I actually get SSI and a large part of my diagnosis is ADHD. I had a caseworker bring me in to the office and do that part in person. I was never able to coherently do doctor visits, but I am very not bound by human norms. So I faxed the SSA office repeatedly and eventually had typed over 100 pages detailing every little detail of how a frontal lobe injury at age 2 affected me and exactly how I differ from humans. I typed on days where it was just me typing what my day contained and for long enough they got to see my energy go from very wow in one way to very wow in another. The judge eventually approved my case before the hearing. Remember they don’t know you. You are just someone like any other unless you somehow let them see who you are. Tons and tons and tons of people with no incomestopping disability at all simply give an attorney a chunk of what they will get and have the attorney make it happen. If you, like me, are not capable of wading through the infinite beauracracy, I believe you have to do something beyond the norm to let them see you can’t. Yes the system is set up wrong. Mentally normal people can wade through the muck easy. People the system is meant for cannot.

Really though the government of the place we call home should be something we are proud of

seems it’s up to us to make it this way since it starts so bad

There are organizations that provide free assistance to help people navigate through applying for disability programs. Google around to find one in your area

Intentionally tone deaf system strikes again.

Also don’t forget your mandatory call to the doc each month for every refill
and don’t forget to call a day early when it lands on a weekend
and don’t forget to setup the mandatory appointment every 6 months
and don’t forget to actually go to the appointment
and don’t forget to schedule a drug test once every whatever-amount-of-time it is for your state
and don’t forget to not eat or drink or take the medication the morning of the drug test

Cause if you forget just 1 of those they’ll obviously have no choice but to deny you the medication you’ve been taking every day for 10 years. But you understand because punishing disabled people for mistakes/crimes of able-minded people (who don’t find those things challeging), is clearly the only option they have.

I had to get illegal adhd meds in order to get through the process of getting my medical approval to take legal adhd meds

… there’s forms you can fill out yourself? Late 20s, i was sent a 40 page workbook and told to give it to my parents. My parents were dead (and they would’ve never helped me anyway), so I was rejected before i’d even seen a doctor.

A nurse suggested getting an old teacher to fill it out. They’re all dead or retired. On the opposite side of the planet. And they speak a different language. And they wouldn’t recognise me or my name. Every single one of them would invariably describe me as violent and lazy, just like my parents did. but apparently i need a neurotypical to vouch for my disability in person, and this neurotypical has to be someone who had power over me as a child. Countless referrals from other psychologists do not count. Partners and friends I’ve known for decades also do not count, and they matter even less if they are also neurodivergent.

Hey Bob, another ADHD claim came in.

Bob: send them the extra long questionnaire, they’ll never finish!

A real catch-22. If you can complete it, rejected. If you don’t complete it, rejected.

I used chatgpt to answer the questions and then got lazy to copy and paste it and mail it out. So… Yay?