I am in Canada so I am not sure if things are the same here as in the U.S. A psychologist I was seeing encouraged me to stop working after 25 years at the same company. She said I was torturing myself by continuing to put myself through the challenges my health presented in relation to the job I was doing. She told me they had long-term disability benefits for people like me and that was why I was paying into it. She said she would be there to support me 100% along the way. Even with her support I knew I had a real uphill battle. I got a lawyer right away and I believe without him I would not have been successful in getting the company paid long term disability and the government disability pension. The Insurance company was very adversarial. However, when I was accepted into the government disability plan, which is a higher standard than the company disability insurance, the disability insurance company backed off. The lawyer was able to counter everything the insurance company tried to do to defeat me. It cost me about 6-7 thousand dollars for the lawyer and it was the best money I ever spent. I had to stop working so I knew I needed all the help I could get in order to continue providing for myself and my family. It was a scarey process to go through because without my job I would have no money. I really needed the disability payments because I really could not work any longer. I am so grateful that everything worked out in the end. It is only by not working and being able to take care of my health that I have been able to live a life. Even though I do not work I continue to struggle a lot at times. Just because you stop working the illness doesn't stop working. I am able to avoid some of the truly horrendous situations I had to struggle through in my job. Life can still be incredibly challenging but I can at least do the best I can for myself and work on improving my situation every day.

I have a lawyer n she's great. I don't know that I'll win but she'll do her best. But I do believe without a lawyer u don't stand a chance. My lawyer only gets paided if I win n get back paided. I think it would be worth talking to someone

Hi. I was in the legal field for about 20 years. Many of the social security lawyers I knew were lazy. Alot had a mindset ....Judgemental.....like some medical people.
Not legal advice but a thorough doctor with good notes is key. IDK your personality or circumstances so maybe you can do it yourself, or maybe a lawyer is best.

Recommendations are key from many people. (Look online too). If they aren't personable, ignore your calls, don't call you back or answer your emails, they're a Crappy lawyer. During your appt if they are rushed, taking calls, not truly interestested, treating you like a number, its a red flag. Sadly this was 65% of ones I knew. But the 35% renewed my faith on humanity and are awesome people who I really respected for not feeling entitled to act like that. Thinking back, it seems like the big city lawyers were in the better category. Hmmmm, odd. They have to have faith on your and your story. Only you can answer that question.....

Thank you. I figured they would be honest and tell me if I have a case or not because they only get paid if I win.

You definitely want a disability lawyer otherwise they will stall you forever even with a lawyer it took me almost 2 years to get my disability the lawyers fight hard for you because it doesn't matter how long it takes their only allowed to charge you $6,000 to get your disability so they really work hard to get it done quickly and they know all the ins and outs