Sorry, I have a mood disorder, so I quit!
Now where's my disability check?
America is the greatest country in the world. We can support our poor and sick with ease, and millions of less-fortunate people rely on the government to meet their daily needs in the form of Social Security payments. This system works so well, that hundreds of thousands of new beneficiaries have flocked to it since 2009. Now, the system is handling over 1.3 million claims just for mood disorders, which are sharply rising.
Since when does feeling sad entitle one to government assistance?
PrintMood disorder recipients account for millions of dollars in paid benefits each year.
Strangely, mood disorders are not distributed proportionately among the 50 states and other US territories in a way that can be readily explained. For example, one-third of Puerto Ricans on disability are paid for having mood disorders. However, in American Samoa, only 3.1 percent needed benefits for the same issue.
The states also had equally odd distributions. Massachusetts is paying 22.2 percent of its recipients for mood disorders while Louisiana paid 9.7 percent, a near-tie with Montana who paid only 9.8 percent of its recipients for mood disorders.
There is also a difference between the sexes. More than 11 percent of men on disability are collecting the money for mood disorders while nearly 20 percent of women are doing the same.
Mood disorders are defined by the Social Security Administration as "anxiety-related" and "affective." Victims must show at least four of the following symptoms:
- Severe depression
- Loss of interest in all activities
- Appetite disturbance
- Sleep disturbance
- Psycho-motor agitation or retardation
- Decreased energy
- Difficulty concentrating or thinking
- Thoughts of suicide
- Hallucinations
- Delusions
- Paranoid thinking
There are two immediate questions spawned by this report. First, what is causing all these mood disorders? And second, why do some places have more mood disorders than others? Why would Puerto Rico, a tourist destination with beautiful sandy beaches, and warm weather have nearly a third of its disabled residents unable to work because of their mood while a mere 3 percent of Samoans also living in a tourist destination with beautiful sandy beaches and warm weather, don't suffer the same?
Certainly, there are a number of individuals with genuine mood disorders in every population, including Puerto Rico. The seriousness of their condition should not be trivialized, because these people endure significant daily struggles as they attempt to cope with the stress of daily survival. For them, every day is a battle.
However, would it be fair to suggest that this is not the situation for all those receiving this aid? What is Louisiana doing right that Massachusetts is not?
If Americans want Social Security to remain viable long into the 21st century, they would do well to answer that question, and quickly.
© 2012, Distributed by NEWS CONSORTIUM.
- - -
Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.
Keywords: mood disorders, disability, health, depression, fleecing
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I've been treated for depression and anxiety for about 12 years now. Thus far, I've been able to hold down a job and have always been able to work, only by the Grace of God. I have no intention of going on disability and grossing $80,000 dollars less per year just so I can get a free handout. I will continue to work as long as I am able and pay taxes to help someone much less fortunate than myself. This article makes no sense at all. When the socialists take over a country, the first thing they cut is help for the mentally ill. These are the people who need the help more than anybody. My now deceased sister was bipolar. Her mental illness manifested itself when she was around 20 yrs old. She was an overachiever in college when she had to drop out of school and go on disability. The fact that she needed disability was a humiliating experience for her. It probably did more to make her feel worse than anything else. She much rather would have preferred to hold down a good paying job than to be dependent on the state and her family. Disability is NOT a living wage. I can't think of anybody who would want to fake a mental illness and endure all the humiliation and all the negative stereotypes for less than $12,000.00 a year.
Kiki, Your tops with me! Thank you for taking the time to write all your information. Your post was superb! Let Christ's Light Shine! Happy Labor Day!
I'm still trying to figure out what a nice climate and having a debilitating mental disease have to do with each other.
@Kiki:
Thank you for taking the time to address this so eloquently. I happen to concur.
There are a lot of valid reasons why there is a rise in the numbers of those with brain disorders, or, as the author of the article above puts it, "mood disorder".
Aside from the increased pollution which is inevitable due to increase in technology, there are more chemicals than ever that are being discarded into the environment. Like it or not, over time, these things have ramifications. Far too long have we abided the notion that 'mental illness' is a rarity, or plainly the fabrication of the lazy and unresourceful. Stigma (not to be mistaken for 'stigmata' heheh) that surrounds brain disorder is nothing short of wicked.
When one is born or develops a heart condition, or if one breaks an arm (even because of carelessness or stupidity), these evoke sympathy and empathy. Faulty heart valve? How awful!
Faulty brain? You must have done something very wrong, or are lying when you say something is wrong.
The "mood disorder" is a bad nomenclature. The Brain is an organ. Not only that, it is a Vital Organ. Remove it, and you will see quickly that, even if your ticker is in A-One shape, without the brain, it ain't gonna work.
