Really Angry About Having To Divulge So Much Detail To Claim Disability

[Deleted member 12723]

WTG for you Shellbell. I am so glad you have the willingness to fight this to the end. I am rooting and cheering you on from the sidelines. I hope it is all worth it for you and you get accepted. Big hugs.

 

[Springer80]

am I just over-reacting?

No your not Shellbell, it's a cruel and deliberately blindsided issue. I'm sorry you had to endure it. Sending you support and comfort. :hug:

 

[Shellbell]

Thanks dear Gizmo, I really appreciate your support :hug:

Thanks Springer80, I appreciate your comfort and support :hug:

 

[HëllaBubz]

Hey Shellbell, I got given a concession card until 2013 too, but every report I've gotten back from the JCA has been inaccurate, but I can't get through to anyone, and my psych's report has been a LONG time coming.
Good luck, get it for both of us if you can!
If going back to work fails, then I'll hound the disability payment until they want to pay me, not the other way around!

xx

 

[Shellbell]

Well if I am successful in getting it Bubz, I'll let you know how ;)

 

[Abstract]

It may also account for another reason why I avoided it all for the next 20 years, never speaking about it, never dealing with it, being in denial, minimising it. And now I having to face it all, it's all very raw and having to detail it to Centrelink feels unbearable..

Oh my goodness Shellbell. :( I am so sorry. It sounds unbearable.

Wonderful news that you have been approved for now.

 

[Shellbell]

Thanks Abstract, I am in a bad way now dealing with it all after 20 years. My trauma therapy is on hold now as I can't cope with the abuse and stuff related to my parents (was in a lot of denial about that) and I'm back in safety and stabilisation. On the medication merry go round as well.

My trauma therapist goes away for a month in 5 weeks time (dreading that), so we won't be doing any further trauma therapy until she's back in middle of January. So, I will have been in therapy over 6 months by then and got no where near any of the most severe trauma's.

And my medical reports to Centrelink have indicated that my situation will worsen as therapy continues. Which makes sense, but I'm barely coping now.

I haven't been approved for disability in the short term, so I'm still claiming parenting payment. But they have deemed me fully incapacitated for work, just not for the 2 years required for disability. They are also not taking into account I haven't been able to work for the last 11 months due to PTSD and Depression, so I've asked them to take that into account also.

 

[Springer80]

There's a book by Jeanette Winterson called 'Why be happy when you could be normal?' about the trauma of going through the process of finding out about adoption and how her identity was shaped by it. She had help with the administrative ordeal due to her being an award winning writer and her partner was a therapist, also it didn't have a bearing on her income. But she makes the point about how maladaptive and injurious the process is to already fragile individuals.

 

[Shellbell]

I think all of these injuring processes like finding out you are adopted, court proceedings, Centrelink and disability stuff and having to fight for it and going through this process iare all very damaging to all of us who are already very damaged and fragile.

I've never seen my birth father (I was the result of an affair my mother had with a married man) and my step father (and mother) are also abusers. Apparently, my birth father's neglect, abandonment etc all play into the 3 decades of abuse I had. I tried to make contact with him in my 20's and he refused to see me.

My T keeps asking me how this disability process is affecting me and she knows it's damaging, but I have no choice as we need the money to continue paying for my long term therapy.

Springer80, that book sounds really interesting, thank you for recommending that, I'll see if I can get a copy.

 

[Springer80]

I do really empathize with you, I tried to prosecute my abuser which was a blur. I don't think traumatized people should go through police investigations and CPS reviews without professional assistance. I can't hand on heart say I did my self justice in the process. I was undoubtedly dissociated through a great deal of it. I also am off work at the mo....have been for 9 months and am the financial implications are looming. I haven't got the energy to do all the research, inquiries etc I need too. It probably comes across as nihilism to an outsider but my body has placed an embargo on anything with the potential to cause me any further distress. Deadlines are approaching!!!

The book is good, I don't want to spoil it but....it turned out the horrible woman who adopted her had been on 'the list' for a while and had gone through the process initially for a boy. This didn't happen and she was raised always being aware she should have been a boy and that she was a disappointment. She wonders if this had any affect on her sexuality.

I'm so sorry the disability process is what it is...could your therapist reply on your behalf? Or take the heat out of it any way practically?

Take it easy....you must feel like you've been punched all over.

 

[Shellbell]

I think the damage done as very young children and growing up with abusive parents is some of the most damaging of all the abuse I had.

Childhood abuse with no-one at all on your side, no-one caring at all, damages you at such a core level and affects the rest of your life. My parents set me up for a life time of abuse, allowing me to be abused by my step fathers 'friends' and they are responsible for all the deeply entrenched negative views I have of myself, which ultimately lead to all the other abuse, further reinforcing that all I ever deserved and was worthy of -was to be abused, hurt, rejected and in pain. Rejection and abuse from parents can be profoundly core level damaging.

My mental health doc wants to talk with the Centrelink people, so I know she will advocate on my behalf. My therapist is not a doc, or a psychiatrist, so they will not consider her views adequate.

I do feel like a punchbag, bruised, battered, exhausted and broken.......again.

 

[AS1975]

One thing that really sucks is that whether they know it or not, the low-level goons at Centerlink are taking advantage of people's unwillingness to relive trauma and the limited functional communication which seems to be a feature of this illness. One really has to wonder if the procedures aren't actually written by people in order to take advantage of these characteristics. That said, I believe there may be ways and means around this approach.

One thing which I believe is underutilized in this Country is the Social Worker, not the one that holds your hand, gives you tea and biscuits and commiserates, because in my opinion they are next to useless. There is another form of social worker, the advocate, which has been underrepresented in this Country. Someone who can, working on a referral from a doctor (with a Medicare Provider Number), who can take up the fight on the behalf of people who are fighting the system. It is a full-time job and beyond the capacity of many, requiring communication skills and a dispassionate approach that are unavailable to many, especially when fighting for themselves.

I'm just wondering how to develop the idea, one major problem is that there are a LOT of people in regional Australia who would be disadvantaged by not being in the same geographical area as professionals of this type. Surely a referral could be made to someone outside the geographical area, then contact by telephone and online would suffice... Thinking now:devilish: