Before you choose disability as the only route to get good solid trauma therapy, please do your homework and make sure that it is a possible route to quality trauma therapy in your area.
I went on to disability myself with the same goal. I have never had any decent therapy paid for by medicare or medicaid in my state. They have done a lot to pay for medical care, but the mental health care options in my state for people with medicare and medicaid are crap. They basically only offer general inpatient services or medications to people with PTSD.
Chances are, at your age, you will likely only get SSI, not SSDI. Someone usually has to pay into the system for many years in order to get SSDI. (There are a few rare exceptions to this.)
In order to get Medicare, you have to have SSDI.
On SSI, the options for Medicaid coverage vary from state to state. 18 states do not give Medicaid to people on SSI unless they have other qualifying circumstances.
In a substantial number of states, Medicaid does not come with automatic mental health care coverage, or any mental health coverage at all.
One of the ways to find out if Medicaid will even cover therapy is to call around and see if there are any good trauma therapists in your area who take Medicaid and talk to a disability lawyer.
The fact that you are working now, might prevent a successful disability claim. In order to get disability, you have to be able to prove that you are fully unable to engage in substantial gainful activity. The monthly SGA amount for 2015 is $1090 a month. i.e. No matter how hellish work is, or how crappy it is making you feel, if you make over $1090 a month, you can't get disability. Period.
You would have to no longer make the SGA amount starting the date you apply for disability (if not earlier) and not work at or above that amount until you are approved. You will need to be prepared for your disability case to take anywhere from 6 months to 2 years.
I have no doubt that work is becoming increasingly difficult without real proper treatment. I don't mean to throw out any of these cautions to discourage you, but because I don't want you to go down the same road I did and learn the hard way that you may still have to end up seeking sliding scale or out of pocket treatment even on disability. The amount of SSI awarded is currently $733 per month.
You may live in a state with a much better options and coverage than where I live. Also, if you make less than around $14,000 per year, you may qualify for Medicaid already or other Affordable Care Options to get private insurance.
When I applied for disability, I wasn't working and I was awarded it pretty quickly. I did get Medicare because I had paid into the system for more than a decade, and even Medicare didn't afford me many options for Trauma therapy. However, I have recently been able to trade in my medicare and medicaid for Blue Cross coverage through the Health Care exchange, and now for the first time, after 7 years on disability, I have insurance that is going to pay for outpatient trauma therapy. I was about to move to another state!
Do your homework and talk to a disability attorney. I would also suggest talking to your county social services about options you may qualify for right now even without disability. It also might be worthwhile connecting with your local vocational rehabilitation.
In the meantime, while you think through and gather more info about applying for disability and options for treatment, try to keep notes on how your symptoms affect you. You will likely need to have a doctor, at least a primary care doctor, who can validate your inability to work, and giving that doctor the notes of how your symptoms affect you, as well as passing it on to the disability attorney, will likely help significantly.
