Oh my goodness, while your depressed here is a little more bad news, this is how long you can expect to wait for your decision from the appeals council. You may want to discuss with your attorney going straight to Federal Court. The appeals council may reverse it back to the ALJ or may overturn it. Do you have a psychiatrist? If you have mental problems it may help here.

http://www.ssa.gov/appeals/ac_statistics.html