I recently received notice that my claim for short term disability was denied. The following is my appeal. I will give a much detail as I possibly can about the history of my illness.

I’ve had bouts of major since 1988 when I was nine years old. It was initially triggered when I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Heart Disease. There was months at a time when I couldn’t walk or get out of bed. I would have to crawl or use crutches. I quickly began gaining . I was very melancholic and irritable. I constantly thought about and I several times. Classmates and teachers alike thought I was morbid because of the poems and stories I wrote and because I always wore black.


In 1993, when I was 14, my mother tried to put me in Shadow Mountain Institute (a local psychiatric facility) because she found my suicide note and caught me trying to slit my wrists. I turned it around on her and made her sound like the crazy one so they didn’t hospitalize me. Had I knew then what I know now I would have allowed her to hospitalize me.
Between 1994 and 1996 I had several minor episodes of depression as well as thoughts, but no attempts.

In 1997, after I graduated from high school, I had another major depressive episode which lasted seven months. I would only leave my room to go to . I lost 50 pounds in three months because I barely ate. I ignored all my friends and . If anyone so much as opened my bedroom door to check on me I would scream at them. Another three months passed and I had lost another 50 pounds. Thanks to the persistence of and some friends I started gradually coming out of the depression and started to rebuild my life.
In June 2000, I had another major depressive episode that lasted over a year and I tried to kill myself at least once during that year. Despite all that, I was not “officially” diagnosed with chronic depression until July 2001 by Dr. Raeanne Lambert, D.O.

On this day..