In my last job, I met two people that told me that it is hell trying to apply for disability benefits. “Everyone, regardless of disability, gets denied on the first go around.” For one of my former colleagues whose wife has multiple sclerosis, has been battling the social security office for 5 years and counting. They just keep denying her saying that she does not have multiple sclerosis.

When I applied for disability benefits, I was in a homeless shelter and with a state-paid mental health management system, after having been in the hospital for a month. I couldn’t work to save my life, obviously, and I had no income or reserves from anywhere. 5 months after applying, the first try, I got approved. There were people in the same situation as me who had applied twice and sought appeals, with lawyers, and were still waiting. I don’t know how I got it; maybe the teenage history of hospitalization or the unemployment insurance after losing work from depression prior to my homelessness had something to do with it. Maybe they flip a coin, who knows.