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Short Term Disability (any Experience?)

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TawkyTawny

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I am thinking about applying for Short Term Disability in order to treat my PTSD. My job has already denied my requested accommodations. Every day it gets harder and harder to do my job. I am extremely irritable, and occasionally I get severe anxiety attacks on the train to work. I am not in the best condition to look for a job, and if I quit this one I'm afraid I will spiral downwards. My parents are very worried about me, and I am unable to empathize with them, as I believe they are responsible for my condition, even though I don't believe they did it out of malice.

I am scared. At this point, I'm resigning myself to being miserable the rest of my life. I really need help, the few therapists I've talked to in the past few weeks have all seemed untrustworthy. I feel that all the therapy that Ive had so far has exacerbated my condition. If I never had gone to therapy, I never would have recalled all of that child abuse.

Anyway - at this point, no insurance company has any record of my having PTSD. There are pre-existing ADHD and depression, but they have never affected my ability to work to the degree that the PTSD does. Complex-PTSD was suggested as a diagnosis by a journeyman therapist a few years ago, but I was paying out of pocket and insurance wasn't involved. I went through a trauma about a year and a half ago that has resulted in my current condition - I was a mess before but now I'm really a mess - if I keep going the way Im going I will be homeless before long.

Unum is my STD provider. PTSD seems so vague and is often misdiagnosed - is it likely I will be eligible for STD benfits?
 
I am in the UK and obviously our system is different so I can't comment for sure on eligibility for that particular benefit you mentioned as I have not heard of it before but I can comment as someone who has applied for a disability benefit for PTSD.

My advice would be to focus on any physical symptoms you have as a result of PTSD related to panic attacks i.e. exhaustion after a panic attack, muscle spasms or pains and how your sleep is affected and how that affects your concentration (as that would affect your ability to work within most environments and is a health and safety issue). You could also refer back to ways in which your PTSD has affected other jobs that you have had. I understand that PTSD is vague as it is classed as a 'mental' issue as in your cognition is affected but of course it can affect you physically which is what you need to highlight.

When I completed my form I probably played it down and I have since realised that just because at the time of filling in the form, I was doing well I needed to remember the bad days. Especially as the form asks things like whether you can control your bladder or if you can hold a pen or if you know how to use a washing machine...all of which do not apply to me at all and left me feeling like I didn't have a case at all.

My mum works at an advice centre where they help people complete forms like this and their advice is to complete it and describe the symptoms as if it is your worst day. So note down the worst of your symptoms and like I said, anything physical you can mention is very useful - good luck :)
 
I never would have dreamed that I'd be responding to this thread, but I am in the process of applying for short term disability right now, owing to the fact that I cannot work more than 12 hours a week at the moment (and even that may not be sustainable) and I currently am on unpaid leave for the hours I am not working.

I am in Australia so this is yet again another system, but even so far I have found the proces to be horribly bureaucratic, terribly tedious and repetitive and extremely stressful... and that's just the paperwork. In my case, my insurance will not pay out if it's considered that I had the condition pre-dating my employment (the insurance is through my superannuation fund and so is linked to my employment). It was therefore up to my doc to make a persuasive case for delayed onset complex trauma, and also to make it clear that the trigger was not a workplace-related incident which would imply to my insurance company that I should be being paid through workers compensation.

It's scary and disillusioning to have to be so cunning and almost deceitful, or at least selective, about the truth, but according to my doc, who has dealt with many of these cases, that's exactly what's required if I want to be paid at all.

It remains to be seen whether or not my case is accepted. It's not fun, very demeaning, and very confronting of all that this condition has robbed from me, both in terms of the present, and in terms of my future.

If successful, my provider will pay temproary disability for 2 years. And then... then it's permanent.

Maddog
 
I am on short term disability for PTSD and depression. My T and MD had to fill out the paperwork too. In the past 5 months I've had 4 hospitalizations-2 for SI, 2 for overdose. I will be switched over to long term disability next month. I never thought this would happen to me. I was a workaholic. Now I'm a mess. I don't know how I'm going to go back to work. Yikes!
 
Hi Monster. Sorry, not sure if you were addressing your question to me, but if so, yes, I did apply, right back a month and a half ago when I wrote my earlier post.

Just this week I was advised that my claim was successful, but sadly yet more bureaucratic BS is standing in the way of the payments actually commencing, bureaucratic BS in the form of my insurance fund not being happy with the structure of my current work plan.

