ESA assessment feeling anxious

[Cal66]

Hi

My esa assessment is on Saturday morning & I'm feeling anxious, worried. I had thought that I wasn't going to need 1 as the letter I had received said I was remaing in the support group. I had sent a copy of a letter from my rheumatologist, I don't know if I should take the original with me or not. All this is going around in my head, my tummy is in knots & keep feeling sick, heart pounding. What's worse is that I haven't seen my rheumatologist since last year because there are no appointments available. On top of all this I now have to apply for pip as my dla is finishing & I'm worried in case I lose my car, if so I will be totally housebound.

I'm also worried in case my mum or I say something wrong or I don't explain all my medical problems properly, I just wish I wasn't in the position to need these benefits

[Weeg23]

Hello, im sorry to hear you are going through this. I have recently lost my car in january as i wasnt awarded enhanced mobility anymore (i am on pip). This has been a big blow and set back for me and my mental health conditions. I have actually now had to start taking citalopram as my panic attacks got too much. I am basically housebound aswell at the moment with my 15month old daughter. My car was basically everything i was devastated when i found out i had to give it back. It was something i relied on daily especially for being more independent and being able to get my daughter out aswell. I went through the appeal process and it went to tribunal today. My hearing was really brutal 3 people bombarding me with questions that i had to try and answer about how i was like 6 months ago. So fair to say it felt like they were trying to catch me out i done my best but i was very anxious and i feel like i could of said alot more and explained abit better. I didnt even get my decision in person today so still having to wait for it through the post now. But they said it should be there in a few days. I just feel like its going to be bad news its felt like it went really bad today. I felt like you aswell when i went to my medical incase me or my mum said something wrong its very hard. So i know how you are feeling. Hope you get on better than me. Sorry i cant be of more help.

[Frosty1960]

Went through both esa and pip assessment recently was the same total bag of nerves anxiety through the roof.

I was ok however got same award for pip and kept in support group for esa, its a horrible process to go through i hope you get a good result .

[Krazykat26]

First thing..gentle cyber hug to u Cal🤗🤗🤗xx

These assessments r so hard..n totally unfair..I feel for u!!

I've been there..done that..I lost ESA in 2016 n I appealed..had tribunal in Dec 2017 n I didn't even go to it..I didn't reply to any letters or phone calls from the court..n guess what..I won the case!!

The whole system is nuts n u gotta think reverse psychology here..remember u get points for things u can't do..but the assessor will try n get u to say what u can do..so when they ask about a typical day..u have to pick one of your worst days..when it's really bad!!

I don't think that the ESA assessment will have any effect on your car situation at the moment because that's pip..so I don't think u should worry about that for now.

Best thing is for u to do as much of the talking as u can n your mum can observe/witness the whole thing.

Remember as well that they're watching u from the time u arrive in the car park..the assessment starts when u arrive n ends when they can't see u anymore..but there's cameras in the building n the cark park!!

The whole thing is a farce..take it one step at a time..if u want to take your rheumy letter do..but DONT hand it over to them because they have a common habit of 'losing' original documents...save that for the tribunal ( if there is one)!!

Best of luck to u for Saturday..n on Sunday u can relax n put it all behind u..what will be will be!! 💐Xx

[Krazykat26]

Ps..I say it's a farce because if this assessment fails n u have to appeal u get a copy of the assessors report...Ive got mine n honestly..it's like me n the assessor where in different rooms..she wrote some kind of crap according to her own judgements .n the spelling mistakes were horrendous!! 🤔 I wonder where they train these people??? Xx

[Lisalou19 in reply to Krazykat26]

I think it should become a common law, for sufferers to question these idiots about there knowledge on these diseases before the can terrogate us! It’s exactly the same method as trying to tell your doctor how sick you feel when your bloods come back fine!!! With these diseases it’s forever a repeated pattern of justifying how we feel! X

[Cal66]

Thank you everyone for your responses, great advice. Fortunately my assessment for today was cancelled. When I rang last week I told them that I wanted the assessment recorded, I was told to phone Friday, so when i phoned yesterday I was told that I hadn't asked, I was then told that if I had wanted it then the assessment would need to be re arranged & so it's now on 13th May.

Weeg21I was sorry to read about the problems that you are going through at the moment, I really hope that it all gets sorted soon, my sister said that you should have had a panic attack in the middle of it, I really think it would have put them in a turmoil, hope it's your result is good news.

I'm going to get a taxi & stay in my wheelchair from getting there to coming home. When they ask me what I can do, I'm going to be truthful & say nothing. As 23 years ago I had I huge flare & totally lost the use of my hands, i couldn't even scratch my nose or feed myself. I still can't make myself a drink or pour drinks, cook or anything much for myself, I can drive an automatic car with electronic hand brake & not much else, so do you think that sounds ok? Hop so, the only problem that my mum is my full time carer & is having an OP on her hand on the 9th a few days earlier.