The Easy Life of Disability

Not long ago, I wrote a piece about a group on Facebook angry about the disabled who had handicapped parking permits.  I am happy to announce that they are no longer on Facebook.  I don't know if this is because Facebook removed them, or they removed themselves, but I'm glad they are gone no matter the reason.  One of the things many of them said kept coming back to me, however.  They were talking about how easy it must be to live on disability.  Are they crazy?  Easy?  I think not!

First of all, getting on Social Security disability in the first place is a nightmare.  For most people, they are told that there is nothing wrong with them, or they aren't disabled enough, to qualify.  You are put through a psychological torture chamber, and trying to just stay the cause is a nightmare.  The amount of stress that you go through is more than you can imagine.  Most people end up having to hire an attorney, just to get access to money that they have already paid into the system.  You would think we were trying to take away the decision maker's personal pay check.

You are made to feel that you are making everything up, and sometimes, you even start to think that you have no hope left.  We do not want to sit on our butts, eating bon bons.  I have actually heard of being on disability described in this manner!  We are talked about like we are lazy ne'er do wells, who simply don't want to work anymore, and we think getting disability is taking the easy way out!  Yeah right!  I loved my job, and I would do anything to be able to continue working.  Sitting home on your butt all the time, as they describe it, is demoralizing.  We feel that we are worthless, useless, and unproductive.  People do assume that we are lazy and that we are living off the system.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  I have never heard one person say, "Boy, am I lucky to be in pain 24 hours a day so that I can get that fat disability check every month!".  Nothing can be further from the truth.

When you are no longer able to work, the financial hit that your family takes is devastating.  I was the sole support for my family once my husband was no longer able to work.  The stress that I went through was unimaginable.  I was always afraid that we wouldn't be able to make it from one pay check to the next.  And when I was no longer able to work, we were living on Dale's disability check.  When you have a family of five, $850 just doesn't buy what it used to!  Yeah, we were really living the high life!  Once my disability came through, things got easier, but not that much.

The trade off of pain 24 hours a day for what we make on disability just isn't worth it.  Receiving my disability didn't suddenly make me well.  You won't see secret tapes of me lifting weights, or Dale walking around doing yard work.  A gallon of milk is about the heaviest thing I can comfortably lift.  Dale is still in a wheelchair and will be for the rest of his life.  There is always more month than money, and when the younger boys turn 18, our monthly income will drop by almost $1000.  Being declared disabled did not solve any of our problems.

I would give anything not to need my disability, and so would just about everyone I know who is on disability.  We would far rather be going to work everyday.  We would rather be able to go to the store and park half way down the parking lot and walk.  We would rather feel muscle soreness because we went to the gym and started working out.  We would rather be able to take our children to an amusement park, than pray that an electric scooter is available when we go to Walmart.  Trust me, the easy life of disability just isn't all it's cracked up to be!