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Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

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Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#151

Post by whitepoplar »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #150
whitepoplar wrote: post #18

I'm not sure what the cause of your chronic pain is, but I would highly recommend reading John Sarno's "The Mindbody Prescription." I've dealt with chronic pain for years and it's the only thing that's had any effect. Please, please , don't write it off until you've read the book. Note that Sarno's work focuses on back pain, but it applies to all types of chronic pain (including migraines, which he discusses in the b…

Q: My life is falling apart on all fronts and I'm struggling with physical and mental health issues; what should I do? A: Read this book. Only on HN...

I admit it sounds crazy, but it works. I was extremely skeptical too.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#152

Post by anonymousiam »

heavyset_go wrote: post #144

When it comes to SDDI, don't do it alone, hire a firm that specializes in disability claims. Expect to be denied at first and to need to appeal.

I get contacted about once per month by SSDC services. They specialize in getting you Social Security Disability benefits. I have no idea what they charge, but they must be very good at it because one of my prior employers (Fortune 50) is paying them to try to get me onto SS to avoid paying my medical benefits (part of my retirement package). I'm never going to do it because I like my benefits the way they are.

https://www.ssdcservices.com/

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#153

Post by specialist »

You can dig yourself out of this hole. It's a lot of work. You'll have to do things that are challenging, which make you uncomfortable.

I know you can. Asking for help is a huge step. You clearly want to get to a better place.

--

Ya, you'll need a lawyer for SSDI. I solicited referrals, contacted about 20, interviewed a handful, and then ultimately picked this one https://www.ddmglaw.com/about/ Look for someone similar close to you. Though everything's done remote now, so location might not matter.

You probably qualify for Medicaid too. Ditto food stamps.

Contact everyone to arrange late payments. You'll be surprised how accomodating some will be. For instance, I paused my mortgage for 9 months, and with the COVID carve outs, it was just some forms.

Your utilities might have special rates for low income. In my case, again, it was just some forms.

--

As for pain...

All I can say is don't accept "no" or "i don't know". Someone somewhere has the answers you need.

Last year I enrolled in Swedish Hospital's Pain Services program. It covered a huge amount of material. Stuff like tai chi, breathing, graded motor imagery, the latest in pain science, and more. I nicknamed the program "Pain College".

Pain College worked for me. Amazing. Beforehand, I would have bet against it.

Here it is. https://www.swedish.org/services/pain-services Don't judge them by their web site; they have no control over it. And it certainly does not reflect what they actually do. When I first saw it, I thought "ya ya ya, I've done all that already." I'm glad I enrolled anyway.

I'll checkout all the other tips and links. My next hurdle is some myofascial pain. I'm always learning new stuff to try.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#154

Post by agumonkey »

calmoo wrote: post #145
whitepoplar wrote: post #18

I'm not sure what the cause of your chronic pain is, but I would highly recommend reading John Sarno's "The Mindbody Prescription." I've dealt with chronic pain for years and it's the only thing that's had any effect. Please, please , don't write it off until you've read the book. Note that Sarno's work focuses on back pain, but it applies to all types of chronic pain (including migraines, which he discusses in the b…

I've suffered from severe chronic back pain for the past 12 years or so, starting at the age of 16. It manifested as sciatica initially, and gradually became more severe. I had flare ups that would last months. It eventually started manifesting as SI joint pain, constantly switching sides. Over the years I had been to 4 different physiotherapists, tried everything from regular core exercises formulated by Stuart McGi…

psychosomatic effects are strange, i'm gonna peak at this book

also there are non individualistic leverage to curing the mind/body aspect

I tried a lot of meditation, hygiene and sport, but nothing had as much impact as having a daily life (commute,job,colleagues). It seems we're also very dependent on our context.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#155

Post by agumonkey »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #150
whitepoplar wrote: post #18

I'm not sure what the cause of your chronic pain is, but I would highly recommend reading John Sarno's "The Mindbody Prescription." I've dealt with chronic pain for years and it's the only thing that's had any effect. Please, please , don't write it off until you've read the book. Note that Sarno's work focuses on back pain, but it applies to all types of chronic pain (including migraines, which he discusses in the b…

Q: My life is falling apart on all fronts and I'm struggling with physical and mental health issues; what should I do? A: Read this book. Only on HN...

HN bashing can only go so far, every where people have the same prototypes of answers, HN, reddit, boards, public transportation :)

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#156

Post by thrown321 »

jzellis wrote: post #112

I am exactly in the same boat, except I live in the UK with my British spouse (I'm American). I've been slowly rebuilding myself after heart surgery, trying to build up my physical stamina, getting therapy for depression, and learning the new JS hotness to be able to get better work to support my wife and I. Except the Home Office here fucked up my visa and it looks like I might get sent back to the US, where I have…

Not sure how it works in the UK but maybe contact an attorney or your local MP.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#157

Post by that_guy_iain »

dave_sullivan wrote: post #113
that_guy_iain wrote: post #41

> Further, all of my experience is in startups and that makes me less palatable to larger companies, but larger companies have more options to accommodate disabled people. My understanding is lots of large enterprise/legacy companies are constantly looking for startup experience since they want to replicate the startup success with their own projects and often consider their own projects to be startsup.

> My understanding is lots of large enterprise/legacy companies are constantly looking for startup experience They certainly say that, but in my experience it is not true. They want cubicle monkeys with a CS degree that can do leet code.

For the tech team but not for management. They love some fancy consultants with some vague set of achievements.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#159

Post by ksaj »

heavyset_go wrote: post #144

When it comes to SDDI, don't do it alone, hire a firm that specializes in disability claims. Expect to be denied at first and to need to appeal.

This is pretty much exactly the case in Canada, too. You'll nearly always get denied on the first attempt. Then have a psychiatrist or someone at that level submit a report when you try the second time. Then you're far more likely to get it.

I have a feeling they get so many not-actually-disabled requests that they create a break from the first request to the second to force the person to determine if they are really disabled. In some cases, it's probably very true, but it punishes those who actually are disabled and needing the pressure relief of a regular income.

Re: Ask HN: I'm disabled and out of money. Now what?

#160

Post by eclipticplane »

berberous wrote: post #36

Not to derail this thread or to sound like I am criticizing OP, but everyone should take this post as a reminder to look into having a disability insurance policy. Your megacorp may offer a policy, but look into getting your own guaranteed renewable non-cancelable policy, as it provides greater protection. The Bogleheads wiki has a good page describing what is important to obtain in such a policy.

Since we're on this topic: any notably good insurance companies that folks would recommend if we're talking privately purchased disability insurance?
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