Public Comment

It is widely known that if you receive Social Security and/or SSI, you are not allowed to earn much money before your benefits, essential for survival, are jeopardized. You can make up to eighty dollars in a month without any penalties, and without the requirement to report. Beyond that, you must report money you earn. Additionally, a history of working jeopardizes the criteria that, to government, proves disability. 

If you do what is expected of you, which often includes taking medication as prescribed, participating in therapy, and doing the hard work in your life to get well and get more mentally healthy, and if you show effort that you want to work and make something of yourself, you are not rewarded for this; you are the subject of scrutiny. In the government's viewpoint, if you are disabled, success is a crime. 

Doing what is overtly expected has consequences. The true expectation is very different, and it is absorbed through social osmosis. If you read between the lines, the script foisted on you is that you can and should do nothing constructive, that you should relapse periodically, and that your lifespan will be short. Additionally, drug activities are anticipated. All kinds of problems are expected, and they automatically go into your chart. If you don't fit the model of "good for nothing," it causes you to stand out. Success at something is not in the list of expectations. 

At age twenty-four, I was earning my living doing skilled and unskilled work. And I lived on my wages. I didn't collect SSI. And as a result, I was targeted. 

I was the victim of a premeditated assault. I was young and was not accustomed to the idea that men must be able to physically defend ourselves. It didn't matter to me that most men could "best" me in a fight--I just wasn't into that. If a situation called for it, I stood up to big men who could've easily made quick work of me--and I didn't care. 

The assault incident was very violent and left me injured and disrupted. Ultimately, the disruption was enough to derail me from working. My hold on working had been fragile enough that a physical attack like that could send me over the edge. 

It is a major feat to work if you are on medication and disabled. You can't pull it off without enough supports. And to have someone, apparently a drug dealer (I don't know--I haven't bought illicit drugs). He was probably hired by someone to do this, and it was enough to pull the rug out from under. 

I had been through worse when younger. I won't go into detail here, but I can tell you I've been in several life-threatening and terrifying situations. Those situations had often resulted later in full relapses into psychosis. Each time this happened, my resilience was chipped away to a little bit less. 

Many people who are severely mentally ill people can't hold a job and this is part of how mental illness, and a related disability are defined. That's why Social Security exists. 

Successful people are not admired--they are disliked. And the social services systems are set up to reward people for not trying. They want people to be passive consumers of medication, food, and television. They want to drive us around in a van and take us to all our various appointments. They want to feed us pizza, hot dogs, and baked beans, and give us a standard state-funded burial when we live to a ripe old age of 50. 

If you stand out as a success story, people come out of the woodwork who make attempts to shoot down your ideas of becoming something. In some instances, this merely consists of verbal harangues from counselors. In other instances, you invoke being singled out by government officials. Things in your chart that you have not been told of may be completely inaccurate and criminalizing. And if you honestly report what you earn rather than doing things "under the table" people use it against you. Whereas if they know you're keeping your efforts undocumented--I can't prove it--but it is likely they will look the other way. 

If I look at what fate has done to disabled people who've successfully worked and made a living, it is not promising. So, good luck to you, and always read between the lines. There is enough to look at that isn't being directly stated. 

Jack Bragen is a writer who lives in Martinez.