I'm a wounded ex scout sniper veteran who fought in Iraq that is pretty much confined to my bed, recliner and ground. I have a live in home care-taker and I have applied for SSDI. When I read articles like this I am so heartbroken just to think that someone with "mood" disorders fits in the same category as I. I have herniated discs in my neck and back, migraines from a TBI in a roadside explosion, I haven't slept really in over 5 years and my PTSD is really kicking my a$$. It kills me to have to rely on the government either way for "benefits" or "help". I know one day I'll be well enough to have some semblance of a real life and when I do, I will pay back EVERY DAMN PENNY, the govt. gave me!! Its bad enough I got hurt serving my country and freeing millions of oppressed Iraqi women and children but now I have to stoop to govt. aid! People who get benefits for these light issues are really an insult to those of us that really need these benefits to get better! This country is not just facing a financial crisis because of govt. sheriff of nottingham theft, but its facing a battle for its very soul!! Thank you all for your support when my friends and I came back from the war (we won btw). I'd love to hear your thoughts.
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daveca • 2 days ago • parent
I think Obama and Jack Booted Janet are trying to give away what you earned to illegal aliens, jobs, college, medical care.
You earned that aid, illegal aliens didnt. Youre not stooping, you paid for it. they didnt...
- Gill O'Teen • a day ago • parent
The gooobermint did not give you a penny. The American People did to thank you for putting your ass on the line to defend our sorry butts. It's a well deserved gift. Do not return it. If you need to do something because for some reason receiving OUR small token of appreciation makes you feel obligated, pass it forward to another disabled veteran who needs it. Whatever you do, please, please, please, do not let the corrupt bureaucrats in dea sea get their filthy fingers on it. They'll only use it to buy votes.
To paraphrase Saint Paul’s letter to the Romans (King James Version 15:33), May the God of peace be with you and all your valiant friends.
Doc • 2 days ago • parent
Thank you for your service, sir! Everyone in the US should recognize our heroes, soldiers like you who fought for our country.
Also, I just wanted to let everyone know that PTSD is currently classified as an anxiety disorder, so anyone who's writing comments making fun of "anxiety" disorders should remember that.
Kendall • 2 days ago • parentThank You for Your Service............and that is heart felt..I wish I could do more to help you.....
pete • a day ago • parent
Viper, I went nearly 40 years fighting my demons after Nam. It took a very close friend to convince me I didn't have to continue to live in my car and collecting veterans benefits wasn't welfare. There is no disgrace in veterans disability. It would be the same for any other job that left you unable to care for yourself. It is part of the contract you made with government and the American people when you offered your services to them. The blank check you wrote.
Thanks for your service, be proud, and hold your head high. America is over-compensating for the crappy way they treated Nam vets. It is up to you to accept that on our behalf and insure no returning veteran ever again lives out his life being treated as we were after Nam.
- ViperJunior • a day ago • parent
Wow! Incredible responses... This really perked me up and gave me just an inkling that there are millions in this country who were paying attention to the sacrifice many of us paid in the recent conflicts. I should have maybe been more specific in what I was trying to portray. I don't mind receiving benefits from the govt. for the numerous and compounded injuries I have from an 18 months tour in central Baghdad. I understand I "earned them". On a personal level, I guess its very hard to find yourself from being the giver, the supplier (of freedoms/sacrifice) to all of a sudden being the one in need. Its a hard transition but I'm ok with it. There are two main issues that bug the hell out of me and my friends who were over there:
1) The lack of any consideration, mention or welcome from either the media or the govt itself for what was accomplished. I now know what the all the Vietnam Veterans had to go through when they got home, only it must have been 10 times worse. I have been going through the VA system for over 4 years now (almost 4 times weekly) and I would describe my experience as nothing short of miserable, frustrating, incompetent. When ObamaCare was passed recently, I myself started tearing up just thinking of how most Americans now will have to experience what govt. run healtchare is like. The frustration that millions of us veterans have had to deal with for so long will now be shared by most Americans. I have spent countless hours in the waiting rooms looking into the faces of WWII, Korean, Vietnam and OIF/OEF veterans and every single one of them is a sad story of years of neglect :(.
2) This one is most dear to me. I have personally been injured in a conflict that to me was a humanitarian one. The women and children we helped liberate. The mad man and his terrorist minions were defeated ALL IN THE NAME OF THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION. I took my oath very seriously and every miserable day I woke up I would remind myself of the beauty of the DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE and the CONSTITUTION. That kept me going. I came back home and although I have been dealing with my many injuries, I could not believe that while I was away, my country transformed into something resembling an ideological post constitutional fantasy... I saw American boys DIE for the beauty of our heritage and I feel insulted and spat on to come home to something contrary to what we all fought for, bled for. I am now speaking out - contrary to a soldiers inner pride and not wanting to speak openly of his experiences, because this situation is and could be even worse than what Iraq was like. The last straw for me was reading how the DHS now has 1.5billion HOLLOW POINT ROUNDS in its possession. From my knowledge in history, this is the last maneuver from a tyrannical government before it makes a move for TOTAL CONTROL. I can't sleep at night anyways, just imagine the thoughts I am riddled with now! Its not just me, I hope my words speak out for EVERY soldier who sacrificed in the name of this great Country, this great IDEA OF FREEDOM.
I guess the reason I posted this here is because when I read this article it really underpins the fight for Americas soul. I gladly accept compensation for injuries incurred from wear and tear and an IED explosion. It kills me that we are considered in the same category of the people mentioned in the article. God bless all of you who feel deep in your core that the sacrifice of my friends and I the millions before me should not go unwasted! Please, I beg all of you as I cannot get out there to speak and knock on doors (although I make phone calls for AFP) to do as much as you can over the next 70 days to spread the word. There are too many of us wounded veterans who are counting on you now. Thank you so much for your incredible support and awareness.
