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Member
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Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 310
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Member
Join Date: Oct 2006
Posts: 310
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Why Seeking SSDI or SSI Becomes A Depressing Process
Social Security Disability Benefits: A Depressing Process
If you are applying for Social Security disability benefits, be especially mindful of how you are feeling. . Although applying for benefits is a positive step to ensuring your sense of security, it may be accompanied by a sense of failing to function as you once did.
“The very process of applying for disability benefits, no matter how necessary, can itself contribute to depression,” according to Leonard C. Groopman, MD, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Weill Medical College of Cornell University.
He goes on to say, “Between the time of application for and receipt of Social Security disability benefits, patients often function more poorly and may feel more depressed. They have an unconscious ‘investment’ in being sick or disabled, because of fear of not getting the benefits they need and are entitled to."
Groopman further points out, "Fortunately, the relief of surviving the process and beginning to receive benefits can allow them to feel much better, more hopeful, more capable of moving on with their lives, and less depressed."
And finally, "Of course for some people, being officially labeled as ‘disabled’ can produce new concerns. Usually these can be processed and dealt with.”
From the Dialogue: Dystonia, Disability, and Depression
By Jennifer Pader, MDiv, STM, Mental Health Advisory Committee
Dystonia Medical Research Foundation
http://www.Dystonia-Foundation.org
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