Sometimes, life can be extremely difficult. You may have anxiety or be dealing with depression, have post-traumatic stress disorder from a work accident or another serious situation. Whatever the reason is, if you are dealing with a debilitating mental illness, you may be able to seek out Social Security Disability benefits to help you get the financial support you need.
The Social Security Blue Book goes over a number of illnesses and injuries that qualify for Social Security Disability Insurance. Among them, there are mental health issues such as:
- Personality and impulse-control disorders
- Eating disorders
- Anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Schizophrenia
- Psychotic disorders
- Bipolar disorders
- Depressive disorders
- Somatic symptoms
These and other kinds of mental health issues can result in qualifying for benefits, but you will need to have strong supporting evidence that they have led to disability.
What kinds of documents will you need to build your case?
If you want to seek Social Security Disability benefits for mental illness, you will need to have many documents to show how the illness affects you and makes it impossible for you to hold a typical job.
Some of the information you should provide to the Social Security Administration includes:
- Medical records
- Psychiatric records
- Your history of hospitalization, if there is one
- Your treatment history
- Letters, pictures or videos you’ve gathered yourself or received from friends, colleagues, employers or others
To get Social Security Disability coverage for a mental illness, you will need to show that your disability is extreme. It will need to have a marked impact on your ability to understand, interact with others, manage your work, and perform tasks or other functions.
Sometimes, people with long-term serious and persistent mental health issues can qualify, too, even if the limitation ratings aren’t necessarily severe enough for SSDI. There are many variances in how people are affected by mental illnesses, so it’s important to make sure that you know more about your legal options and fill out a solid application for SSDI. It can be difficult to qualify, but if you provide thorough documentation, you may get the benefits that you need more easily.