Supporting Brynn with Health issues

Hi, I’m Brynn. I’m a neurodivergent queer transfemme who recently has been dealing with a host of health issues forcing me to switch to part time work. These recent events have forced me to ask the community at large for help, so I may continue healing myself and using my experiences to heal others.

I am requesting financial assistance to get through this very difficult time of medical treatment and home emergencies; fridge failure, water leak, diagnosed with an aneurysm after daily migraines started last January which have forced me to switch to part time work drastically reducing my income. As much as I would like to “do it myself”, I’m afraid things have finally gotten on top of me.

I have been in recovery since 2017 and am wholly dedicated to doing all of the healing needed to truly recover. While my clean date is 7-07-2017, it wasn’t until I was able to escape to Oregon in 2020 was I able to get the therapies so desperately needed for recovery. In that time I have had 2 knee surgeries, a bone graft in my mouth and 10 implant posts to support dentures, a hernia surgery gone wrong catching a nerve in the mesh, done neurofeedback for nearly a year, 3 recovery groups a week for 18 months, accepted my authentic self, gotten certified as a Peer Support Specialist in Mental Health and Recovery as well as my CADC-R, worked for over a year as a Peer Support, gotten involved with my local Refuge Recovery group’s Hospital and Institution Program, and fully begun integrating into society.

Not wishing this to sound like a “Oh poor me” thing, I do want to stress the personal responsibility taken to correct such, while also fully explaining my situation.

A survivor of early childhood trauma from age 2-17 when I finally ran away, only to be taken in by a crime family which itself resulted in a multi-decade heroin addiction ending in incarceration. While on parole, I was encouraged by my PO to apply for disability, having been part of the SNOP (Special Needs Offender Program) due to my mental health/emotional issues. It took 2.5 years and all the way to a 3 psych panel but I won the disability case.

However I was only entitled to SSI, but the government gave me full SSDI with backpay. Not understanding the difference at the time, thought nothing of it until they realized their error 2 years later and raided my bank account, claiming I owe them $52K, which I obviously didn’t have. This coming at a time of attempting to rebuild my health and get proper therapy for my family of origin, addiction, and incarceration.

This led to a 5 year fight with the Social Security Admin over this “overpayment,” which I finally won Oct 2022, only to be reversed in it’s entirety April of 2023. So, it’s back to owing the government for something I feel was their responsibility to know when it was awarded.