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TRIBUNAL by telephone booked next week.

misurrepeanut
misurrepeanut Community member Posts: 7 Listener
edited August 2020 in PIP, DLA, and AA
Hello there, 

I won't give out my personal details but I am a young man with ADHD. This has led me to some very dark places like out on the streets or in A and E contemplating killing myself. I've had consistent appointments with my GP service, which has allowed me to see about 10 different doctors. They have tried me on sertaline, mirtazapine, imipramine, paroxetine with little to no success. I attempted sertaline the longest which really ended up with me in suicidal ways both times I tried to get over the 12th day period. I've had contact with the community crisis team who established a care plan and I get support from Gamblers Anoynmous. Also included in my treatment plan is the Adult Neurodevelopmental Service who prescribe me medication for ADHD. I have taken both sets of medication and ended up hyperfocusing and having really unhelpful side effects like depression and anxiety. My anxiety and OCD is all documented with my doctor but I've never been able to see a non ADHD Therapist. They have lots of information about our appointments but have written to them with no response. I've also provided alot of information on the condition via post to the DWP Tribunal Centre. This is just hand written notes, medication prescriptions, crisis brief reports and letters detailing the notes from different ADHD meetings. What I think I need is a good descriptive letter that outlines my condition in relation to the descriptors. 

That's all the information on my ADHD but I haven't detailed my mental health problems like social anxiety or depression as major conditions in my DWP Questionairre. I am currently recieving CBT Therapy from a local counselling service and the therapist has gone through a social anxiety questionairre and given me the maximum points for it. I have been to the doctor and explained what was said by the CBT Therapist but he didn't  seem to want to diagnosis me as I'd already had an ADHD diagnosis. Baring in mind this doctor I spoke to was a new one who I'd not seen before. 

My first appointment back in 2019 with Capita stated that I was entitled to absolutely 0 points. This led to me appealing it with the mandatory consideration providing me with 5 instead of 0. So now I'm hoping that with my appeal that I can win and get over 8 points for Daily Living.  I am looking to be more specific when the tribunal comes and to concentrate on the descriptors. I am getting DSA for Open University as I struggling to cope with the work load and have been assigned a learning and general well being mentor who I have not yet seen due to the corona pandemic. 

I'm starting to think that I have cognitive impairment as I don't understand social queues and when people talk to me I don't look them in the eye. It's like I can't picture something in my head without seeing it. This leads to problems as I get massive social anxiety thinking about what the person is going to say next. This is a problem as I avoid most social activities, fear criticism, have low self esteem and feel sick when asked to speak infront of people. I definetely have a problem with obsessing over food and which part of the meal will start off my ADHD symptoms and leave me a complete wreck for the rest of the working shift. My mind almost always just empties and leaves me feeling stupid . I blink, twitch, have a blank face look gormless. I avoid managers, don't go near public transport and prepare for meetings with managers. I talk faster than usual and get palpitations and sweating. My social anxiety stops me from doing things that I enjoy like football. This gets in the way of me socialising with others. 


I'm sluggish and slow moving, I have problems with focus and due to not being able to concentrate just get more and more worked up and upset, when I realise I've been watching ADHD videos and just researching my own brain for the whole night this leads to fustration. Argumentative behaviour when I don't get my own way and when someone says something hurtful about me. I have dark thoughts like hating people in my life and wanting people to just live their own lives instead of getting involved in mine and swearing and saying bad things about them behind their back. All the time my mind wanders wanderers and I have constantly leg tapping and tidying to ease my anxiousness and this leads to nonsensical behaviour like screaming, whacking my hand into my head, jumping up and down, cursing and shouting at people who are not helpful and make me feel frightened, I have a massive over response to people who cross me and once they've hurt me I will never let it go and hold onto the bad feeling for the rest of my friendship or relationship with them. I have low energy, worthlessness and sensitive to noise, light, touch and I have cyclic moodiness and over sleeping problems like hypersomnia. I have memory and auditory processing issues and can't understand complex issues such as maths, directions, complex situations, my brain lets me down and I can't work them out.  I get very fustrated at not getting the context of something and it really upsets me how I can't emphasize sometimes and it upsets my general health too and makes me have lots of stress. I am overstimulated and the smallest thing can make me anxious and unable to function. Its like my front part isn't working properly with the rest of my brain, I'm constantly in a fog and the thought of doing something makes me so upset and I need prompting. I am ok with  putting things in piles and neat and tidy but its too try and rid my mind of the anxiousness. Cleaning is often unfinished like most jobs in my life.

Managing Therapy and Engaging with other were what the points were for. They didn't give me any for communicating verbally. This was because I had help from an outside organisation and because I need help to be able to communicate with other people effectively. 


Thanks,
               Missurepeanut

Comments

  • Lou67
    Lou67 Community member Posts: 6,623 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi I just wanted to say hello and welcome to the community, I’m so sorry to hear of all the things your dealing with daily, and hope things can get easier for you, good luck with your assessment I really hope it goes your way, let us know how it went, take care. 
  • janer1967
    janer1967 Community member Posts: 21,964 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @misurrepeanut Welcome to the community, and sharing your story wit us.

    In prep for the hearing you should go through your bundle and make notes of the descriptors you think you should have got more points. You need to give real life examples of what happened when you tried to do the activity.

    PIP is about your ability to carry out daily activities and not about a diagnosis or medication.

    You need to say what, when , how, why you cant do things just simply saying I cant do it wont be sufficient, also if you need assistance what that is how you get it any aids you use 

    If any areas are not covered in the panels questions then you can summarise at the end
  • KingKongsFinger
    KingKongsFinger Community member Posts: 62 Pioneering
    Ello mate I have adhd and aspergers and some (a lot of) back problems. You describe several aspergic traits here so might be worth doing a preliminary test for it as adhd and aspergers often go hand in hand, I found these tests to be a fairly good indicator: https://www.aspietests.org/

    As for the phone tribunal, I had one a couple of days ago and it was horrendous, make sure You have representation......

  • KingKongsFinger
    KingKongsFinger Community member Posts: 62 Pioneering
    If You don't have representation ask for an adjournment until You can find representation......
  • KingKongsFinger
    KingKongsFinger Community member Posts: 62 Pioneering
    And please don't kill Yourself, it is not You that is the problem it's them! :)
  • Chloe_Scope
    Chloe_Scope Posts: 10,586 Disability Gamechanger
    Hi @misurrepeanut, I know you have already had your tribunal, I just wanted to check in to see how you are doing mentally. 

    if you are struggling then please reach out to those who are qualified to help you, whether this is a GP, health care professional or a crisis line like Samaritans. If you would prefer to text then SHOUT have a crisis text service.  
    Scope

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