Getting that red marker ready

So, fuck 2022 and I'm going to go ahead and say fuck 2023 while I have the energy.

The past year has been a fucking nightmare just trying to survive. Most of the details are in other posts, but the long and short of it is that I have long suffered severe depression and anxiety and, since December 2020, I have been living with long COVID symptoms.

While the journey is far from over, my doctors and I have determined that there is something unknown wrong with my heart and a partially collapsed lung. I have more appointments scheduled for this month to get more details.

Conveniently, I had a CT of my abdomen in 2019 as part of a cancer scare which did not show any lung collapse, so we can infer that the collapsed lung is likely caused by COVID.

Inconveniently, I am unable to work and have been attempting to get SSDI, but the system is rigged against us. No hyperbole, whatsoever. SSA agreed I was impaired, but denied me based on occupational data. Well, recently I learned that SSA uses a document called the Dictionary of Occupational Titles to determine if there is a job one might be able to do. Well, that document is from 1977 and hasn't been updated since 1991. It still lists "nut sorter", "dowel inspector", and "egg processor" as valid jobs in the US. These jobs haven't been done by human hands in decades.

I am lucky enough to have SNAP benefits to pay for food, Medicaid for the doctors, and an arrangement with my mother to keep a roof over my family's heads, but I've pawned everything of value I own to pay the bills. Scraping the bottom of the barrel each month just to find enough to keep my storage unit and my cell phone on is exhausting.

What I would give for a social safety net that has the strength to catch someone. Somewhere along the line we forgot the New Deal and we need to fucking remember.

Sources:

Social Security denies disability benefits based on list with jobs from 1977
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/12/27/social-security-job-titles-disabled-applicants-obsolete/

Thank you for letting me vent into the void. For the privilege, please have a Spooky tax...and what appears to be my partner's disembodied arm.