Question about SSDI

[Stacey65]

I purchased the Disability Workbook from the ICA. I'm filling out the List Of Conditions page and I'm not sure what to put. After you list your conditions it asks for the date these conditions first impaired me. Do I put the date I was diagnosed or the date my problems started??? For example I've had IBS for years (don't know the exact date it started) but wasn't diagnosed until last November. Same with IC and my other conditions, they all started way before I was DX'd. Last year was the first time I had been to see a doctor in 8 years.

[Berkshire Road]

Put the dates they started bothering you. Since you won't be able to provide documentation on those, your "date of disability" will probably be whenever you stopped working, but the length of time you have suffered may weigh a little bit with the Disability Determination people. And if you end up having to go before a judge, they sometimes set your date of disability earlier based on your testimony, so you get extra back pay. Good luck!

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I am not a practicing attorney; nothing in this message should be construed as legal advice.

[Stacey65]

Berkshire Road
Thanx for responding. I hate filling out all these papers, it's a pain in the butt!

[lasrlsrps]

ssdi

My sister in law is going though this I could ask her how she did hers? She was recenly dinosed with RDS, and other things. My gosh she has been in horrible pain, and still trying to land a job? I will ask and get back with her how she did her paperwork.

LOri

[Elle]

Definitely put the dates they started bothering you and then document how your condition has progressed over the years. Even though you obviously can't give a daily accounting of how you were feeling several years ago, you can document how your conditions have progressed. I think this would probably work in your favor. In my case, the judge actually listed my date of disability as the first day I ever had symptoms, which was several years before I was actually dx-ed. Be sure not to discount anything that you have been through. Sometimes it's not just the one disease or condition that you're approved on, but a combination of many diseases/conditions.
I know i't a royal pain to fill all of that crap out! But, just try to keep in my that they only know what you tell them (since I don't think they actually read the medical records anyway! ).