An Observation in the Neuro waiting room...

[MrsBones]

Wow. And double wow.

So, the original question boils down to how do you feel about the people who intentionally scam the system. People who are taking advantage of the system. It can and does happen on a daily basis. Billions of dollars are stolen by these kinds of people.

But, I guess that's not what people wanted to talk about here.

Really. Whether this girl was or was not in fear, on drugs, nervous or being coached did not serve the illustrative purpose it was intended to serve and the trial of judgement appears to have been more appetizing. That is quite... telling.

Never mind the details of judgement that you don't agree with or consider hateful (where on earth did that come from?!). This was not a hateful OBSERVATION. (At least, it wasn't to me. But I guess my statements have been judged to have been hateful for some reason).

Not that i have to justify my "observation" - I work in insurance. 1 out of every 10 claims seems to be outright fraud from the start. 3 out of 10 times or more, people take advantage of a real situation. (Try to get more than they are entitled to or exaggerate an actual injury) That costs everyone more. I see people taking advantage obviously more than the average Joe. So, knowing that it makes me as a professional and a MSer disheartened about some people... Wondering in such a forum how it makes others feel did not strike me as something that would cause such...whatever happened here!

Wow. And double wow.

What an eye opening experience.

No one likes to see people try to scam the SSDI system. No one denies it happens all the time. That goes without saying, though people did have their say on the topic and gave an answer to your question.

On the other hand, you can surely see why, in a forum full of people so often judged by how they look or discriminated against because of it, even by others with disabilities, so many could be put off (therefore unlikely to see much else of what you've written) by a post starting with :

Whilst waiting for my 3 hour tour in my beloved MRI machine, I observed a young woman sitting with an older man. The woman looked like she was on withdrawl from a drug and the man looked like he was of the "not so good" kind.

(my emphasis)

Had your original post made no mention of how they looked and simply that they said she was there to get a dx so she could get SSDI, you may not have had the "Wow. And double wow." type of response you did.

Intention comes across very poorly in the world of message boards. I'm sure it was not your intention to have the type of reaction to what you described as having an illustrative purpose, but as you can see , it didn't come across exactly as you may have intended.

No matter the correctness of your observations or your professional background and knowledge, as people likely to be at least put off by statements that seem to be judgement based on appearance, you could possibly understand why those either put off or outright offended have not read your subsequent posts or may be so offended by the apparent judgments made in the original posts that they simply can not see/address your question.

I had no idea it would be offensive to ask how we felt about people who want something for nothing. I thought there would be sympathy for our fellow MSers who are going through the real struggle of trying to break through the red tape to get their just benefits.

Asking how people feel about others inappropriately getting SSDI was not what folks, IMO, are upset/offended by, just the way your initial post , w/o the further details you provided later, made it seem ( again, just how it seems, IMO) as if it was determined they were scamming the system based on their "look" and an ambiguous statement made by a young girl you said seemed nervous.

I don't mean to upset or offend you. I'm just hoping to explain, at least for myself, what was so upsetting/off-putting in the original post.

[Sequoia]

This thread has run its course, so I'm closing it.

Blessings of the Season to everyone. Let's move on together.