I'm sure this subject has been discussed to death, for that I can only apologise.
For a couple of years now, doing a little research on my own, I think that I may have what a Work Psychologist I saw 01/2012 called a neuro diverse condition. I thought it might be Aspergers, it might be ADD possibly Dyspraxia. I'm by no means an expert nor a diagonistician. I could be completely wrong and, as i suspect my GP thinks (but doesn't say), lazy!
When I first saw the Work Psychologist (a dwp person, i don't know much about the specific role as I'd never heard of them before) I was on JSA. Since then I started on the Work Programme which I am still on. She claimed she could test for Aspergers but relented to saying she could do some kind of test to see if I might have ADD. I realise that makes no sense, but it involved answering a load of puzzles like remembering number sequences backwards and spotting patterns and stuff. From what I could understand she said it was highly likely. I have yet to get an official diagnosis as such facilities are not local to me and I find travelling around cities rather scary. There is now a chance the local CMHT might do one.
However the Work Programme treated me badly. They ignored the information regarding my mental health (even though no formal diagnosis) and refused to accept even the possibility of such problems - of any kind. I was told that without a support worker present they wouldn't countenance any such possibility. I made a complaint and have since changed advisers. Though the replacement is better they still admit they can't do anything. Basically the WP is rubbish. I was told that the main problem was because I was on JSA and that I should claim ESA.
To cut a long and predictable story short that's what I did, six months later I have, unsurprisingly, failed the WCA. I've sent the GL24 form back to lodge an appeal. I'm not sure how that will work but I'm told that doing so reinstates my benefit until such time as they decide whether to change their mind (I doubt it, let's be honest). In the meantime I have to persuade my GP I need help.
I suppose my point in posting is just to hear what other people think. I haven't found my GP to be terribly helpful or sympathetic and the system certainly isn't. ESA should be employment support, but it seems to work on the basis that, in order to get into the WRAG (my stated goal, i don't claim to be deserving of the support group) you need to also qualify for the support group. This doesn't make much sense to me. As a result I feel guilty as if I'm swinging the lead. But on the other hand, I just can't cope with the DWP. I find life difficult and I find dealing with society at times very hard. All the stuff you've heard before no doubt.
I can't say for certain I'm an aspie/add/whatever, so I could be wrong. But just trying to get support and be taken seriously is horrendous. It's enough to make you ill even if you aren't. If anyone has any advice I'd be grateful, thanks.
[quote] it's not about the diagnosis it's about what you are and are not able to do.[/quote]
No, but with evidence you have a stronger case. I don't know your circumstances it may be that your problems were more readily perceptible or credible in some way perhaps. The WCA decides that, because you can talk and walk 'normally' and aren't climbing the walls, that you can handle work. I don't see that changing at a tribunal at all. Especially without a specialist in your condition - hence the need for a diagnosis.
From everything you've said, I'm just like you.
I got to the age of 37 without a diagnosis, because the problems I was having were not at all perceived by anyone around me - even my own family did not know what I was going through day in, day out, for my entire life.
I went through school without anyone suspecting I was anything other than 'a bit shy'.
I went to university, got a degree in my special interest, and still no one noticed anything.
I got a job, doing my special interest, and still no one noticed, well, I say that, and that's how it seemed at the time, but looking back I think perhaps some of my bosses did pick up on some of my struggles, because this is when things started to fall apart - my coping strategies started to fail, I started missing whole days of work because I was exhausted, and eventually, after moving through several jobs, none of which lasted particularly long, I ended up long-term unemployed.
And then I went back to a life of struggling along with noone seeming to notice. Noone seeming to cate.
I went to the job center. I jumped through their hoops. And no-one noticed how hard it was for me.
And so it just got worse, and it just got harder, until it all became too much, I was on the edge of breakdown and I had to do something.
I signed myself off sick, put in an application for ESA, and went to see my GP.
And then there I was back in the world of struggling along and no-one seeming to notice.
My GP dismissed me with phrases like "every one get's stress at work", "you're too eloquent to be depressed", and "there's nothing wrong with you". He refused to give me sick notes even though I explained to him that the DWP were still processing my claim and that they wouldn't pay me any money at all if I didn't send them a sick note.
He even got the practice nurse to come out and threaten to call the police when I went back into the surgery and was just sitting quietly, waiting for him to phone my parents as they had been told he would.
As I've said before, and because of all this, I had no evidence of my Asperger's going in to the WCA, I still had no evidence when I went to the tribunal, in fact we had to tell them that we didn't have evidence from my GP because he'd been so unsupportive.
But though all this I persisted, I knew something was wrong, I knew what I'd believed for most of my life - that every one must find life as hard as I do, and that they must simply have something in them that I don't have, some resilience, some ability to carry on, despite how hard everything was - I knew that had to be wrong, because nobody could be resilient to the daily torture that I was living, and then, fortunately, I got to see a student doctor who was at my GPs surgery, instead of my normal GP, and he was sympathetic, and then I heard a radio program in whch adults with Asperger's talked about it was like, and then I knew, I knew why I was different, and the student doctor agreed to refer me for diagnosis, and I was going through the, as it seemed at the time, painfully drawn out process of getting assessed by the right person, when my ESA appeal hearing date arrived.
