Did you hire an attorney for your initial filing?
no
Did you hire an attorney for your appeals?
no
Did you win your claim?
yes
How long did the entire process take?
a few weeks
How I Prepared
filled out the forms and my doctor wrote whatever was required of him
The Filing & Appeals Process
When the necessary paperwork was filed I was asked to come to interview with the local Social Security Disability counselor. This was in 1994, in Wilmington, Delaware. The counselor asked me if I'd been in a car accident and injured my neck, and told me she had just been to a training on Fibromyalgia and was told this was a cause of the illness. I had been in two accidents in my life to that point, both of which caused severe neck injuries, but, really, I seem to have had the symptoms of FMS most of my life--long before any car accidents. But, anyway, I received a notice in the mail in about two weeks that I was approved.
My disability insurance from work was altogether another story. They claimed that since depression, which was listed as a secondary diagnosis to the fibromyalgia--surprise!--they were only required to cover me for three years. Since then I've been struggling financially. Social Security is not enough to live on if you are single and have to pay a mortgage, eat, buy meds, etc.
Lessons Learned
- I regret not having access to the Americans with Disabilities Act until it was way too late, because my school district would have been required to give me another job for which I was qualified. I was teaching art and couldn't do it anymore, but I am a certified guidance counselor, yet they refused to find me a position. The district is big enough to have an ADA specialist, who said they weren't obligated to give me another job and my union was useless.
- Get a lawyer who specializes in disability issues. I found out the hard way I was too tired, confused and depressed to deal with the fight.
