Re: Disability and depression

[Guest guest]

Document, document, document!

Write down daily the way you feel, physically and mentally. Give your depression and feelings a ranking, like the pain scale. Let #1 be "I feel GREAT! and #10 be "I feel HORRIBLE". Write down everything, the when you see docs, have these notes added to your files. Make sure all docs get a copy.

Documentation really is the key.

When I went back onto disability this last time, I was approved within a few weeks. I brought to my interview stacks of my own documentation, as well as my docs documentation. But, I have a buddy that has Hep C, and has limited time left to live, and it took him probably a year to get approved due to lack of documentation. Yep, he was the type that never saw a doc, though sick, so there was nothing for SSA to really go by.

Good luck!

PS I had severe depression too, so I know what you're going through. I feel for you. Just remember that with good medicines (and possibly a good therapist) the clouds will go away and the sun will start shining again. Yes, depression is debilitating.

"If no one could ever see it, would you still buy that Mercedes?"

From: Don Kennedy <singerred@...>Subject: Disability and depression Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 9:54 PM

Happy holidays group!

One of the guys who responded to my query concerning disability advised that I should be certain my depression is not documented within any health update forms provided to my LTD insurance company. The concern is they will drop my disability saying my depression is not an HIV issue and construe my depression as a reason not to qualify for my original reasons for going on disability.

Of course when I went on disability, depression was certainly one of the reasons I did, along with all the other health issues that were going on.

I am hoping one or more of you would chime in on this concern, and provide articles and material showing how HIV/AIDS and depression are connected.

I am taking the advice of another responder and putting together a list of all the health issues I tend with on a daily basis to present to my new HIV/IM/ID doc next week. It is very important he understand I am not a recently diagnosed HIV patient and that I have extensive experience with HIV care givers and doctors over the years. In other words to quote one of our favorite drama queens "Don't f___ with me boys! This ain't my first time at the rodeo!". I believe that was the correct quote by Joan Crawford to the board members of Pepsi?

Don