About PIP overturn

[anxietyforever52]

I want to start by saying that I've suffered with anxiety for the past 22 years. At its worst I can't leave the house or see anyone. When I've been able to, I've left the house crying and afraid. I've called in sick when I can't face going to work, physically ran out of shops, doctors surgery, the school playground, ignored the doorbell, started smoking again as I thought it would help (yeah I know) and avoided pretty much all social or public interactions.

Yet I've continued to work when I have been able to, because I've been made to feel I have to, that facing my fears was a way to overcome it all, that counselling would help, CBT would teach me to overcome my fears, various medications would calm me down, self help books would help me see there is a future beyond anxiety. But they don't and I still live in fear day to day.

This is a genuine question. Why do people who suffer with anxiety, as I've seen on the news this evening, become eligible for PIP? Perhaps there is an element that if my GP had taken me more seriously, especially when I felt close to suicidal, that I'd have received the proper help I needed. I honestly don't know. But hearing the woman on the BBC news tonight saying she felt discriminated against has caused me to react. Yes, I agree mental health disorders don't carry a physical 'label', but neither do many physical disabilities, yet there are many people who carry on regardless.

Yep that's only one mental health devices are that awful that people use their pip for councilling or other theory as well

I will try again
Yep that's another one, mental health services are that crap that people will use their PIP to pay for councilling and therapy

There is a big difference between normal daily anxiety, which most people experience and serious and disabling anxiety disorders.

Society has changed because in the past the most severely affected would have been institutionalised but the perception that everyone who feels a bit worried sometimes is now being given money by the government is completely wrong. As is the idea that if people really had to 'get on with it' or pull themselves together that they would be able to.

If someone cannot use a toilet unassisted, get dressed, shower, prepare food or communicate (which are all 'Activities of Daily Living' that are assessed for PIP) because of their disabling anxiety then they are very likely to incur extra costs as a result of their condition. They will need to provide evidence from a Psychiatrist or Clinical Psychologist. Occasionally the DWP will accept evidence from a CBT therapist but they take cases where there is involvement from the Community Mental Health Team more seriously.

OP if you cannot use a toilet without extreme difficulty, cannot shower in a normal time period or without help, struggle to get dressed or to prepare food or to communicate then you should claim PIP.

My psychiatric disorder means that I have immense difficulty with all of the above. I cannot use the toilet at home without great distress and taking a lot of time and cleaning extensively and often need help. I cannot use toilets away from home at all. I can get stuck in the shower for three hours and have up to five per day, often using bleach to clean my hands and feet. I have to wash my hands 120x+ per day so that they are bleeding. I am unable to go to the GP or A&E even if I am very physically unwell.

I have not had a haircut for 7 years and cannot go to the dentist or supermarket.

I would like to have got my degree (which my condition prevented- I left in year 3 despite getting A grades up to that point); to be in a serious relationship or married; to have a career and kids BUT my condition has prevented all of these things.

There are people with mobility issues whose conditions have and have had less of an impact on both their quality of life and their activities of daily living than my psychiatric condition has on mine. One of my facebook friends has been physically disabled since birth but her condition does not affect her ability to work, to socialise, to have relationships, to parent her child or live a full life. However she gets PIP because of her mobility issues and the issues that she has with some activities of daily living and so she should! The same applies for people with mental health conditions and many sufferers are unable to live full and meaningful lives.