Review Time

It's been a long while since I posted anything here. Things got kind of busy and I was dealing with it all. My health has been declining gradually in that I'm becoming increasingly tired. Which makes everyone ask: have you got Chronic Fatigue Syndrome or ME? No. I have Fibro-myalgia... still. I'm now taking codeine as my main pain relief, but don't feel very good about it, and I don't really like it (fuzzy head, constipation, and worry of habituation & addiction etc. that come with opiates). At the moment I have a candida infection in my ears, and I'm somewhat haunted by all the stuff that used to go around about systemic candida infections. Might have to look into this.

Anyway I'm writing now because I finally got a letter from DWP saying they are reviewing my case. The inevitable consequence will be an ATOS review. I feel sick with anxiety, and I can't really talk about it to anyone.

Step one: they ring and talk to me on the phone.
Step two: fill in another IB50 form or whatever the equivalent is.

Then they say "you may need to attend a Work Capacity Assessment" but of course they're forcing everyone to have a WCA and ATOS are charged with taking welfare away from as many people as possible.

I suppose one must grant that the welfare bill is high in the UK and that it is fair enough that they check from time to time whether I still need it. But as the NHS can provide no effective treatment for my conditions (except maybe the ear infection), then I don't know why they expect me to have improved.

I don't know. I'm just worried sick. And it means I'll have to start answering the phone during the day as well!