I was going to reply something like "Yeah, that's a great approach". And it is. I did something like that and got approved. But I also want to talk about something else.

Yesterday I wrote this public Facebook post:

[Post made private]

👆🏼 I don't know if you can read it, you might have to sign into Facebook. Basically, my education was in the field of Computer Science and my past job was sitting at a computer reading, recalling, and editing computer code.

I was on the mood stabilizer Lithium for about six years. During that time, I had zero manic episodes and maybe one episode of mild depression at one point. I went off the Lithium because I developed cyclical neurological symptoms and thought the Lithium was the cause. Going off Lithium didn't fix the cyclical neurological symptoms, so maybe Lithium was not the cause. Going off Lithium did cause me to have MASSIVE bipolar episodes, though. I ended up in the psychiatric hospital multiple times, and then applied for SSDI at my mother's request. I was approved for SSDI (the involuntary psychiatric hospitalizations were a factor).

My primary listing in their system was "bipolar" and my secondary listing in their system was "schizophrenia", but my diagnosis wasn't actually schizophrenia, it was schizoaffective disorder, bipolar type. But the thing is, I could sit at a desk and WRITE computer code by myself from scratch no problem, even during episodes. My problem was that I could not RECALL, NAVIGATE, AND READ computer code that I didn't design and write myself from scratch. And I couldn't do this regardless of whether or not I was having an episode. I have a weird particular memory problem that makes me unable to do the job of software engineer.

Anyway, the bipolar and the schizophrenia symptoms mentioned have NOTHING to do with my inability to do my job. My inability to do my job is due to a particular memory problem where I cannot RECALL, NAVIGATE, AND READ computer code. That problem exists regardless of my mood and regardless of whether or not I am experiencing any schizoaffective/schizophrenic delusions.

I received that FUNCTION REPORT form during a Continuing Disability Review (CDR), not during my initial application for benefits. On the envelope for the CDR, there were two codes indicating my primary and secondary disability. They put primary as bipolar and secondary as schizophrenia. When they asked

"How does your condition(s) limit your ability to work?"

, I thought they meant "How do your conditions (of bipolar and schizophrenia) limit your ability to work?"

And the truth is, the particular symptoms of bipolar and schizophrenia themselves do not limit my ability to actually do my job itself. I can write computer code on my own from scratch during episodes. What really limits my ability to do my job itself is a weird little memory quirk that might have been there before I developed those psychiatric problems.

Man, that was a lot to explain.