where to begin?

[luciab]

I mentioned that I've been approved for long-term disability from the UNC job. One of the things I have to do to get that is apply for Social Security benefits, and this is making me more anxious than I dreamed possible. The irony is that I used to love filling out forms.... all those neat little boxes, just check here and here and there and voila! Done! Except I no longer fit neatly into anybody's boxes. And the questions, lord the questions. Who knew I would ever again need to know my ex-husbands' social security numbers? Or birthdays? (I'm doing well to remember my daughter's, and I like her!) Never mind what day we got married... I haven't got the faintest idea in the world. Hell, I'm not even sure of the month, and I had to count on my fingers to get the year. And who knows what day we got divorced? Geez. At least I know where I got married and divorced. At the end of the form there was a box for remarks and I wrote "Dates of birth, marriage, divorce and death of previous spouses are estimates." Because I really don't want to wind up in federal prison for lying on an application for benefits. Yikes. I'll bet I couldn't even paint all the time, and how awful is that?

Then I got to the REAL questions, and some of these have me totally stumped. Okay, the one about "Do your illnesses cause you pain or other symptoms?" is easy enough, but "When did your illness, injuries, or conditions first bother you?" Good lord, I've had migraines for as long as I can remember, I just didn't know what they were for years. I had planned to fill out this form online, but you only have 25 minutes to do each page. After the first questions that stumped me, I printed out the form so at least I can get the answers ahead of time. Like the one that says "Have you ever had any medical tests for illnesses, injuries, or conditions?" Say what? ANY medical tests? Oh, this is going to be fun.

And the questions about "are you going to work within the next year?" Well, I don't really know. I hope so.... I have to apply for this, and I know nobody is ever approved the first time, even if blind, deaf and halt, and I don't even want to apply for it because it's for if you completely can't work at all, and nobody has ever said I coudn't work at all, including me, so I don't want to be misleading because that is federal, baby, and as noted above, I don't want to do federal time.... oh, this is SO not my idea of a good time. I'm having an anxiety attack just trying to figure all this out. And of course I'm hitting the road to KY tomorrow, and will be gone for 10 days, so I hate to keep putting this off. Except I don't really have any other choice.

And on that cheery note, maybe I'll go pack or something.

Comments

[harleenquinzell.livejournal.com]

You're not being misleading. You're doing the best you can. Keep in mind that some of the people filling these forms out are getting their answers from the little purple monkeys flying around their head.

They're not going to come to your house and black bag you for getting married in July and saying February. Hell inconsistency might prove your mental incoherency due to migraines. :>

Just put a sad little note down at the bottom reading, "I did the best I could.. if any of these aren't quite right, please don't tell my mother. She'd be so disappointed."

*hugs* No anxiety attacks. Cholesterol, remember? You are not allowed to panic. You may quietly niggle. That's about it I'm afraid.

See Rules for Apprentice Nagging, section 3, subclause c. It states that Jenny and I, if we feel that you are in violation of excessive stress-ball disorder are allowed to come over and feed you chocolate until you gain three pounds and have ceased worrying about anything else but your wayward apprentici.