Disablilty for chronic depression?

[whirlgirl8]

I have been on one med or another since 1989. I've tried all of the ssri's a couple of tricyclics and the non catagory anti-depressants. Natural remedies, exercise, fish oil, you name it!

Unfortunately nothing seems to work completely and then the 60% relief I do get goes away after a year or so and then I have to switch again. This is so life altering-----------I can't seem to keep a job or excell much at anything.

Does anyone know if I can get on permanent disability for this?

Thanks for any input!

[janart]

There have seen some ads on t.v.from lawyers that file these cases.
I know how you feel, I feel like I have lost all of my smarts, my memory is horrible, can't concentrate. Good luck

[whirlgirl8]

Thanks Janart, It does seem to help just to know I'm not alone. Depression does hurt your life tremendously. I really drive myself crazy sometimes, thinking I'm using it as an excuse and just need to pull myself up by my bootstraps.

I'm going to make an appointment with my psych to discuss options.

[karen82252]

Hi whirlgirl8. I am on permanent disablilty for depression. I have been treated for depression since 1991. I am 53 years old.
When I filed, it took me 18 months to get it approved.

In NC, they seem to turn everybody down the first time. Then you sent it back for another set of people to reveiw it. I did not get a lawyer till the 3rd round. If your depression has been documented with doctors that helps a lot.

The third round me, and lawyer and the judge. He questioned me. I thought it went awful but my lawyer said it could not have gone any better. I guess she was right because I was finally approved the 3rd time.

There is a lot of paper work that goes with filing for disability. You must sign forms for them to get your medical records. I had to supply employers but I don't think they ever contacted them. When I was approved, I paid back pay. You have to be out of work for 6 months before they will even consider letting you file for disability. After 2 years on disability you can get medicare. So right after I was approved it was time to go on medicare. I was layed off from my job is how mine started. I had struggled with people at work for years. There were so many days I felt like I could not face the people outside my home.

It is no picnic to try for disabilty. Your state may be different in the time it takes you to get approved. You can get info from you local SS office or look it up on the net. The first thing is to fill out a 10 page BOOK. It took a while.
I'm not trying to discourage you, just want you to know it is a long road.

I drew unemployment for 1 year while I was out. I wasn't suppose to because I had filed for DA. I lived on credit cards too. My husband could pay his part of the bills but not mind. I had to file bankrupcy because of the credit cards.

It seems like everything leads to something else. I would not recommend to anyone to live on credit cards there just didn't seem to be any other way to do it. It all just kinda happened. I had my own cleaning service for years and had trouble going to houses to clean them. I would call and cancel. Sometimes I did not even call. I was too depressed. I hope this helps. Let me know if I can help anymore. Good luck

[whirlgirl8]

Hi Karen and thank you for the info!

Every job I've either quit or got fired from was due to being absent due to depression. My depression seems to be kind of cyclic.It goes from bad to worse and correlates right along with severe PMS or I guess at age 46 it's considered perimenopause.

I'm thinking of trying effexor because so many people are raving about it and supposedly it helps with menopausal symptoms. I was on it in the early 90's and got a horrible headache but I've been told that goes away and then you feel great.

I guess I'm going to try some more to get myself stablized but after this last ditch effort if it doesn't work I'll be ready to do what it takes to get on disability.

I had to file bankruptcy too because of credit cards and have had days on end I called in to work sick cause I was too depressed to leave the house.

Karen, how are you doing now since you've been on disability? Do you feel better? I know that's a loaded question but I'm really curious.

Sincerely,
whirlgirl