The 20%

UKTigerlily · 6 December 2017 at 12:11AM

Wow, I am diagnosed with Bipolar & it was after many years with the CMHT & various Psychiatrists, when a CPN saw me Hypomanic & confirmed the up side to my Consultant Psychiatrist ... i've never heard of a GP diagnosing it either

phillw · 6 December 2017 at 1:24AM

teddysmum wrote: »

Mental illness must be one of the easiest ailments to fake, as there is usually no physical proof for diagnosis.

It also means that it can take a long time for the condition to be accurately diagnosed and treated.

Plus most people don't take mental health issues seriously. If you're going to fake something then it would seem pointless to fake something that most people will look at you and think you're faking it.

poppy12345 · 6 December 2017 at 4:57PM

teddysmum wrote: »

Mental illness must be one of the easiest ailments to fake, as there is usually no physical proof for diagnosis.

I have no idea how anyone can fake mental health issues. I've spent more than 10 years fighting for a diagnosis for my daughter. You clearly have never suffered any mental health issues.

teddysmum · 6 December 2017 at 6:37PM

poppy12345 wrote: »

I have no idea how anyone can fake mental health issues. I've spent more than 10 years fighting for a diagnosis for my daughter. You clearly have never suffered any mental health issues.

Referring to the last sentence :actually ,I have, but luckily short term and my father had dementia in old age.

A good actor would observe and act accordingly. Unless caught out acting 'normally' who is to prove they are faking, as there isn't always something such as abnormal brain pattern or tissue damage or absence to prove a mental condition exists ?

Do not agree that Max Vento makes a very good job of copying condition, especially as he is very young ? His character's behaviour is very similar to that of a man, on yesterday's tv, who actually is autistic.

I can't think of any long term,( as opposed to short term which wouldn't count anyway) back problem that would have no proof via some kind of scan, yet bad backs used to be the most common scam.

A father at my children's school had never been known to work, yet he fathered 10 children less years; brilliant for someone with a bad back, yet he had jobs for his older sons which he did.

I regretted giving them a hooded pushchair for one poor child who was pushed about ,in winter, in one of those buggies with deckchair stripes, only to find it being used for the man's paper rounds (kept the papers beautifully dry), while the child stayed in the cold uncomfortable buggy.

faerielight · 7 December 2017 at 10:22AM

glad you got a positive result

GlasweJen · 7 December 2017 at 1:31PM

Have now received the decision, got 4 points for managing therapy and 2 for needing supervision in the shower so theoretically should have got enhanced DL but they deducted me 2 for preparing and cooking a meal because I can sit down (lol) and use a microwave. The DM also states that she won’t award points for eating because although I use plastic plates I don’t take long to eat so she won’t award for the supervision required while eating, I’m not aware that I take a longer or shorter amount of time than anyone else to eat.

I’m considering appealing it and going for enhanced, as predicted it’s a 3 year award.

Muttleythefrog · 9 December 2017 at 7:11AM

teddysmum wrote: »

Mental illness must be one of the easiest ailments to fake, as there is usually no physical proof for diagnosis.

Pleased to hear Op that you've had some success at MR. I suppose you'll have to weigh up on the appeal option and that is hard to advise on when there's real human impacts as well as technical considerations to think of. Good luck.

On this point made... there certainly is that attitude out there and belief that this is the case. I have always been inclined to go along with that thinking... but I'm sitting here at ungodly hour of the morning and thinking... hmm.. actually... I don't necessarily agree with convention after all. I think we are extremely poor at comprehending mental illness beyond the stereotypical. PIP and WCA (for ESA) assessments mirror that where mental state exams set out to look for ridiculously simplified symptoms. I think mental illness is easier to fake because people open the door to being victim to fakery. I have long suffered mental illness and I would be extremely confident someone would find it difficult to fake serious mental illness in my presence over a period of hours or more. Like a lot of sufferers you can be extremely well embedded in concealing symptoms and that too is something I'd be consciously aware of if looking for indicators... many MI sufferers are engaged in a ritualised act throughout your interaction. I'm yet to meet a medical professional who I felt even deserved to be in the same room as me with them as the expert... none have impressed me with their skills/experience. Their insight has been fairly useless to truth... there's a complete lack of imagination. Into the context of these assessments you are in the lap of the gods sat opposite a nurse at a PC. You have to laugh before you cry when thinking that they'll be looking for signs of shaking to spot indicators of anxiety in someone with 30 years experience of hiding symptoms of anxiety... that's in the few moments they actually look at you and can probably only see half your body.

