What does it take to get on disability? A mental disorder, apparently. About 35% of people currently receiving benefits from the civil government due to a disability are physically fit. Their disability is of the mental variety.

The number of people on disability has increased dramatically over the years:

Disabled beneficiaries have increased 49.7 percent from a decade ago in 2003 when there were 6,830,714 beneficiaries; and the number is up 14.3 percent from the 8,945,376 beneficiaries in 2009, the year President Obama took office.

So I can only surmise that at least some of these people on disability could learn to cope with their issues without taxpayer money. In fact, I’m sure of this. The most common mental disorder among disabled beneficiaries is a “mood disorder.” In fact, fourteen percent of all the people on disability were diagnosed with this vaguely defined problem. That’s not fourteen percent of the mental disorders. That’s fourteen percent of all the people on disability, period.

And what exactly is a “mood disorder”? Hold on to your hat:

To be determined to be suffering a disabling mood disorder, a person must exhibit a combination of factors, including such things as “appetite disturbance with change in weight; or sleep disturbance; or psychomotor agitation or retardation; or decreased energy; or feelings of guilt or worthlessness; or difficulty concentrating or thinking; or thoughts of suicide; or hallucinations, delusions, or paranoid thinking.”

Ummm. Yeah. I think most anyone could support a case for mood disorder within those parameters. This sounds like depression. And who hasn’t suffered depression at least a few times in their lives?

But let’s say the depressed people on disability are actually disabled by shifts in mood. Do you really think giving them money is going to fix that? So they can stay at home and mope? I don’t think so. Most of us battle through depression by getting about our business. It’s no wonder the number of people on disability continues to soar. I imagine there isn’t much of a revolving door on that.

Anyway, when will the civil government quit trying to fix these kinds of problems? They really suck at it.