My depression interview with SSDI

[Guest guest]

Hi folks,

I had my 15 minute interview this morning with the shrink appointed by SSDI

to review my depression. As I explained in an earlier post, depression was

NOT listed as an impairment on my application. What was listed was Chronic

Calcific Pancreatitis with Pseudocysts, Insulin Dependent Diabetes,

Malabsorption, diabetic ketoacidosis and osteophenia. Antidepressants were

listed on my medication list and I did mention having problems with it briefly

in

a cover letter, and mentioning it did generate two phone calls from my

reviewer when I first applied.

Just thought I'd give you a brief synopsis in case anyone was interested.

First of all, the doctor interviewing me introduced himself and asked me to sit

down across from him at this long conference table. He was very sober and

almost cold in his demeanor, he quickly introduced himself and asked me why

I was applying for SSDI benefits. After saying that I had Chronic Pancreatitis

and resulting type 1 diabetes, he cut into my conversation and explained that

he would be asking me a series of questions the woud help him to judge my

mental state of health at the present time.

He asked me typical questions about my personal background, family, school,

families health, college, number and sex of siblings, their health etc., pretty

much all kinds of general questions like that that required only a simple yes or

no and did not allow for any elaboration. He asked me how many times I'd

been hospitalized and for what, whether or not I was an alcoholic, drug user

or abuser, had I attended any drug or alcohol rehab, had a concussion and

how was it treated, my age and how long I'd been married, etc. He asked

about if I had problems with memory, how well I ate, and whether I cooked

and could dress myself. All his questions required only one word or brief

answers, so I felt rushed through the whole time. Before I felt comfortable

enough to elaborate on any one question, he was jumping to the next.

At the beginning of the questioning period, he had asked me to repeat three

simple words after him, two of them were pencil and table and then there was

a third simple word. Then he told me to remember those words carefully

because I would be asked to repeat them back to him a few minutes later.

Well......I certainly flunked that part of the test because I STILL cannot

remember what the third word was!! There was a math question, counting

backward by 7's from100 that I totally blotched from the very beginning, and

never could do. He said " do you read the newspaper " and I said, " no, not too

often " , and he looked at me strangely, and said, " than how did you go to

college? " He meant " was I literate? " .....well, why didn't he say so!!!!

The whole thing was over in less than 15 minutes and I was whisked out the

door. I was disappointed because I didn't really have any opportunity to

discuss anything about my personal feelings, health, etc., and felt that he

really couldn't have discerned much about my true state of mental health

from that brief exam. He didn't invite explanation of any of my yes answers,

like yes, I have trouble sleeping because........or yes, I've cried in the last

week because........ He didn't want to know about the " becauses " , just did I or

didn't I?

I had had a bad night last night and was not feeling my most social anyway,

but even if I had, I think it would have been hard to warm up to this guy. I

have no idea what they concluded from this interview, but he did say that his

report would be sent to SSDI within 7 days, and that SSDI would send it to my

doctor after that. I'll let you all know what I find out as soon as I do. I

think

this was the final step in their evaluation of my appeal.

With hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Regional Rep.

PAI, Intl.

Note: All comments or advice are personal opinion only, and should not be

substituted for professional medical consultation.