Charlotte Social Security Disability: Knowledge is Power…Or Is It?
Whether your doctor just diagnosed you with a scary, long-term illness, and you’re just beginning your quest for Charlotte social security disability benefits – or you’re farther along on the journey – you probably have been told something along the lines of the following:
“To make the most of your benefits — to ensure a maximum result with minimal effort — you need to educate yourself about the social security disability system.”
Of course, the team here at the law offices of Michael A. DeMayo agrees with this general principle. On the other hand, we also want to identify and alert you to a potential problem that “self education” can create.
That problem is sneaky, it’s not often talked about.
“Knowledge is power” is true… but only sometimes, and the power can be “double edged.”
Discussions about the nature of knowledge can easily turn into rambling conversations about epistemology and philosophy, and you obviously want answers and actionable help – not speculative philosophy!
But it’s important for us to discuss what knowledge actually does for us – and what it doesn’t do.
Knowledge can empower, in that when you know the rules of the game, you can often get results faster. This is why an experienced North Carolina social security disability law firm can often solve benefits-related problems that flummox “ordinary folk.” When you know how the system generally works, how to make insurance companies behave, how to talk to your doctor, and how to deal with setbacks, you are “empowered” in the sense that you can get a better likely outcome.
On the other hand, the wrong knowledge can actually take you in the wrong direction!
Being represented by a bad law firm, for instance, can often be worse than being represented by no law firm at all.
If you misunderstand a certain tactic – that is, if your knowledge is only partial instead of zero – you may take over confident measures that can get you in trouble. It’s like… a small child has no knowledge about how to drive a car, and so that child is not dangerous. But a teenager who just got her driver’s permit — who has some experience but not much! — can be quite dangerous.
Finally, too much knowledge is dangerous for other reasons. We need to filter what knowledge is important, what knowledge would be nice to know but not essential, and what knowledge we can ignore. Otherwise, we get overwhelmed and stressed.
This article is not meant to dissuade you from self-educating. Rather, it’s intended to highlight the importance of good guides.
