Thoughts On Losing A SS Disability Appeals

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Welp, I sure got duped! 3+ years of mental health type people saying "You have Aspergers", "You have autism", "You have depression", "You have Generalized Anxiety Disorder", "You have ADHD". And the biggest whopper.... "You are unfit for competitive employment." And the judge gave me a big fat wake up call. "Yes, I can too work"....... Wow! Just wow! How gullible was I?

So yeah, that was stupid. Between a psychiatrist, therapist, lawyer, vocational assessor, and vocational counselor, it was all bullcrap and I fell for it. All these mental health and disability people threw this name and that label and yadda yadda yadda. But who can blame them? There's a lot of money to be made sticking these word labels on people.

What to do from here? Accept responsibility and the consequences for being fooled and for fooling myself I guess. I'm isolated. I'm poor. I've been out of my professional field for close to three years now. So that's bad.

It's not an easy situation. There's no professional references available. No friends who live physically nearby that I have access to. Local volunteerism avenues all shooed me away. Park and rec is a "mothers and children" only thing in my town. No money for things like college, a companion pet, going out-of-town for meetups, hitting the gym, ect. So the social situation is rough.

I wish I could go back in time 3 years to warn myself of this. I'd say "Stay away from mental health labelers at all costs. Yes, even for dealing with sleep issues". Between my own experience and that I've seen others go through, mental health has been a nasty business to go messing with.

And the last question. Do I really have autism and/or AS? No. No, I do not. In my own case, it was just a meaningless label that came from professional labelers and self-deception.

So this is a good thing. The judge did me a favor. He woke me up. But wow, what a long and weird dream that was! All that being said, I've got a mess to clean up.

Interesting developments. Apparently, the attorney feels appeal to the next level up is warranted. This was rather surprising.

It also puts me back in a difficult situation. Either I'm disabled or I'm not disabled. Either way you swing it, somebody is lying. I do not know who.

In the meantime, treatment with my therapist shall recommence. A psychiatrist would be considered as well provided I could find one who
a.) Will sign a release to talk to my "autism-specific" therapist
and
b.) Won't require that I surrender said therapist in the name of becoming one of their patients.

Such a psychiatrist is extremely difficult to find. So far, it really is a matter of choosing "treat the autism" vs. "treat the co-morbids". No-win situation.

But one thing is certain. Forcefully denying my own A.S. is getting me nowhere. It's best to just deal with it for what it is and move forward from here.

Usually they deny people the first time hoping they will get discouraged.