Is it worth me going for mandatory reconsideration?
Hey sorry for the long post, I currently live in England. I received my WCA decision yesterday and was found capable to work and wondering if a mandatory reconsideration is a reasonable next step for me.
The assessment was focused on my sleep apnoea but i feel like the impact on my mental health it causes plus my depression in the first place wasn’t considered. I tend to minimise my symptoms in person due to my fear of being judged especially with the current rhetoric around benefit claimants and mental health that is everywhere constantly I don’t want to come across sounding lazy and dramatic.
My mental health has gradually and significantly got worse over time what first started as one off low moods around my time of the month has turned constant due to me ignoring it and is now harder to ignore as it is affecting my daily life and I owe it to my daughter to get myself better, back into work and have a normal lifeas that’s what I went to University for and that’s what I want my daughter to see instead of her constantly seeing me being angry, taking anti-depressants, staying in bed and getting her to school late which is causing problems in and of itself. I feel with appointments and the assessment I end up sounding more well than I actually am but that is due to panic and rehearsing what I should say which i feel works against me because it means they do not see the worry and panic of the before and after. I feel that I can write my problems way better than verbally getting them across cause i tend to down play it or do not want to admit stuff out loud e.g. the googling sucidal thoughts.
I’m on 100mg sertraline and recently started a CPAP trial, but i have had many antidepressant changes and tried CBT. I also don’t feel my CPAP treatment is helping enough because I’m still exhausted and getting the headaches/migraines, dry mouth and occasionally watery eyes so as of right now I currently still experience extreme fatigue and spending majority of my day in bed partly due to sleep apnoea and partly due to depression. I physically do not want to get out of bed or even be alive at this point but because I can do things like taking my daughter to school or go shopping with support I feel like it’s ignored instead of being seen as the only reasons I leave the house and I go straight back to bed sleeping until the pick up time. I do these not because i’m functioning normally but because I do not want to mess up my daughters life and the letters and threats of fines due to her attendance/lateness. so i’m leaving the house for a max of 20mins a day this is no way to live I rarely see my friends anymore, I barely shower, cook or eat I mostly rely on my parents cooking or takeaways which makes the financial stress worse. I feel hopeless and I was really hoping to at least get LCW so i’m very disappointed but i’m blaming myself because i’m one to just get on with it and not wanting to badger the health professionals and I just don’t think I can mentally deal with the demands placed on me via the job centre and UC at the moment, they have already changed my upcoming appointment from the phone to an in person one and I just can not bring myself to attend.
Also to add I feel like I had little evidence, i’ve been reporting my sick notes monthly and I had a letter from my sleep apnoea appointment which i took along to my wca. What other evidence could i/should I get? Is it worth getting evidence of me changing anti-depressants and my online messages about mental health to my doctor? And should I tell the sleep specialist about the struggles im having with cpap and get an updated letter?.
This is probablly all over the place so sorry for any errors or if it seems like a lot of info all at once I guess I was just wondering if it was worth challenging through mandatory reconsideration on the grounds of mental health/substantial risk? And does anyone else struggle with downplaying their symptoms or feeling alright to talk on the day due to rehearsing.
Thank you to anyone who takes time to reply :)