Could I lose my SSDI benefits?
 

Here is the situation. I recently fired my old pdoc and I have started seeing a new pdoc. This new pdoc felt that I have been over-medicated for years now and that these meds do not help me cope with BP disorder. He has decided to slowly lower the dose of my meds and add risperdone for BP. If SSA see's that the doctor has lowered my dosage, will they assume I am getting better and possibly take away my benefits? I have been worried sick about this. please help!

BTW, my review is not for 5 to 7 years with little hope of improvement.

Didn't you call SSA a few weeks ago and told them you were feeling better? That sent up all kinds of red flags. I wouldn't worry about a review. I think its 7 questions and one of the questions is-has your overall health improved. If the answer is no-then you probably remain on SSDI. I just received the remainder of my 401k-only 40 bucks and they taxed it even though it shouldn't because my only income is SSDI and LTD. I wonder if SSA will question that as earnings?

No, don't be silly. I think you are referring to me wanting to know what I should be reporting to SSA and you kind of laid into me because you misread the whole meaning of the thread. You assumed that I was taking my SSDI benefits for granted and that was definitely not the case. The truth is I am so paranoid about losing my benefits that sometimes I get carried away with worry. It's what my mental illnesses do to me, they make my life miserable and now things are going to get worst because I am going through withdrawals as the doctor scales back my dosage of meds. :(

I believe this is the thread you are referring to BB15..

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread144768.html

SS never ASSUMES! They go by the information (medical reports and notes) presented to them by all of your treating physicians.

No need to worry yourself. To ease your mind, always ask your physicians (actually the girls at the reception desk) for copies of your medical reports and notes. Read them to weed out errors if any.

[QUOTE=Shellback;752179]No, don't be silly. I think you are referring to me wanting to know what I should be reporting to SSA and you kind of laid into me because you misread the whole meaning of the thread. You assumed that I was taking my SSDI benefits for granted and that was definitely not the case. The truth is I am so paranoid about losing my benefits that sometimes I get carried away with worry. It's what my mental illnesses do to me, they make my life miserable and now things are going to get worst because I am going through withdrawals as the doctor scales back my dosage of meds. :(

I believe this is the thread you are referring to BB15..

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com/thread144768.html[/QUOTE


I wouldn't worry about a review. I think they ask for your last three doctors reports and ask 7 questions. My medications change. Because of my age-I may never get reviewed. Once you get your foot in the door-you don't have as much too worry about.

I definitely empathize with your obsession regarding losing SSD, I have my own obsessions.. All day long I worry about how my advancing education (potential Masters degree), current doctors reports etc. etc. etc. will effect my potential review date in 2015.. I'm starting to realize that its tough to live like this, always concerned about that possible review in 2015.. Living today out of fear of whats going to happen 5-7 years from now just prevents you from living fully today... At the end of the day I believe the statistic is over 90% of reviews are not turned down, meaning SSA literally has to prove that you are better which is hard for them to do.. a lot harder than you simply are now taking little or no meds. As for medicine, I am in the same boat as well, taking wacked out anti-psychotics and mood stabilizers.. The more self help books I read about "living in the moment" are increasingly suggesting to me that medicine only takes away from your true nature/character and zombies out your personality. Hopefully what Babyboomer says its true, that the 7 question review is the only review that is common and not that 10 page "long form" report

Shell,

I hope that you don't take this the wrong way, but I think your mental health issues are contributing to your overthinking this issue. Changing doses and switching from certain meds to another are not concerns of the people at the SSA. In fact, the fact that your doc is changing your meds in any way is an indicator that your condition is not well controlled right now.

SSA would care if you were on no meds and required no mental health treatment.

Try to relax on this issue. SSA's expectation is that you are disabled and will most likely stay that way. I know that it's hard not to worry when being anxious is part of the problem to begin with, but you need to try to focus on staying positive.

Hang in there.

I too have several mental issues. I have tried so many different combos that they are running out of options. Matter of fact I have taken respirdol. Be careful with it. It made me very tired and I gained weight. Anyway they are just trying to find the right combo of meds to try and help you out. Trust me I have been dealing with this for years. My review is next year. All I can do is go to the appointments and take my meds. And see what happens.

I will be very careful with that. I have been on a portion control type diet since Sept and I have lost over 25lbs. When the risperdal gives me the munchies, I find something to occupy my mind and sometimes a cat nap does the trick for me. I don't want to screw up and gain all that weight back.

ssdi benefits
 

ok here is the problem and its causing alot of worries ,i had went to a physcologist to get tested to see if i was still eligible for my benefits and they asked me a few quesrtions like if i have ever done any drugs in the past and if i have ever been convicted of a felony and i told them i smoked pot a few months ago and that i didnt do it that much and then i told them that i was convicted of a felony back in 1997 on an intimidation charge and i told them that was the only one but i was convicted of 2 or 3 just not sure what it was but i been recieving benefits for quite a few years now and im wandering if anyone could tell me if the things mentioned above would be enough to discontinue my benefits that i have been recieving for about 10 years now - im still seeing a doctor and a therapist but im still unable to keep a job because of vairous reasons - so can anyone tell me what they think about this situation?:)

i do understand where you are coming from - they cannot assume that you are getting better without the approval of your doctor - as long as you are still seeing your doctor you shopuld be ok if your doctor has not seen any improvements in you then you should be fine, but sometimes the doctor does not know if you have improved only you know if you are gettting better but i would not worry about it to much

Raven,

I think you will get better advice if you start your own thread.

It's considered poor forum etiquette on most sites to resurrect old threads, unless you are the OP with an update. I was particualry confused by this one when I checked the dates and picked up on the month/day, but didn't notice the year was 2011. I was REALLY surprised to see a response from me because I know I was on vacation March 11th (this year) and not posting here !

Did the SSA send you to this appointment as part of a review or did you go for this eval on your own ?

If this was a review, I think the more relevant info would be about how your work trials went. You may want to share more details on that....or not. Realize that we can form a more reasonable opinion the more info we have, but anything we say is still just our opinions. Most here are SSDI recipients or those waiting for approval. A few have more direct experience and knowledge from working in this field. None of us are the reviewer who will look at your claim/review.

I do not know if there is anything specific about excluding all prior felons from receiving benefits. IF there was such a rule, it would have been pretty stupid for SSA to approve you for benefits 10 years ago, but take away your benefits now, for a felony that was legally dealt with 15 years ago.

I'm not sure about the pot issue. Not to judge too harshly, because I have friends who enjoy the occassional poke and are otherwise productive memebers of society ( and my friends !) , but I'd pick a legal vice if I were seeing a shrink regularly and had mental health issues severe enough to cause total disability. That's a poor decision and non compliance with your medical plan. You also have to consider (and I would hope SSA will consider) that many people and most of us with mental health issues DO make SOME poor decisions and are sometimes noncompliant. It kind of goes with having mental health issues.

That said....there are political forces trying to make it so that any welfare recipients would have to have random drug testing to make sure they are not wasting public funds on illegal activities. If anything like that ever were to pass, I'm sure they'd plan to test SSDI and SSI recipients next. I'd make sure I had nothing to hide.