# What are disability "pretenders" and what do they get out of it **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 27, 2012, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403 "2012-06-27T00:04:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403/41 "2012-06-28T03:59:28Z")
> [@Rhaegar](#): > > Now I’m not saying that there aren’t people who are legitimately disabled with back pain, psychiatric disorders and migraines, but there are some people who use these conditions to claim disability, mainly because there isn’t a definitive test to confirm the diagnosis. It just isn’t easy to disprove that someone is suffering from those conditions. Even an MRI on a normal person without back pain will show bulging discs. Well just like most things, it attracts it’s share of con-artists and opportunists and “fakers” (no pun? intended). That shouldn’t detract from the ability of those who truly _do_ suffer for getting treatment. ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 9:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403/42 "2012-06-28T09:53:13Z")
> [@Chimera](#): > > Cite: My ex-wife. Now I won’t contest that she is seriously mentally ill, but her ‘disability’ claim was that she was agorophobic and couldn’t be out in public. Apparently working at the annual Ren Fest or hanging around the Mall of America weren’t an issue, just working an actual job. :rolleyes: > > She tried real hard to get me to try to claim disability as well so that neither of us had to work. No fucking way was I walking down that road. > > What did she get? Free income, never had to work, excuses for all sorts of bad behavior both public and private. That’s pretty much what any of them get. But that sounds like all the supposed SSI cheats I have known, they certainly were not “normal” or able to work. Its not like they were secretly capable of living a normal productive life and were just pretending to be an agoraphobic or whatever, more like they were fibbing a little to qualify. ---
**Author:** ![PoorYorick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ecccb3/32.png) [@PoorYorick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PoorYorick)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403/43 "2012-06-28T13:36:17Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > I’ve know several people who have worked as private detectives, and a big part of their job seems to be spying on people who claim to be disabled for insurance purposes but who seem fine when they think no one is watching. This is physical, not mental, stuff. > > I also know someone who claims all sorts of mental problems but who has no problem going clubbing. Best we can tell is that her “disability” is a good explanation for why she is a failure, and a way she hopes to get money without working. She even thought she could schedule the start of her disability. One more term: Faking a disability for some secondary gain like money is called [malingering](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malingering). I have a nephew with a “sensitive” stomach that seems to only manifest itself when there’s some sort of physical labor he’s asked to do. Yeah, I’d definitely consider him a malingerer. ---
**Author:** ![Beastly\_Rotter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@Beastly\_Rotter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beastly_Rotter)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2012, 11:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403/44 "2012-06-28T23:18:22Z")
Idiots should go line-dancing in uncleared minefields if they are that serious about wanting to be crippled. ---
**Author:** ![Imago](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/85e7bf/32.png) [@Imago](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Imago)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2012, 10:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403/45 "2012-06-29T22:28:04Z")
So about people faking psychiatric illnesses- clearly they don’t have BIID, as it’s not the body that would change if they had the condition. Do they have some kind of unphysical version of BIID? Personally I think anyone faking PTSD is a heinous excuse for a human being, and anyone who doesn’t have it but _actually wants it_ is definitely, definitely mentally ill. You don’t want that shite. Then again, I’d wager to say it’s harder to fake than something like agoraphobia. PTSD gets better and worse all the time and can fuck you up in whole new ways even after years of having it. And you can’t fake the startle response. The rare times I tell someone I have PTSD in conversation one of the first questions they ask is, “Can you get money from the govn’t for that?” If anyone ever had the gall to ask me how they might go about faking it, I think I’d smack them. ---
**Author:** ![obbn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/d6d6ee/32.png) [@obbn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obbn)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2012, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403/46 "2012-06-30T06:00:14Z")
Please don’t forget that being disabled doesn’t mean that those of us who are should always be limping, in a wheelchair, etc… There are occasions when I have a “good day”, the pain meds are working good, I finally slept well or the stars aligned themselves in the correct way and I am able to do simmering I don’t normally get to do. Things such as cut the lawn for once or help my kids wash the car. The problem is, those days come by few and far between and after such activities I generally pay for it with awful pain the next few days. However, I live for those few moments when I can be "normal"again and take some of the load off my wife. There are a lot of people out there taking advantage of the system, but don’t discount someone being disabled because you might have seen them doing something you think they shouldn’t be able to do. I would almost say that I can do anything now I could do before my injury. However I can’t do these things on a consistent basis and there is always, I repeat always, a high price to pay for engaging in anything even remotely physical. But price or not, I will take every opportunity I can to participate in any activity I can. I might be disabled, but i’m not dead yet. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-disability-pretenders-and-what-do-they-get-out-of-it/626403.md?page=2)