Brown Envelopes

If you've spent any time in the benefits system, you'll know about, and probably fear, the brown envelopes. Letters from the DWP, more often than not carrying bad news. Atos however, use white envelopes, relieving the initial fear of post landing on your doorstep. Well, until you see who it's from, when the fear quadruples.

Mr received an Atos letter today, informing him he will have a medical as part of his DLA claim. He's already had a medical this year, for his ESA claim. We fought for months to get it at home, and eventually he had to go to their centre for it. He fell head first out the taxi when he got there, and we were both treated horifically by the "nurse". She practically shouted at me when I stood up for him,  she threatened him when he was too ill to move, and he was told to pull himself together when his leg spasmed.

This medical looks like it will be at our house, which is a huge improvement. It is still terrifying though. I suffer from awful stress, and it makes my ME so much worse. The moment we got that letter a huge weight dropped into me again, and I don't know how to shift it. It's just stuck there, sucking everything from me. My anxiety is high and I've been shaking for hours now.

Will I be getting a similar letter through the post this week? I'm applying for DLA too, and unlike Mr I haven't had a medical since 2008.

I'm terrifed. It's not "just a form", it's not "just a medical". It's a stressful, life destroying, humiliating experience, where you have to try and prove the truth - you have a fluctuating invisible disability, that you desperately need help with, but which doesn't fit into any of their tick boxes.

We're entitled to this help, and I hate the world making us feel like "benefit scrounging scum". We're disabled, not lazy. And being disabled doesn't make us a lower class. You might be this ill one day.