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This is the article that prompted the veteran (Viper Junior) to respond:
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1.3 Million Got Disability for ‘Mood Disorders’—Including 33% of Beneficiaries in Puerto Rico
August 24, 2012 cnsnews.com`(CNSNews.com) - The Social Security Administration released its annual statistical report on federal disability insurance last month, revealing that at the end of 2011 there was a then-record of 8,575,544 workers collecting federal disability benefits and among them were 1,304,851 doing so because they suffered from “mood disorders.”The incidence of “mood disorders” among disability beneficiaries was not proportionately distributed among the states and territories, according to the official SSA statistics. Some locations had much higher percentages of disability beneficiaries diagnosed with mood disorders than other locations.
In American Samoa, for example, only 3.1 percent of the workers collecting federal disability benefits had been diagnosed with a “mood disorder.” In Puerto Rico, by contrast, 33.3 percent of disability beneficiaries had a mood disorder.
Massachusetts led the 50 states for disabling mood disorders. In that state, 22.8 percent of disability beneficiaries had been diagnosed with a mood disorder. New Hampshire was second with 22.2 percent, and Rhode Island was third with 20.7 percent.
Among the states, North Dakota--with 9.2 percent--had the lowest percentage of disability beneficiaries diagnosed with a mood disorder. Louisiana was second from the bottom with 9.7 percent, and Montana was third from the bottom with 9.8 percent.
In each month since December 2011, SSA has reported, the overall number of Americans collecting disability has continued to rise. In August, according to SSA, a record 8,767,941 American workers collected disability. Also, in addition to the 8,767,941 workers collecting disability payments, there were 1,853,651 eligible children of disabled workers collecting additional benefits and 164,651 eligible spouses of disabled workers collecting benefits—bringing the total number of disability beneficiaries in August to 10,786,510.
Each year, SSA publishes a detailed statistical account of the people who received disability benefits in December of the previous year. This account includes a statistical breakdown of the “diagnoses” that qualified workers to take disability.
Through 2009, this statistical report included a general category called “mental disorders” that was disaggregated into only two sub-categories “retardation” and “other.” In December 2009, according to the report for that year, there were 7,788,013 workers collecting disability. Of these, 358,737 were categorized as being disabled by “retardation” and another 2,220,390 were categorized as having an unspecified “other” mental disability.
That “other” mental disability category was the single largest category of disabled workers in the 2009 report. It accounted for 28.5 percent of all American workers taking disability payments from the federal government in December of that year. The next largest category was problems with the “musculoskeletal system and connective tissues.” In December 2009, there were 2,146,952 American workers collecting federal disability insurance for disabilities in this category. That equaled 27.6 percent of all workers taking disability.
With the 2010 statistical report on disability insurance, SSA started breaking out the number of workers collecting disability into a wider variety of specific “mental disorders.”
“Beginning with this 2010 edition,” said a note in the report, “tables and charts showing data by diagnostic group provide detail for mental disorders in these categories: autistic disorders, developmental disorders, childhood and adolescent disorders not elsewhere classified, intellectual disability, mood disorders, organic mental disorders, schizophrenic and other psychotic disorders, and all other mental disorders.”
Among the various mental disorders that caused people to go on disability, the 2010 report revealed, the most populated category was called “mood disorders.” In December 2010, according to the report, there were 8,203,951 American workers collecting disability and 1,257,636 were doing so for a “mood disorder.” That equaled 15.3 percent of all workers collecting disability.
In December 2011, according to the 2011 report released last month, 8,575,544 American workers were collecting federal disability insurance benefits. Of these, 1,304,851 were doing so because of a mood disorder—up from the 1,257,636 who had been collecting disability because of a mood disorder the year before.
In December 2011, 15.2 percent of all workers collecting disability nationwide were collecting because of a mood disorder--and when their eligible children and spouses were included, the percentage of disability beneficiaries collecting because of a worker who had been diagnosed with a mood disorder was 14.2 percent.
That made “mood disorder” the diagnostic cause for the second largest category of disability beneficiaries. The largest single cause was problems related to a worker’s “musculoskeletal system and connective tissue.” In December 2011, there were 2,488,374 million American workers collecting disability for this kind of problem—equaling 29.0 percent of all disability beneficiaries.
According to the SSA report, 11.2 percent of men collecting disability were doing so for a mood disorder and 19.7 percent of the women collecting disability were doing so for a mood disorder.
The Social Security Administration website describes how a worker qualifies for disability because of a mood disorder—which it divides into “affective” and an “anxiety-related” disorders.
For example, one way a potential disability beneficiary can qualify with a mood disorder includes presenting medical documentation of “persistence, either continuous of intermittent, of at least four of the following symptoms: Anhedonia or pervasive loss of interest in almost all activities; or Appetite disturbance with change in weight; or Sleep disturbance; or Psychomotor agitation or retardation; or Decreased energy; or Feelings of guilt or worthlessness; or Difficulty concentrating or thinking; or Thoughts of suicide; or Hallucinations, delusions, or paranoid thinking.”
To see SSA’s full explanation of how a person qualifies for disability benefits with a mental disorder click here.
``The Social Security fund has been depleting for years as more and more "fakers" find ways to scam free money from the saving program originally designed for retirees. It's OUR MONEY they are stealing!MOOD DISORDERS???That's a USA FDR SS BS. . . . . . bull shit!
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