You are 100% right. In my close family we had a person that developed really oppositional schizoid type behavior (can't see the medical diagnosis due to HIPAA) and it took all of our resources to get her disability set up - luckily we had a nurse and a lawyer in the family who we could draw on to fight the paperwork and bureaucratic hurdles.

I just don't see how a person without family resources (i.e. most mentally ill patients) could ever qualify and I'm sure that's by design.