I am blessed to have a very supportive workplace and our HR and rehab staff, along with my T, are working hard to negotiate a reasonable solution with the insurance provider, but truly, only out of desperation would i ever recommend that anyone go through this process. AS my doc so wisely and cynically says, they'll do absolutely anything to avoid paying you if possible, and all of this when the applicant is presumably not at their best to be fighting such senseless fights...

If I didn't need the money, I wouldnt' bother. But sadly I do, so fingers are still crossed.

I'm so sorry for your situation too. I too used to be a workaholic, my work was my life. Now I'm struggling to sustain it at all and am facing the very real possibility that whether sooner or later, I mightn't be abel to keep my job. There is no easy way to go through this. I'm so sorry that anyone has to.

Maddog
 
Your doc was right, Maddog, I've had to fight for my check every single week. It was horrible. I would go for weeks without any check (five weeks was the longest) and I am a single mom. Long term disability called me yesterday, we spoke for 15 minutes and she approved me. ??? It was that simple. I, too, would not recommend it to anyone, but I was going to lose my job because of my hospitalizations. Ugh, what we have to do because of something that was NOT OUR FAULT!!! And, yes, I'm shouting. I just reached the anger stage, lol.
 
I work in the health care insurance industry as a claims/customer service agent. I also suffer from PTSD, BiPolar and a few other things. Your company cannot "deny" your accomodations" except under two conditions: they are unreasonable (cost to the company etc), or they grossly impact normnal "business needs".

There is a US website which is very useful. it is calls JAN Job Accomodation Network and they have consultants whose job it is to work with EMPLOYEES. They have live chat or will repsond via e-mail or phone. I find e-mail is faster. You fill out a short question form (you dont have to idenitfy yourself or your company) and ask specific questions realting to your disability. They are either goivernment subsidized or part of ADA and they are great. Almost all of them are disbaled as well (those who answer you I mean)

They will provide you with a list of "approved" accomodations for your disability By "approved" I mean solutions that are usuual and customary or have been won through litigation.

I read all the potential accomodations I was enitlted to under the law, and I cried. It was so validating.

As for short term disability, most policies are set up to where the employer pays half the beneift. That is why the premium is so cheap. Most short term claims are denied for lack of correct medical codes, documentation, etc and not necessarily for the actual condition the insured is seek disability for.

It has long been held by health insuers that diagnosing PTSD is a subjective process requiring numerous therapeutic sessions to diagnose accurately. STD claims are routinely denied for exmaple, when submitted by a general practioner who has see the insured only once. We as sufferers know how deeply we can be effected but in insurance it isnt what you know it is what you can prove or deny. Then ther is the pre existing clause which is usualy either 6 months or a year. Most STD policies dovetail with FMLA which is 12 total weeks. I am not going off into FMLA in this disucssion though. If anyone is having difficulty getting PTSD approved for STD or having issues with anaccomadation, feel free to hit me up. I cannot offer legal advice but i *might be able* to share some things I knwo from being a claims prcoessor.

This is the linkg for JAN http://askjan.org/. Just go look at the suggest accomadations for PTSD. These folks have helped me tremendously and what I do is just ask them something and then I print out their reply and take it to my HR director lol. Hard to argue with something like that. ANY physician qualified to make a medical determination (appropriate to his field) can wirtre up ADA paperwork. the only thing a company can do is ask you to go to their doctor and it has to be at theirexpense. NEBER sign a relaease allowing your company to contact your physician,they arent qualified to talk to medical professionals.
 
I am on short term disability for PTSD and depression. My T and MD had to fill out the paperwork too. In the past 5 months I've had 4 hospitalizations-2 for SI, 2 for overdose. I will be switched over to long term disability next month. I never thought this would happen to me. I was a workaholic. Now I'm a mess. I don't know how I'm going to go back to work. Yikes!


Dont put that pressure on yourself righrt now about "how you are going back to work". Many long term disability policies cover a person all the way up to legal retirement age (65 in the US) or until you may qualify ofr SSI disability. Check your coverage before you start worrying....
 
I have been approved for LTD based on my 2, yes 2, hospitalizations in July. I feel much more relaxed now. When you go on LTD, my company hires Allsup to appy for SSD for you, so I won't have to worry about that. I love your avatar Diamond, its my favorite van Gogh!
 
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