DLA, ESA and agoraphobia/depression advice please!

stressedofdevon

Hi, does anyone have experience of claiming DLA and ESA (means tested) while suffering from depression and anxiety, causing agoraphobia type condition?

I feel like giving up already they are having me jump through so many hoops and using jargon. I'm no dim wit - worked for DWP for 14 years but stopped when I had kids, but it has all changed and I am lost and scared.

I need to claim as I lost a child (long sad story), suffered domestic violence and now find myself a lone parent to a 14 year old. I do not leave the house unless to get in car to pick her up from school in nearby town (my car feels safe as long as I am locked in). I don't leave the lounge in all honesty as going upstairs reminds me of the child I lost. My car, garden, and windows are all a mess as I won't go outside to deal with them I have gotten so bad.

I am under the care of the hospital with weekly counselling but don't have any other support or indeed family or friends. There is talk on here about attending a medical but I am terrified because if I go and get upset I will have to get myself back home mid panic attack. I only have my daughter to help me and of course she is at school during the day.

I am also at a loss as to how to claim the DLA - it doesn't seem geared up for mental health issues. Any advice please?

I know its not exactly moneysaving, but can anyone recommend any online support/forums. I feel so alone and am struggling to get through the days at the moment.

Thanks in advance.

Indie_Kid

The name of your condition is irrelevant. CAB will be able to help you out with your forms.

Molly41

Hi,
I have recently run the gauntlet of the benefit system. I think its important to realise that that you read only the bad stories on this type of forum and many people claim and it gets dealt with fairly and reasonably. I would suggest you get support to fill in DLA and ESA forms as they are long and do need a concerted effort to complete. Perhaps you have a CPN who might support you or a Welfare Rights Officer who could visit you at home. Send as much supporting evidence as possible. I also liked the website benefitsand work.co.uk. They have a lot of resources for DLA/ ESA and much of it relates to Mental Health and they suggest ways of phrasing difficulties. There is a yearly subscription of £18 a year.

I wish you lots of luck. There is a good support thread on Disability and Dosh further down the list on MSE. Particularly on depression which affects a lot of us but seems to support other mental health conditions as well.

Mollyx

stressedofdevon

Thanks for the replies. I live in a tiny village in Devon so access to support is not widely available. My counsellor rang CAB for help with forms, but they just told me I had to go into the office. As with medicals, the problem is that to tell them about my situation would likely bring on a major panic attack, (I struggled to even write my first post) and then I would be a danger to get myself back home to my village.

ESA are already being difficult, I have waited about three weeks already and today they tell me that still no answer as they can't find my old file, but as I have never received benefit before and only made a general enquiry, not even sent a form or med cert, it is all a bit too much.

potnoodleprincess

Hi

I would ask advice at your local hospital about medicals and form filling etc I believe you can ask to be accompanied to these interviews by an OT or the like if you suffer from conditions such as yours, this may help if you experience an attack during the interview which will be bound to make you feel nervous and anxious anyway, talk about catch 22.

It might be worth contacting the Mind charity also and asking for their advice, my experience of the CAB is that you have to wait a long time for any advice and this may possibly only add to the stress for you. As someone pointed out on here, a CPN will be able to assist you, my OH is a student RMN and I know on the placements he has been on they do this sort of thing

Best of luck to you xx

potnoodleprincess

Please dont feel alone as there is loads of help available to you, take your time and ask for it and if you dont feel that you can phone, send some emails or letters.

I suffer from panic attacks and I was made redundant in March and have had to sign on every two weeks its been a total nightmare so I know where you are coming from. There must be procedures in place at the DWP to sensitively deal with people with agraphobia and other social illness.

Let us know how you get on x

Oldernotwiser

If you are reasonably intelligent, as you obviously are, there's no reason why you can't fill the forms in yourself without the complications of involving other people.

Although we always hear on here about people who need help with this, there are vast numbers of people who do this successfully for themselves, with help from sites like this and others.

tamsin1982

Hi, could you get your councellor/support worker to give them a call and see if someone could come out to help you complete the forms and assess you? it really angers me that they expect u to do things your not capable of in order to get the help you need, in my opinion its like offering a physically disabled person a wheelchair if they walk 5 miles to get it! :rolleyes:

Im so sorry to hear of your loss and I hope that in time you will be able to deal with your grief x
Also i would like to ask you dont give up hope of beating this, i was unable to leave my house 10yrs ago due to panic and agraphobia and although im not completly better i have managed to control it enough to lead a fairly normal life x

stressedofdevon

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If you are reasonably intelligent, as you obviously are, there's no reason why you can't fill the forms in yourself without the complications of involving other people.

Although we always hear on here about people who need help with this, there are vast numbers of people who do this successfully for themselves, with help from sites like this and others.

I know that I am reasonably intelligent and it was my job many years ago to help people with just these type of forms, but like I said I have severe anxiety and was in tears just typing that first post. To answer detailed questions about your state of mind and the effect on you is like opening Pandoras box, and I mostly only get through the day like a zombie shutting it all out and trapped in my mind and my lounge. Unless you have been there thankfully you can't imagine, but those forms are overwhelming in my state, and are geared up for physical disability not mental so its impossible to know how to adapt them to present a complete picture of your difficulties and disability.

That's why I have asked for help!

jctski

hi, I am so sorry your having to go through this, I know what anxiety attacks are like, i used to suffer with them after my dads death back in the 80's, I had to have 2 years worth of pscholgical help, and behaviours treatments to just get it under control, and even tho I am no way near as bad now, I do still hate lifts and huge crowds, i get panicky still, all i can say, regarding esa, is to get help filling in the forms, CAB as as suggested, welfare rights, I am going through ESA assement pahse right now, and well, i have made a post on here about something else, but it feels because i switched benefits, its made the welfare people look deeply into my prvate life, and now i have another huge problem from it all, hope you get the help, and get better eventually, all my love xx

seven-day-weekend

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

If you are reasonably intelligent, as you obviously are, there's no reason why you can't fill the forms in yourself without the complications of involving other people.

Although we always hear on here about people who need help with this, there are vast numbers of people who do this successfully for themselves, with help from sites like this and others.

I happened to look at the DLA form online today (never really seen one before) and was surprised how straightforward it was - mainly tick boxes with room to write extra if necessary.

I didn't think it was complicated at all (long, yes, but not complicated), so I am sure that many people could fill it in themselves without any help.

So the OP does not have to go out to the CAB if she does not wish to or can't.

We as a family, over the phone, successfully helped my son's girlfriend claim for a non-physical condition .

Good luck!