If I had a dollar for every time I've heard this tripe...
Salty because sitting here trying to focus on disability paperwork for a disability continuing review thing to try to convince a judge I should be allowed to keep the benefits that allow me to just barely survive month to month with the support of others.
The anxiety that comes with knowing your survival depends on dotting all the I's and crossing all the T's and doing everything right to convince a person who has never met you and never had to live with the challenges disabled people face daily that you are 'actually disabled' and not just 'faking for benefits' is something that can probably only be fully appreciated by people who have to endure it. And continue enduring as long as the system keeps demanding more and convincing because it's in a rush to get you off benefits.
It is never easy to obtain or keep disability benefits. It is always a difficult and dehumanizing process predicated on assuming disabled people are 'lying' about their conditions from the get go. And then making us fight to convince the system otherwise, when we're already struggling day to day.
The system is so fucked. Even for those of us with 'mild' disabilities or diseases. My own disability, and it is considered one by the federal government, doesn't count. Not until it eats my kidneys to the point of dialysis, or takes my eyes. Or takes a limb. Or gives me a debilitating stroke. It doesn't matter that there are days where I can barely function, days when it would be healthier for me to just rest. Days when my nerves fight back against my brain. A society predicated on a persons value being only measured in their capacity to be 'productive' economically is terrible.
Sometimes it feels the only respite from it will be at the end.