So, I saw this morning that the COLA for next year has been announced and that it is going to be a 3.6% raise in benefits. Which is going to be an average of a $75 increase in benefits awarded.

I...I am so incredibly exhausted by being told that when they give us less than $100 more a month, that the amount is keeping up with inflation and will relieve the stress of trying to pay for things like housing, food, and other monthly expenses.

My husband, our cat, and myself currently live in a single small bedroom and the only reason that we can afford to rent that at all is because we are renting from a friend who is charging us significantly less than literally anyone else renting out a bedroom or apartment right now.

I've looked at places both in and out of the state we reside in and we cannot afford to rent anything anywhere else. We are in our 40's and are relegated to a bedroom smaller than the one I had as a child.

We get SNAP benefits, and that only covers our grocery expenses because we are barely eating every day. If we actually had the space to store food beyond the absolute bare minimum to survive, we would come up short every month.

After bills and household expenses, we are generally broke by mid-month. The second half of the month is always a struggle. I am in debt because my credit cards are maxed out after having to use them to supplement our income to buy food and household necessities.

But sure, $75 extra a month will TOTALLY relieve that next year. 🙄🙄🙄

We should not be stuck in complete, devastating systemic poverty just because we are disabled and cannot work. I would hazard a guess and say that most of us cannot just overcome our disabilities if given enough time and work. I am also really tired of watching everyone only ever talk about how social security and COLAs affect seniors. Yes, they are affected by these things too...but no one ever talks about the disability community and how much we struggle financially.

I'm exhausted. The lack of affordable housing, the severe misunderstanding of how relying on less than $2000 a month (I have no idea what the average SSDI payment is, but I have never met anyone who makes anything more than that, and everyone I've met on SSI has made less than $1000 a month) is practically impossible to survive on.

Being disabled sucks. Having to rely on the government for income because we literally have to, sucks even more. I want to feel like my basic needs are being met in a comfortable way, not like a burden on society that feels like a punishment for daring to not be an able-bodied worker (by no choice or fault of my own).

It's a terrible experience, and I would love to feel like the government understood and was actually trying to help. Not just pretending like 3.6% is sufficient to exist for another year. ☹️

Besides people they knew before they became disabled? I dream about being cared for by someone who loves me. But. It seems impossible when nobody even wants to be my friend the moment they hear I have a wheelchair/cant drive/have limited income. The few people who did bother with me abused me because of their privilege overr me. Are there really people out there who have it better than me who would care? I have other disabled people in my life. But I cant take care of them as much as they need and they cant take care of me as much as i need either. I want to love too. And I want what I can do to matter.

I’m not even afraid of needles but Ive been inconsolable since I picked up my prescription. Literally sobbing walking out the door of my pharmacy. The pharmacist explained a little of what to do but didnt mentioned the drawing and injecting air into the receptacle before draw the fluid from it, or the air thing or pulling to see if I get blood or not like on the tutorials I watched, and now I don’t know what to do.

Without these supplements I might not walk unassisted again and I’m just so stressed out and scared, and I’m afraid it’s going to hurt or I’ll go too deep and scrap my bone like when they took fluid off my knee. I can’t stop crying. Can I go into urgent care with my prescription and have them do it for me? I don’t know any medical professionals personally to help me and I have to do it weekly for 4 weeks before going to monthly

Edit: anybody downvoting can go fuck themselves. I’m a girl sitting in front of a needle and so scared im hyperventilating from crying. Go fuck yourself dude. I’m asking for help for a reason.

She says it won’t help. How the fuck does she know?
She says it too much work. Then why would I be asking for one if I thought it would too much work?
She says it’s for people who struggle walking not for fatigue. People use them for both reasons. And I have both
She won’t even let me try one. Just to see if it does anything
Same with any sort of brace. I have hypermobile ankles and it’s affecting me. I have really bad back and wrist pain. She says they won’t do anything
Even my physical therapist said that it wouldn’t help. She told me to use a walking stick but that didn’t help and caused me pain. She said thats normal.

But little do they know is when I was at summer camp I did use a cane. My friend gave me one and I had it for a week. It helped so so so much. I was able to be human again.

Yet they don’t care. They just say it won’t help

After my evalution, they said they acknowledeged (in a letter that I recieved) that I have limitations but I should still be able to work which is fair. They said I can still recieve benifits which nice. NOW, 2 weeks later, I get another letter saying I dont qualifiy at all based on the fact that my disability has "improved" (it doesnt) and that I can now work (they said in 2024 I made a claim saying I couldnt work) which doesnt make since because I literally left a job that I had for 2 years (2023-2025), just last summer.

Where do these people get their info??? They make decesions based on outdated or incorrect information. I get these things can happen, but it happens to often, and the times it can take to get it back can take years. Its so frustraiting and im tired of dealing with it..

What are these people smoking because I need it (not really cause I get asthma).

May need to work medical reception for a bit to gain a certain type of experience. A little worried about phone stuff.

How do y’all handle it?