Get with the Program, SSA

I am a unicorn. I work full time and have mental health issues. Many people struggle to hold down a job while juggling mental health.

In fact, I know a few people with schizophrenia who couldn’t keep a job to save their lives. It’s a real problem, but the harder issue is that Social Security aka SSA doesn’t see mental health as enough of a disability to provide for people like me without a major fight.

You can apply for disability, sure, but then you get denied and have to appeal twelve times before amassing practically pennies. The system is rigged I tell ya!

Why is it that disability equates to physical impairment? What about those of us who spent a year incapacitated in institutions? Doesn’t that count for something?

According to SSA, you have to have something that keeps you from working for at least a year or leads to death. Well both of these have applied to me and yet, here I am barely holding down a 9 to 5 to make ends meet. I spent a year in and out of mental institutions and the only cure for bipolar 1 is death. Can someone please back me up here?

Now don’t get me wrong. It’s not that I want to live off the system or whatever, but I deserve help too. Mental health is just as important as physical health. Each affects each other. At some point, lack of mental health becomes a major disability. This is not opinion, okay? It’s the cold hard truth.

So SSA, get with the program. You need to start treating mental disorders like you do physical ones. We can get doctor’s notes too. We can prove hospitalization and medication and need. All you have to do is approve and provide for those in need. It’s as simple as that.

Should we start a petition to the government over this? I honestly don’t know how to fix the SSA system, but something’s gotta give.

Thoughts?

Arishama