In the end fakery success is a two way process... it takes one to try it... and one to readily receive it. The system is set up for superficial exploration of truth.... it may be that some have to fake things to get correctly assessed but I would not advise it.

sandra1980123 · 9 December 2017 at 10:33PM

Very true muttley,I have 50 years experience of hiding it and didn't even realise that I was doing it until I had a major meltdown

Muttleythefrog · 9 December 2017 at 11:03PM

sandra1980123 wrote: »

Very true muttley,I have 50 years experience of hiding it and didn't even realise that I was doing it until I had a major meltdown

I worked with someone for 6 years.. when I told them I never used to eat lunch at work because of mental illness they remarked "I thought you just didn't like Greggs".

GlasweJen · 10 December 2017 at 12:50AM

Muttleythefrog wrote: »

Pleased to hear Op that you've had some success at MR. I suppose you'll have to weigh up on the appeal option and that is hard to advise on when there's real human impacts as well as technical considerations to think of. Good luck.

On this point made... there certainly is that attitude out there and belief that this is the case. I have always been inclined to go along with that thinking... but I'm sitting here at ungodly hour of the morning and thinking... hmm.. actually... I don't necessarily agree with convention after all. I think we are extremely poor at comprehending mental illness beyond the stereotypical. PIP and WCA (for ESA) assessments mirror that where mental state exams set out to look for ridiculously simplified symptoms. I think mental illness is easier to fake because people open the door to being victim to fakery. I have long suffered mental illness and I would be extremely confident someone would find it difficult to fake serious mental illness in my presence over a period of hours or more. Like a lot of sufferers you can be extremely well embedded in concealing symptoms and that too is something I'd be consciously aware of if looking for indicators... many MI sufferers are engaged in a ritualised act throughout your interaction. I'm yet to meet a medical professional who I felt even deserved to be in the same room as me with them as the expert... none have impressed me with their skills/experience. Their insight has been fairly useless to truth... there's a complete lack of imagination. Into the context of these assessments you are in the lap of the gods sat opposite a nurse at a PC. You have to laugh before you cry when thinking that they'll be looking for signs of shaking to spot indicators of anxiety in someone with 30 years experience of hiding symptoms of anxiety... that's in the few moments they actually look at you and can probably only see half your body.

In the end fakery success is a two way process... it takes one to try it... and one to readily receive it. The system is set up for superficial exploration of truth.... it may be that some have to fake things to get correctly assessed but I would not advise it.

To be honest I think the entire face to face assessment thing is nonsense. What useful information can be gleaned in an interview that can’t be taken from a form and a GP letter? I’ve only ever had 2 assessments and one was a complete shambles, I was reported to have walked up a flight of stairs, the other just produced a report that was incomprehensible.

Somehow the DWP didn’t query the idea that a paraplegic walked up a flight of stairs, the many reports from consultants both at home and abroad stood for nothing against the word of a nurse who had met me for 45 minutes and had actually stated earlier in her report that I was a wheelchair bound paraplegic. It took a doctor at a tribunal to point out the ridiculousness of the situation, of course a paraplegic qualifies for high mobility, I’m sorry but if people like me don’t qualify then who the hell does?

Quite frankly the DM suggesting that sitting down will somehow mitigate the risk of my collapsing and injuring myself when cooking swings from being a huge insult to being hilarious. I’m always sitting down, I’ve not stood up for a bloody decade, sometimes I think these idiots don’t know how to connect the dots.

The 20%

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