Anyone on social security disability benefits?

[TakeMeToHeaven]

How did you get it?

I'm autistic and wondering if I qualify.

 

[-Link-]

If you have an autism diagnosis and are struggling enough to be active on a suicide forum, then the overwhelming likelihood is that you are medically eligible.

However... It's one thing to be medically eligible for it. It's a whole other thing to actually prove it.

Ideally, you'd have the support of a family doctor as well as a psychiatrist along with a documented history of how it's affected your life and what treatments you've tried.

Depending on your medical documentation and on how efficiently your doctors fill out the paperwork, it's theoretically possible you could get accepted on the initial application. But the government wants to keep its costs down so they make it as difficult as possible to get approved for SSI (or SSDI, if you have enough working history). As a first-time mental health-based applicant, I would go into it with the expectation that you'll be denied. From there, you'd want to get the help of a legal aid lawyer to work through the appeals process. The lawyer would work on a contingency basis, only getting paid if you win your case.

Again, if you're asking this question on a suicide forum, I think it's a sign that you're highly likely technically medically eligible. The issue is actually proving it and getting past the barriers they put up to discourage applicants. It would likely take quite a fight to make it happen, but if you have the support of your doctors and a lawyer, then the likelihood is you'd eventually be approved.

 

[Lostandlooking]

I am. It's a long and arduous route, but in the end it was succesful for me. I realize I'm very lucky. Though I'm also a shell of the person I used to be, not in the least because of this lenghthy and debasing process.

I also have autism but I got through the school system (with depression, self harm and general feelings of not being able to take it anymore, slowly burning out) I was convinced that I should be able to work some kind of job, it surely couldn't be worse than shool lol. I was still in denial and convinced myself I should just keep trying. After several mental breakdowns. (This is a long story and took about 10 years, trying different jobs, which all ended in mental breakdowns, I won't bore you with it) I only got diagnosed with autism when I was about 26, that means I qualified for some different jobs and there were some promises of accomodations. This didn't work out either.

There's a lot of pulling and pushing involved where people will try to get you to work no matter what. This led to the biggest breakdown I ever had in 2020.

After that I got approved for disability benefits, with the prospect that I'd be able to work again in the future. After several years of severe suicidality I got put into the category for people who are 100% unable to work.

I agree with the poster above that you need to find doctors/psychiatrists/psychologists who are willing to help you. Your disability needs to be proven with lots of documentation. I never gotten a lawyer, but that's also a very good point. Their opinions carry a lot more weight and they can possibly guide you through the process, which it mentally exhausting on purpose.

My mind is going blank now, I might have forgotten some things, the process is also different depending on where you live. But I wish you the best of luck.

 

[Steff1337]

I am, and that's because I'm a diagnosed schizophrenic and autist, and I'm unable to care for myself.