Thanks for the apology.

Look, I don't know you or your situation. But one thing I've learned in life is that no one is like me and just because I can or can't do something doesn't mean that everyone else should follow suit. It sounds like you are a very strong person who feels able to work and who isn't interested in getting disability. I respect that and I respect your strength.

But not everyone is as strong as you and there are so many different types and levels of pain that one can never say they truly understand pain. I am in a ton of pain every day but even I know there is lots of pain I have never felt and won't truly understand. You can never fully know what it's like to be in someone else's shoes so to demand that everyone be, as you put it, as "insane" :) as you, is not fair to them or to me.

You have no idea what I've been through, no idea at all. And, in fact, you have no idea what anyone else has been through or continues to go through unless they tell you themselves. And to think you know better than someone else about what they experience is IMO both arrogant and unloving.

Each person must suffer through what they have been given in their own way. If you choose to suffer through what you have been given while continuing to work because you feel that you can, great (I would do the same if I could and I have tried to do that already, but I just can't). But that is not everyone's story and to expect it to be is not kind or loving. Your experience does not make it reality for everyone else too.

And as someone who has experienced the disability process first hand, a judge who deems a person unfit for substantial work activity would not do so unless that person had a severe enough disability to keep them from working full time, which is backed by often years of medical evidence. To just scoff at that is really insensitive and absolutely unfair, even if you don't understand it. People cannot just lie through their teeth and get a hand-out when it comes to social security.

And people cannot afford car payments, mortgage payments, or college tuition on SS anyway, so if they could work to get those things, or keep those things, they would (Also, many people I know on disability try to actually do something part time, but the problem is, to do so often puts someone at risk of losing all their benefits).

For me, I have to live with someone (not married) the rest of my life, even if I get SS, because I cannot afford to live on my own. It's not a choice I wanted to be bound to (I like living alone), but it's one I am forced to make because of my health.

And perhaps those people you ratted on were keeping their disability and pain to themselves because it's often embarrassing and is usually greeted by insensitivity? Perhaps on the outside they appear normal, but on the inside they are dealing with pain you have never experienced? I appear absolutely normal on the outside, but my entire body is screaming at me from the pain no matter whether I sit, stand, lay, walk, talk, or even just breath. On top of that, I have depression and anxiety which are both silent killers. And you would never know about any of that unless I told you. And because of my own sense of dignity and my personal strength, I do as many things as possible on my own because I have a hard time accepting other people's help. To someone who's just an acquaintance, they would probably think I'm perfectly fine because I don't like to appear weak to those I don't trust completely. But I couldn't go a few days, let alone a week, working a job without wanting to cry myself to sleep most nights or just shoot myself.