How To Apply For Disability Benefits For Mental Disorders?

Individuals suffering from conditions like mental disorders are eligible to receive benefits from the SSA or the Social Security Administration. If you have bipolar disorder, acute depression, anxiety disorder, or any other mental illness that has proved to be an obstacle in your path towards employment and income.

The disability benefits from the SSA can help you. You receive the benefits every month and can play a key role in warding off your financial worries. For instance, you can pay for your medical bills, financial obligations, and your day-to-day expenditures. Therefore, you can live your life without having an income from employment. How to apply for disability benefits for mental disorders? The following points will discuss the details.

Benefits for Adults With Disabilities

The SSA offers disability benefits through Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income(SSI). Disabled adult employees can avail themselves of SSDI if they shell out the Social Security taxes. Only those individuals can avail SSI when they adhere to the earnings and asset holdings limitations.

If your mental illness has prevented you from working at any point in life. You won’t be eligible for SSDI. If any of your friends and family support you financially, you won’t be eligible for SSI.

Basic Eligibility

The SSA will check whether you have met all the basic criteria before reviewing your application. To qualify, you will need a diagnosis of a disabling condition that can happen in the future. You have to have a diagnosed condition that will, in all probability, leave you disabled for one year or longer. After you receive the confirmation from the SSA that you meet the criteria, it will go through your medical condition. They will also check whether you are eligible for the SSDI or the SSI.

Medical Records to Prove Your Eligibility

The SSA reviews your medical records to ascertain that you are eligible for the disability benefits. The SSA maintains a medical guide or the Blue Book to review disability applications. They will match your medical record to the list of disabilities mentioned in that Blue Book. Section 12.00 mentions mental illnesses. Sub-section 12.06 talks about disorders related to anxiety.

Sub-section 12.08 deals with personality disorders. You might be eligible under this subsection in case you have an acute phobia, panic disorder, post-traumatic stress, or any other condition related to anxiety. You might be eligible in case you are suffering from acute depression. 12.04 states that if someone has bipolar disorder, the SSA will be reviewing their application under the listing of affective disorders.

Medical records must information such as a diagnosis done by a psychiatrist, brain scans, or other tests that would provide evidence of any physical abnormality, documented evidence of symptoms, so on and so forth.

Check The SSA’s Blue Book

If you can prove that your mental illness is hampering your daily activities and you cannot work anywhere outside your home, there are high chances that the SSA will approve your application. In the case of a majority of mental illnesses, you have to furnish documents to prove that you have been under medication for at least two years. You should also show that there hasn’t been a noticeable improvement in your condition.

You will have to meet the disability listing mentioned in the SSA’s Blue Book. Make sure that you have all the medical information ready at hand. From getting hospitalized to undergoing therapy sessions, you have to have everything with you. Prepare a list mentioning all the medications you are going through, whether there has been any major improvement in the symptoms, and the negative side effects.

How to Submit Your Application?

You can apply for the SSDI online. As for the SSI, you can apply at your nearest office. You can’t apply online for SSI. You can go through the website of SSA to apply online or dial 1-800-772-1213 to get an appointment. The SSA has over 1300 locations spread across the United States.

After receiving approval from the SSA, your case might undergo a review every year. If your condition persists for long, you will keep receiving disability benefits. We hope this blog was helpful. If you know someone eligible for a mental disability benefit, do not forget to share this article with them.