One Journey Ends, Another Begins: Weaving My Way Through the Social Security Disability Maze

It's been almost a year and a half since I last discussed my Social Security Disability case. If you need a refresher, you can read it here: The Judicial System Has Let Me Down.

Here's a brief synopsis of the timeline.

• 1990-2022 (32 long years): I worked as a manager for McDonald's.
• 2017: The owner I'd worked under my whole career sells his franchise.
• March 2020-January 2022: COVID shuts down many businesses--but not us.
• March 30, 2021: My mother dies in a nursing home from Lewy Body Dementia
• August 2021: I lose half my management team and crew, but business is booming.
• October 5, 2021: My doctor recommends I take time off from work due to stress, depression, and "suicidal ideation."
• October 5,2021-January 12, 2022: My condition worsens as I am feeling more and more worthless, helpless, and hopeless.
• January 13, 2022: The day my 12-week Family Leave expires, the new owners send me a registered letter saying they’ve “decided to part ways” with me.
• Summer of 2022: My depression is not getting any better despite different medications and therapists. I decide to apply for Social Security Disability.
• January 27, 2024: After getting my initial application denied, and waiting about 18 more months, I have a 40-minute online hearing with an Administrative Law Judge.
• April 2024: I receive a six-page decision denying my benefits. The judge finds the overwhelming amount of evidence in my favor "not persuasive."
• May 2024: My lawyers and I file an appeal to the Social Security Appeals Council. I am told it will take 9-15 months for a ruling.

And now, sadly, I can add another entry:

• May 2025: My appeal is denied by the Appeals Council. The case is now closed as far as Social Security is concerned.

When this last envelope came, my heart raced when I saw the Social Security return address. This was it. It had been three years since I received my last paycheck. My savings vanished a long time ago. My credit card debt is through the roof. I have been borrowing money from family members.

I had put all my eggs in one basket. I NEEDED the 36 months of backpay I had now built up waiting for the case to get decided, and, hopefully, ruled in my favor.

With my heart beating out of my chest, I opened the envelope only to see the word "denied" almost right away when I unfolded the two sheets of paper that were in there.

Two sheets? That's it?

Thoughts raced through my head as if they were cars on the German Autobahn.

I thought back to January 2024, when I first got the judge’s decision after the hearing. I almost gave up then—until I read how she cherry‑picked testimony and twisted facts.

I requested the full file of medical exhibits. If even one of my doctors had said my depression wasn’t severe, I would have tried to move on with my life. But page after page, exhibit after exhibit, every doctor, every therapist, every psychiatrist agreed: Major Depressive Disorder. I must have read that term used at least thirty times in my medical records.

And every one who treated me said I was unable to maintain a full-time job.

When I asked my lawyer what he thought of the ruling, he told me:

“Mr. Branco, I’ve been doing these cases for 30 years. I’ve never seen a judge contradict themselves so much in a ruling.”

Lucky me! I can't win the lottery, but I can be the one case out of thousands this guy has seen to have gone so unfairly.

My lawyer said that he thought I should keep fighting. Keep in mind--this law firm makes no money off me unless I win. So they're not going to continue to put in the work for a case they don't think is going to win.

The shitty part is that--after waiting over a year for a decision--only about 10-20% of cases win their appeals. And by winning their appeal, I mean the case gets remanded--meaning sent back–to the hearing stage where a lot of times it will be the same judge that hears your case, but with strict guidelines to follow issued by the higher court.

So with everyone telling me how strong my case is, I decided to trudge ahead. What choice did I have?

To this day, I know I can not be relied upon to work every day, or to even make it through the day. I simply don't know how I am going to feel the next day when I go to bed at night.

I frustrate my partner, Erin, because I hate committing to plans– even if it is for the next day, or that afternoon or evening--because I just don't know. Many times we fight because I have to back out of plans at the last second just because of my depression or anxiety kicks in.

I am still constantly tired. I can't stay awake for more than six hours without needing a nap. Adderall is the only medication that has helped, but lately I don't feel it is as effective. Maybe I am building a tolerance for it.

And the days I forget to take it in the morning, forget it. I am out of commission.

Even these articles take me days and sometimes weeks to finish. I have a hard time staying focused. Right now I am thinking of five or six other articles I want to write. I am also thinking I need a nap.

So I had to appeal my case and figure out a way to keep paying my bills, plus pay my minimum payments on my credit cards, for another year until I got a decision.

My whole life depended on this ruling.

And it was only two sheets of paper!

That's all my life is worth?

The first sheet stated that my appeal was denied and that this ended the process from the Social Security point of view. The rest of the sheet and the second one stated legal stuff like if I disagreed with the ruling, I had to file a complaint at the federal court level within 60 days or something.

My heart sank. My first reaction was my life is over.

I had invested over three years in this. How was I going to tell Erin, her family, my dad, my brother, my friends? I felt like a fraud, a liar. One of my biggest issues is with validation, and here I was being told, legally, that the depression, anxiety, grief, PTSD, chronic fatigue, and dark thoughts I was feeling were not valid.

The next few days took everything I had learned in therapy to keep from doing anything stupid. I kept focusing on Erin. I kept focusing on just getting through each day, each hour. I went to play basketball by myself for hours at a time. I went for long drives--rolling down the windows, opening the sunroof, and cranking the music. I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I spoke to someone from the law firm about my next steps. The lady told me that the next step would be to take the case to federal court. Essentially, I'd be suing Social Security. That would mean another twelve months for a decision and, again, a "win" for me would mean the case gets sent back to Social Security for another hearing (which would mean another six to twelve months wait on top of that).

The lady told me that I would have a different lawyer who specializes in federal court hearings who would be taking over my case. That was music to my ears because I wasn't very happy with the lawyer who had been handling my case to that point–the one that said in his thirty years, he had never seen a case as strong as mine lose. Well, why did I lose then??

The lady from the law firm also explained to me that while the federal case would be pending, what we could do–because I was still within the five-year window since my last day of work--is reapply with Social Security from the very beginning for benefits.

I was apprehensive about that. I didn't want to go through all that again. The only reason I was still pursuing the case was for the backpay, and to reapply again wouldn't be worth it just to get paid from starting when the appeal council denied me a couple of months ago.

The lady said to me, "Oh, no, no. You would get paid backpay this second time from the time the judge denied you after the hearing."

Damn, that's fourteen or fifteen months ago at this point. We're talking probably $30,000.

Here we go again.

So that's where things stand in this seemingly never-ending crusade. I should now have two cases weaving their way through the system--one near the end, and one at the very beginning again.

One thing I do know: I am a lot wiser and I am not as naive starting the journey a second time.