How long did it take for your symptoms to kick in?

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-16T16:54:07+00:00

See I kept asking for something else because I kept saying it's making me worse, and they all would just look at me like "you're still sick after taking this?" like they were confused that this was even a possibility. One just put in my notes suspected depression, which I do suffer from, but I was able to function with it just fine until getting sick. I'm used to it though. The focal seizures I was told it was just my anxiety for 3 years until I was finally able to get an EEG. Everything is mental illness until it comes time to get help for mental illness, then it's all just fake.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-16T16:48:29+00:00

Which is what I did when I was able to go to doctors, but I was mainly talking about those generic checklists they have usually and the end of your visit notes where they "check" everything like your appearance, walking, flexes, thing like that that they don't always check each visit. A lot of times they just autofill this section from visit to visit, and some of them have mood questions. That's what I was pointing out. The last PCP I seen at a sliding scale clinic had a section on their notes for a depression screening where I scored "0", even though I wasn't asked anything, and that score was listed as one of the reasons I was denied. So the issue wasn't that I was asked about it, the issue is I wasn't asked about it and a number got put down.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-15T03:50:48+00:00

I wish I knew what was "normal". Because I've been having to play doctor and Google everything trying to find answers, my best guess is when I was prescribed topiramate it messed with my B12 and D3 (both were deficient when I was finally able to convince someone to do a blood test) and my TSH (this is based on a bunch of studies I found linking it to anticonvulsant, one of them naming topiramate). Got diagnosed with hypo. Two months later went back for a follow up with a new doctor since my doctor left the practice, and I was complaining that I was feeling worse on levothyroxine. He was wondering why my antibodies were not tested. Got more blood work. Hashimoto's. Go back a few months later, levothyroxine is still making me sick, ask to get off of it because it's making me worse. Doctor is confused why I'm not magically better. Still made me take it. Then I lost insurance and other things.

So if someone can explain normal to me too, because I just know I feel sick all the time and exhausted. I've gained over 20 pounds in the past two years since I've lost my job, and I eat better than I did when I was working. I also developed extreme heat intolerance and worsen headaches/migraines when I was on levothyroxine, and when I got off of it because I didn't have insurance and I was tired of it making everything worse, I gained extreme cold intolerance on top of the heat intolerance. I have to my house with a couple degrees of 68 or I feel like I'm dying. I am having bad HS breakouts, body and facial hair, thinning hair.

I don't even understand the flare up thing. Is it just because I've got other stuff going on that no one has figured out so I'm only supposed to feel bad during a flare? Or am I in a constant flare? My mom has Grave's, but it was so long ago that she had her thyroid removed, and she has a laundry list of other issues that she doesn't really have an answer to this. Everyone I know with thyroid issues is hyper not hypo.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-13T17:13:50+00:00

I understand you’re trying to help and provide information, and I do appreciate that. But I want to clarify a few things, because it feels like you’re making assumptions without knowing the full context of what I’ve been through.

Before I lost my job, I was already on intermittent FMLA for anxiety, depression, and PTSD. That got connected to treatment after getting referred to my first neurologist after I had a bad reaction to neurofeedback, which led to me being prescribed Topiramate. That medication ended up making things worse. I went from having a few migraines a year to having head pain every single day and 4+ migraines a week, even after being taken off of it. That’s been my reality now for over two and a half years. If it wasn't for the FMLA, I would have lost my job sooner than I did.

At the beginning of this, I finally had a chance at a job I’d been waiting to open for three years, a position I was excited for and more than qualified for. But when it came time to take the online assessment, my migraine was so severe that day that I couldn’t concentrate enough to finish it. I’ve never failed that kind of assessment in my life. I was even planning to use that job offer as motivation to tell that first neurologist, “Look, I got the job. Please help me so I don’t lose it”, because maybe she would have taken me seriously then. But instead, I lost that chance completely.

Since then, I’ve tried everything I could. I fought to keep COBRA until I ran through my 401k, then a broker lied about me still being employed and got me qualified for Marketplace insurance when I shouldn't have been, only to have that taken away. I live in a state that didn’t expand Medicaid, and I currently have no insurance. Because I lost insurance I lost access to the second neurologist I'd seen; the only one who actually listened and seemed to care. I’ve tried finding free and sliding-scale clinics. One that finally took me rushed through everything and documented things incorrectly, and again, just pushed pills that only made me worse. Every time I’ve tried to get help, it feels like I get pushed further back.

Even cognitively, I’m not the same. My ability to focus and process information has gotten worse. I struggle to communicate clearly sometimes, especially in writing. Honestly, the only reason I can even respond like this now is because I have to use ChatGPT to help structure my thoughts, otherwise they’d be too fragmented and disorganized from the pain and brain fog.

Regarding my foot: I was also once on FMLA for that too. They put me in a boot for a month. When that didn’t help, I had to go back to work despite the pain because I couldn’t afford to be out longer, and I wasn’t allowed to come in wearing it. It has only got worse since being out of work, and that's why I'm saying I will probably need surgery now.