The Church, in my opinion, and all of the faithful, of every religion, has grossly neglected these who suffer from very real disorders of this vital organ. The good news is, we as a civilization are beginning to slowly take notice. Alzheimer's Disease is radically being studied in an effort to treat and cure this disease. Guess what? Alzheimer's is a Brain Disorder. That's right! But nobody in their right minds (no pun intended) would suggest that these victims are faking it, or are lazy. Not nowadays, anyway.
Again, Kiki, thank you. And shame on all of us who have made more than our fare share of quip judgements about those whose organs fail them. We need a change of heart about how we deal with those who have faulty brains.
Kiki makes some excellent points. I don't think the solution is an easy one. Still, this makes me think of the increasing number of people I see at the store who are using a scooter to get around because they are morbidly obese. When I was a child (in the 70's), obese children were maybe 1% of the kids in schools. Go to any school yard now and the percentage is much higher. Consumption of simple sugars and inactivity are both factors with strong correlations to obesity. These factors also have strong correlations to mood disorders. Furthermore, diagnosis of mood disorders is likely fueled by those commercials that are so prominent on tv, encouraging people who are depressed to ask their doctors about the drugs they advertise.
Diagnosis of mood disorders is certainly on the rise in this country and I do think SSI benefits are too easy to come by. (It normally takes more than two rounds to get the claims accepted, but there are lawyers who specialize in pushing these claims through. All it really takes is persistence. Many people on SSI, pushed by family members, use the benefits to live in a group home or live with someone else. In that case it's supplemental income.) Part of the mood disorder phenomenon is lifestyle and part of the problem is influence of the pharmaceutical industry. Many people (including myself) can have their "mood disorder" symptoms alleviated with congnitive therapy. We need to look at the whole picture and heal who can be healed and then evaluate medicating the rest.
Subsidiarity is an important principle.
I don't agree with this view of those on Social Security Disability for Mental illness. We could go back to the days of all those State Hospitals where the Mentaly ill were forced to live That will take thousands upon thousands of State employees who of course will unionize. The cost of taking care of each patient will cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each year (mainly for employee wages, vacations holiday pay, retirement ect...). With todays medical advancements for the mentaly ill, it was found they could live in society without having to live in State Hospitals.
Kiki makes some great points and the article, though not bad, is quite different from the sensational headline and front matter. It would be interesting to find out why some areas have such high incidences. And I wonder if it has anythign to do with the job market in general -- people with mood disorders who had jobs have perhaps gotten laid off and now really can't find work, for instance. The medications and treatments are expensive, and they would be pre-existing conditions. How would they possibly pay through COBRA and would a new company take them on? These claims MAY (I have no clue, just wondering) be more due to things like that than to people lining up to get disability just because they can. I have a family member with a chronic mood disorder and I don't know what this person would do without insurance. Sign up for disability immediately, I suppose, because without your medication adn treatment you sure can't function at a job or anywhere else.
Thank you, Kiki! You said pretty much what I was thinking when I read this snarky article that I more expect to see in my some political email forward, than one that is based on religion. I'm actually quite offended, and if I continue to see things like this, I will unsub.
It's clear by this article's headline that the author feels that collecting SS disability is a copeout and most likely a fraud. Though there will always be individual's that try to scam the system, I think this article spins a false picture and perpetuates stereotypes. Neither of which are productive. The caption under the article's picture ask "Since when does feeling sad entitle one to government assistance?" Being sad does not entitle one to government assistance, though having a medically diognosed mental disability (which is a mood disorder) does. The author makes it sound as if anyone can just dial up Social Security Adminstration and get disability, this is far from the truth. Claims can take up to 2 years, Applicants must endure a cumbersome process in which government claims examiners, administrative law judges, doctors, social workers, and sometimes federal courts weigh whether they meet the program's standard of having a disability that prevents them from performing "substantial" work. The article carries a tone that suggest if you are collecting disability for a mental disability (mood disorder) you are most likely freeloading. Social Security disability payments average about $1,100 a month, that's about $13,200 of annual income. You may not work or supplement your income while on disability. The poverty level for 2012 was set at $23,050. The average American household must earn $37,105 a year to afford the national average two-bedroom fair-market rent of $928 a month. This doesn't seem like a win win situation for disability receipents, now does it? the author chooses to compare disability numbers from Puerto Rico and American Somoa, but fails to realize that a multitude of factors contribute to these numbers. For instance, Puerto Rico's unemployment rate is 16.5 percent, the highest of all U.S. jurisdictions. American Samoa has a traditional Polynesian economy in which more than 90% of the land is communally owned, so government, unemployment, healthcare, cultural practices, are all factors that may or may not have an impact on the disablity numbers. Don't write an article that just implies people are "frauds". The real question should be If Americans want Social Security to remain viable long into the 21st century, why have we neglected our mentally disabled, our homeless, our impoverished?