So, no, my problems were not "more readily perceptible or credible in some way", but yes, I found, despite my reservations and believe like you do now that the people in the hearing would just the same as all the rest of them, that they, in my appeal hearing, wouldn't believe me, they'd dismiss my difficulties as being irrelevent, and that it would be a waste of time, that, actually, they listened, they too were sympathetic, they took on board what myself and my mum told them, they understood how it affected me, and they didn't dismiss me because I had no diagnostic proof.
And, as I said before, I won my appeal.
You see, your story, as I've since found out, is typical of the exact type of cases that are missed, that get refused by the DWP at the WCA stage, but, when they go to appeal, usually are succesfull.
I'm sure I wouldn't have believed it at the time I was going through it either, but I'm telling you, as someone who's been through what you're going through, and made it out to the otherside, if you get the right support, and help, which, if you have noone else, can come from the CAB, you too can get through it, you can make it to the other side, and things can get better.
Have faith, be strong, and know: you are not the first to tread this path and, sadly, you won't be the last.
Hopefully, in a few years time, you too, like me, will be here, trying to help someone else, who is in the situation you're now in, to get through it too.
[quote] it's not about the diagnosis it's about what you are and are not able to do.[/quote]
No, but with evidence you have a stronger case. I don't know your circumstances it may be that your problems were more readily perceptible or credible in some way perhaps. The WCA decides that, because you can talk and walk 'normally' and aren't climbing the walls, that you can handle work. I don't see that changing at a tribunal at all. Especially without a specialist in your condition - hence the need for a diagnosis.
From everything you've said, I'm just like you.
I got to the age of 37 without a diagnosis, because the problems I was having were not at all perceived by anyone around me - even my own family did not know what I was going through day in, day out, for my entire life.
I went through school without anyone suspecting I was anything other than 'a bit shy'.
I went to university, got a degree in my special interest, and still no one noticed anything.
I got a job, doing my special interest, and still no one noticed, well, I say that, and that's how it seemed at the time, but looking back I think perhaps some of my bosses did pick up on some of my struggles, because this is when things started to fall apart - my coping strategies started to fail, I started missing whole days of work because I was exhausted, and eventually, after moving through several jobs, none of which lasted particularly long, I ended up long-term unemployed.
And then I went back to a life of struggling along with noone seeming to notice. Noone seeming to cate.
I went to the job center. I jumped through their hoops. And no-one noticed how hard it was for me.
And so it just got worse, and it just got harder, until it all became too much, I was on the edge of breakdown and I had to do something.
I signed myself off sick, put in an application for ESA, and went to see my GP.
And then there I was back in the world of struggling along and no-one seeming to notice.
My GP dismissed me with phrases like "every one get's stress at work", "you're too eloquent to be depressed", and "there's nothing wrong with you". He refused to give me sick notes even though I explained to him that the DWP were still processing my claim and that they wouldn't pay me any money at all if I didn't send them a sick note.
He even got the practice nurse to come out and threaten to call the police when I went back into the surgery and was just sitting quietly, waiting for him to phone my parents as they had been told he would.
As I've said before, and because of all this, I had no evidence of my Asperger's going in to the WCA, I still had no evidence when I went to the tribunal, in fact we had to tell them that we didn't have evidence from my GP because he'd been so unsupportive.
But though all this I persisted, I knew something was wrong, I knew what I'd believed for most of my life - that every one must find life as hard as I do, and that they must simply have something in them that I don't have, some resilience, some ability to carry on, despite how hard everything was - I knew that had to be wrong, because nobody could be resilient to the daily torture that I was living, and then, fortunately, I got to see a student doctor who was at my GPs surgery, instead of my normal GP, and he was sympathetic, and then I heard a radio program in whch adults with Asperger's talked about it was like, and then I knew, I knew why I was different, and the student doctor agreed to refer me for diagnosis, and I was going through the, as it seemed at the time, painfully drawn out process of getting assessed by the right person, when my ESA appeal hearing date arrived.
So, no, my problems were not "more readily perceptible or credible in some way", but yes, I found, despite my reservations and believe like you do now that the people in the hearing would just the same as all the rest of them, that they, in my appeal hearing, wouldn't believe me, they'd dismiss my difficulties as being irrelevent, and that it would be a waste of time, that, actually, they listened, they too were sympathetic, they took on board what myself and my mum told them, they understood how it affected me, and they didn't dismiss me because I had no diagnostic proof.
And, as I said before, I won my appeal.
You see, your story, as I've since found out, is typical of the exact type of cases that are missed, that get refused by the DWP at the WCA stage, but, when they go to appeal, usually are succesfull.
I'm sure I wouldn't have believed it at the time I was going through it either, but I'm telling you, as someone who's been through what you're going through, and made it out to the otherside, if you get the right support, and help, which, if you have noone else, can come from the CAB, you too can get through it, you can make it to the other side, and things can get better.
Have faith, be strong, and know: you are not the first to tread this path and, sadly, you won't be the last.
Hopefully, in a few years time, you too, like me, will be here, trying to help someone else, who is in the situation you're now in, to get through it too.
