Hello, and I am glad you joined this site. There will be other responses, a alot of people are also in the process of applying for dissability. Your idea of getting a lawyer is a good one. I had a SSD attourney assistant that helped me with my case. It took a long time, and it is a pain in the butt to do it. By the time I was in front of a judge I was extremely gratefull just to be in front of him. I was granted my dissability right at that hearing. That is the end part of the process. You will be asked to see one of SSD's doctors, maybe a psych evaluation also. You doctor writing a letter to the SSD office is a real good idea, as well as any of your other doctors. These letters were use in my court hearing. I was also denied the first two tries, which I found out later is quite common. I wish you all the best as you go through this process. All I really had to do, was tell the truth. Ginnie