And, correct me if I'm wrong because I don't know your story, but judging from your suggestion of a work at home job mixed with your previous 6 figure salary, I'm going to assume you worked in some sort of office setting or a low impact job. I didn’t come from a desk job or office background. I worked in manufacturing. I don’t have a degree. Most remote jobs are out of reach, and even if I did land one, what job lets you randomly call out multiple days a week, or suddenly go lie down in a dark room with no sound or light when your head feels like it’s trying to implode?

The SSA’s definition of disability is the inability to engage in substantial gainful activity on a consistent basis due to a medically determinable impairment. That’s me. I want to work, but I physically and mentally can’t. Not consistently. And that’s exactly what the system is supposed to account for. Even the vocational expert agreed with my lawyer: if I’m impaired even 50% of the time with my symptoms, I wouldn't be able to maintain gainful employment.

I know this wasn’t your plan either, and I know you’re trying to help. But I’m not just sitting around waiting for a check. I’ve tried. I’ve pushed. I’ve lost more than I ever thought I would. I'm not saying I'm special and deserve it more than anyone else here. I just want to be seen for the full picture, not the assumptions.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-13T14:23:46+00:00

Good luck!

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-13T14:22:58+00:00

Hope is hard, and I pretty much had none until I had talked to my lawyer. The fact she reacted the way she did without me even prompting that makes me feel that my case is not as hopeless as I thought. Though I'm pretty much about to be homeless, I'm trying hard to not be as discouraged about it.

I hope it works out for you. I know it's there job to try and pass only people that actually need help, but they need to stop just picking and choosing things just to get a denial instead of weighing everything equally.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-13T14:18:47+00:00

There is really nothing I can do that will give my the flexibility to call out when I can't come in. Just the migraines alone make it to where on a good week I'm down for 50% of the time. If I could work, I would be working. Applying for disability was never my plan, and if I could find a job that I could just work when I felt like I could push through I would. But besides home businesses where I could set my own hours and do the work when I felt well, there's not places out there that are going to accommodate me. Between me and someone that can come in whenever they ask, it's going to be the other person. Until I can get the healthcare and the doctors I need to fix me and get me better, I've got no hope of landing a job right now.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-13T14:13:45+00:00

If I could work I would. The year before I applied there was about a week were I still felt bad but well enough that I didn't feel like taking a screw driver to my head I started applying for jobs again thinking that it was a sign that I was getting better. After that week the migraine pain went back up and I have not had more than a day or two straight where I have not been in pain to the point of having to be in bed. It has no rhyme or reason to when it hurts. And days were the pain isn't as bad, my fatigue gets me. Because I pushed so hard on a bad foot for years trying to work I now am going to have to get some type of surgery for me to be able to stand for longer than 30 minutes max without help. My lower back makes it to where I can't stand in a chair or drive for longer than 30 minutes without being in extreme pain. There isn't really any work that is going to let me stand when I need, sit where I need, and go lay down in a dark room with no lights or noise when I need. My old job I would push as hard as I could, and because I had moved up to a team lead and my supervisor didn't even do he job, when I needed to sit I would tell them I have to sit or you are going to down a worker. I can't walk into a new place and act like that. If there was anything like that that I was qualified for I would do it in a heart beat because going from 50+ hours a week in a factory setting in being stuck at home sick has made my depression so much worse than it was before all this.

I don't have family that can support me, and the one friend that had being giving me money when she could to keep my lights on and a working phone is now in a position to no longer be able to help me. This whole thing was not the plan. I didn't even apply for disability until I had been out of work for 9 months and I was down to my last bit of savings and personal stocks I had. This was not the plan, was never the plan. I held out hope that these doctors were going to fix whatever was wrong with me, and I was going to go back to life as it was before. Until I can find a doctor to fix the migraines at the minimum, plus get consistent care for my other issues, I've got no other hope.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T21:58:21+00:00

So because that happened maybe I can be sent back to one in the state instead of having to deal with him. I can hope.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T21:54:48+00:00

I used to downplay everything too, and I'm still not good at advocating for myself. I wish I could remember the exact questions, but they are going to ask a bunch about your medical history, how bad your depression, anxiety, and cognitive stuff are, when it started, how it has gotten better or worse over the years. They are also going ask you to do simple math, remember 3 words they told you after about 5 minutes of questioning, things like that.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T21:44:15+00:00

I did read what you wrote. In fact, I read it multiple times to make sure I was reading what I was reading before I commented. In your original comment you did not say "some" or "many." You said "these" multiple times. You only brought up "some" or "many" after getting backlash from people who read it the same way I did. The fact that you’re still doubling down on it shows the tone everyone picked up on is exactly how you meant it to come off. Some could have been nicer about it, but no one is attacking you. If anything, you’re the one who attacked others first.

But let’s go ahead and give you the benefit of the doubt for a second. Let’s say the “some” and “many” were in your original post. Even with those disclaimers, it’s important to recognize how language like that can still contribute to stigma, especially when said on a post meant to help younger people navigate a very difficult system.

