I know this person very well as she is a family member and there is NO DISABILITY – physical or mental – other than scheming laziness, but I don’t think that counts.

I’m thinking about reporting her for fraud. Does anyone have any actual experience doing so? Would you do it again?

I know for a fact that I would watch her “be sick” Monday to Friday and when the weekend came she was well enough to go out and party with her friends. Would claim she was to sick to get up and go to the store, but all would change as soon as going out for dinner was mentioned. And the worst of it was that she claimed she was physically to ill to clean the house or do any household chores, but could jump up in anger and physically abuse a child by hitting, throwing objects as biog as some furniture, or wrestling the child to the ground and and pin them down like in Wrestling.

Now there is a further motive to her madness. For one she walked out on these children after being confronted about her abuse of these children and told to go get a job. Not long after she left she became pregnant that which the father did not want this child. (She is legally extorting this guy now for child support.) And then went on to have another child not long after this first one. Yet now she has 2 older children she owes over 20K in child support to. Her hopes are to get on disability and avoid paying this all together. Yet how the hell is she disabled if she can run after 2 toddlers all day? I think not.

In all the time I have known her she has never been able to produce anything from a doctor stating that she is disabled or unable to work. Not even when she is in court for contempt of non-payment of child support. And a little over 6 years ago I was able to question a couple of her doctors that told me that she has problems, but absolutely nothing that prevents her from working. I don’t see that this prognoses has changed since then at all.; But she has managed to get doctors to prescribe her several different drugs that she abuses and uses to give herself the look of being ill. I know she learned this by researching on the Internet and got the idea from a news report several years ago. This story told of a woman who used a combination of over the counter vitamins to give herself the appearance that she had Lupus. And it obviously worked for a while.

She is but one of a group that get together at AA meetings. No honor there. Yet she is the type to claim being sober for a length of time when she was just out drinking a couple of nights before. Go figure.

All of these years I felt undeserving of any kind of financial help because in my mind it was my fault I couldn’t get my life together. Only recently have I been diagnosed, because I was too afraid to go to the doctor, or I’d downplay my symptoms in my own mind.

My family kept urging me to try for SSDI, but in my mind I wasn’t disabled, and I refused to be one of those people that collected money from the government when I didn’t deserve it.

This last year, because of the depression and anxiety, other health problems have occured. Now I’m having to deal with not only having a mental illness, but also other physical problems to go along with it… all without having a job. I’ve become a burden to my family because of this, and now I have no choice but to apply for SSDI because the medication costs and medical care is becoming more than we can handle. I’m having to choose what medications I can afford based on the seriousness of what the medication was prescribed for.

I still feel a sense of shame because I feel that I’m applying for something someone else who is sicker could use over me, but I’m also at the end of my options right now. I’m currently going to counselors and psychiatrists because I don’t want this condition to be life-long. I want to have a normal life again where I don’t have to depend on tax payer’s money to survive.

If you have had or know someone who has suffered from a mental illness, you can get a sense of understanding just how serious it is. People who have mental illness and denied it (like I have for so many years) or others that haven’t had to deal with it do not understand just how horrible and debilitating it is.

I understand that I do need to be on disability, but at the same time I’m afraid I’ll be looked at as someone who leeches off the government. I was never raised that way, and everyone in my family has worked hard for what they have. It’s a very difficult concept for me to accept, especially since reports of SSDI/Welfare fraud infuriate me. It’s because of people like this that people who really need this help don’t get it or don’t seek it out.

Here is a great scenerio that I will need to have explained.

2007:
I am working full time (nearly 50 hours a week).
My wife is working part time (roughly 20 hours a week).
I receive a car allowance from work in addition to my weekly salary.
I herniate a disc in my back. Mild PT and I am back on track.
Life is not perfect but it is good and we are happy.

2008:
I am working full time but just barely.
I have lost my car allowance.
My wife has lost her job. Two weeks later, we find out she is pregnant.
Complications throughout pregnancy = a fortune.
Complications/emergency surgeries during/after childbirth = More money.
I have to sell both mine and my wife’s cars to help pay for all the medical bills.

2009:
Work hours have dropped again.
Constantly searching for second jobs.
I had arthroscopic surgery on my knee 6 weeks ago.
Now having to sell nearly everything I own, including my condo, just to keep up.

So, in the span of almost three years, I have herniated a disc, had my knee scoped, brought a child into the world, nursed both the child and his mother back to health from several surgeries, lost a relatively large chunk of change at work, lost an entire 2nd income, watched my health insurance skyrocket, lost my cars, belongings and home.

All of this and I don’t “qualify” for ANY govt. assistance. Apparently, my wife’s health problems don’t qualify as she was working, was then laid off, found out she was pregnant and then the problems arose. Had they been in a different order, maybe.

My health problems weren’t nearly “severe” enough to warrant the use of disability. My lost income, both through mine and my wife’s income wasn’t enough to qualify for assistance. They said I make too much money. The irony is that I have had to sell two cars to help cover the medical bills, sell my condo to cover the rest, sell everything else to pay for food. How is that making too much money? Yet, every day I put my blue collar on, I go to work to provide and I am the one paying out? Go figure.

In my perspective (from under the bus) is that if a person is eligable for the Special Olympics, they qualify for Disability. Everyone else, start taking a little pride in what you do. Those who can’t or won’t take pride in what they do should join the military.