and I have no one to take care of me during an application process.
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I’m not sure if you are already working if you can be initially awarded benefits. But I know that once you are on disability that you can get a job later. It might be better to play it safe and do what your doc says.
Sometimes people can see stuff about us that we can’t see for ourselves. Your doc must have a valid reason for advising you not to work. You don’t have to blindly follow everything your doctor advises but just be aware that he/she has seen many patients in his career and he can see spot warning signs that you may not be ready. It doesn’t mean that you can’t get a job in the future.
I was kind of in your shoes when I first got sick.
I entered my first psyche ward when I was 19. I was pretty psychotic. I got released to a group home and the first week I was there I went down a main street in the city around the corner and walked up and down the street putting in applications for jobs in various businesses. I got hired at a donut shop and worked there for almost as week before telling my parents I had a job.
When they found out, their initial reaction was to laugh because there I was with paranoid schizophrenia but the work ethic my parents had installed in me made me instinctively get a job. They told me, “Nick, you don’t have to worry about getting a job. Just quit and work on getting better.” So I quit and for the next two and a half years I didn’t work and I bounced around hospitals and group homes and then when I was 22 or 23 I got me another job and stayed there for four years.
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I might need to do this. I’m just hesitant to go to the local organization for people with mental illnesses that helps one find volunteer or work for pay. I just don’t like having to go out period when I’m sick. And I need money…I don’t like going out anywhere without money.
Sometimes I feel like a bum for being on disability, but then I remind myself that my symptoms are pretty overwhelming. At almost all the jobs I worked at I got fired. I lived on the street and eaten out of trash cans before. That’s what I would probably be doing if I wasn’t on SSI now. If you can’t work you can’t work. Don’t be ashamed to get public assistance.
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I personally tried my best to work and have a job, but in the end I got fired multiple times because I just couldn’t adapt.
My only option now is to get on disability benefits. I started the process last year and am waiting on the appeal decision. I don’t have a court date or anything like that yet.
Nor do I have an attorney yet.
I have been living off of foodstamps for 6 years already. I have $0 savings/money.