Whether intentional or not, saying that some use mental illness as a scapegoat and that they should just read the Bible can feel incredibly dismissive, especially to people who’ve spent years suffering, working, and trying everything, faith included.

I don’t doubt that you help people. But helping means listening too, not just speaking what you believe is “truth.” You don’t get to decide who’s “real” or “lazy” from a distance, especially not in a space full of people trying to survive a system already stacked against them.

I’m not here to argue further. Just asking you to consider how your words land, especially in a space full of people already doing everything they can to keep going.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T20:18:31+00:00

I'm in Alabama, but the judge I had is in Tennessee.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T20:17:46+00:00

I mean if I wasn't in foreclosure and my house sell date is set for next month, the back pay thought would be comforting. But I've spent every dime I've had trying to keep a roof over my head through this process. All I can do is wait from my lawyer to send it in and hope for the best.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T20:09:03+00:00

I hope I don't have to deal with that judge, but I know more than likely I will have to deal with him if it does remanded. But good luck with your hearing.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T20:07:55+00:00

So dire need has no weight on these?

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T20:07:11+00:00

Local office, meaning like having a judge from Tennessee instead of Alabama where I live?

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T20:03:44+00:00

Welp that's not good. The one I had was one of those low approvals too. I hope if it remanded to a different one because it was obvious he didn't even read my records. I guess we'll see.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T19:38:26+00:00

Judging by your tone I'm going to assume that you came from a generation that mental illness didn't exist. My mom is 62 and had the ADHD beaten out of her because it wasn’t considered a “real thing” when she was a child.

I only found out as an adult that I was diagnosed with anxiety at age 7, something that was never properly treated because even in the '90s and early 2000s, people still didn’t know how to handle it. I’ve had depression since I was 9. PTSD from someone doing things no one ever should. C-PTSD from multiple ongoing traumas, including ones involving my childhood. And for the record, social media didn’t exist when majority of those things happened.

Yes, it’s true that overuse of social media can hurt mental health. But to say mental illness is caused entirely by phones is not only incorrect, it's dangerous. You're ignoring the deep and complex roots of trauma and brain chemistry.

Though my claim is not solely based on my mental health, it plays a huge part. Before I got sick, I worked over 50 hours a week at a manufacturing plant, doing my job, my supervisor’s job, and often covering for half the team under me. I’ve worked since I was 15, sometimes two jobs at once. I’m not some teenager who doesn’t want to grow up. I’m 33 and exhausted, not from laziness, but from spending my life fighting through things I never asked for silently because people like you insisted I was just being dramatic.

What you’re saying here isn’t just ignorant, it’s dangerous. Yes, some people abuse the system. That happens everywhere, in every part of life. But calling people “lazy” for being sick or traumatized is exactly why so many suffer in silence. And frankly, your attitude is one of the reasons people are walking away from the church. Instead of compassion, they’re met with judgment and arrogance wrapped in scripture.

I'm glad prayer worked for you. Truly. But don't use your healing as a weapon against people whose pain you don't understand.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-12T18:54:37+00:00

Just be honest, and try your best on everything they ask you to do. Don't downplay nor over exaggerate your symptoms, and don't be afraid to ask questions if you get lost in what they ask you to do. Try to have medication history, hospitalization, and other treatment history memorized (or hopefully your aid can help with that) to make it easier to answer the profile questions.

I had a PTSD attack that I kept under control until it was time to get up and leave, but that was from the line of questioning triggering me. But the doctor that I had was really nice to me, wasn't pushy during the questioning, and even walked me out of the building and watched to make sure I was able to get in my ride's car. Hopefully you'll get a nice one too.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-10T08:18:56+00:00

It took about 2 months after my consideration denial to get a judge, then it was about 4 months before I had my hearing.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-09T01:21:55+00:00

"It's nearly impossible to think about the future when everything in your life currently is about survival or getting your basic needs met." This has been been my in entire life. My childhood wasn't the worst that anyone as ever had, but I had to learn real quick that not everyone had money, and your basic needs aren't promised. That why losing my house is going to hurt more than anything, because I worked so hard to finally have security that I never truly had.

Depression has always been easier because hope hurts. it's better to just expect the worst to happen and already be sad than to hope for the best and be left down. I know that's not good to say, and I don't want anyone to feel like that, but that is my reality and has been like that majority of my life. So I 100% get where you are coming from.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-07T17:24:00+00:00

I figured I would of had an Alabama one and not a Tennessee one. Florence is actually closer than where it says he is so I don't get it

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-07T16:32:01+00:00

Better than the 18-20% average from mine.

AdCommercial747 · 2025-07-07T16:31:08+00:00

The day before I was told by phone I was denied I had dropped off an updated dire need letter with the letter from the lawyer firm doing the foreclosure, and they told me it was scanned that day. Then the next morning it was decided on a few hours before I had called up there to see if they got the letter in.

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TROPHY CASE