How Can You Get Disability For Depression

Disability Policies Limit The Receipt Of Benefits For 24 Months

First of all, and dont ask how this is legal and some disability lawyers were going to keep investigating this but most disability policies limit the receipt of benefits for 24 months if the condition is based on a mental health diagnosis. So, yes that policy youve been paying for so many years that you thought was going to provide you protection for your life or at least up until retirement age, its going to limit your receipt of disability benefits for two years if you have a mental health diagnosis. Disability lawyers have spent years in their experience and studying their files looking at various disability policies and seeing how they define a mental health condition. They always say it depends and they do that because every policy defines things differently and with mental health cases you know and theyve got several examples theyre all kind of the same but theres a couple things to watch out for.

What If My Application Is Denied

If your application for disability is denied, you have several different options. When you receive a notice that your application has been denied, you have 60 days to formally appeal the decision. There are four steps to an appeal:

• You can request a reconsideration if your application was denied based on medical reasons, income, living arrangements, or other reasons that you disagree with. When you file a reconsideration, someone from the SSA who was not involved in your original determination will review your application and any new evidence.

• If you disagree with the SSAs decision after a reconsideration, you may request a hearing by an administrative law judge who was not involved in your first determination. The hearing may take place in-person or through video.

• If you are denied benefits after a hearing with an administrative law judge, you may request a review by the Appeals Council. The council will consider all requests, but may deny your request if they determine that the decision made by the administrative law judge was accurate. If the council reviews your case, they will either make a decision on their own or send your appeal to another administrative law judge.

• The last level of the appeals process is filing a civil suit in federal court. You may do so if the Appeals Council refuses your case or you disagree with their decision. You have 60 days after receiving the Appeals Councils decision to file a civil suit.

Length And Levels Of Depression

Your depression or bipolar disorder must have lasted or be expected to last for at least a year, and must be at a level at which you would be unable to perform a job on a consistent and regular basis. The SSA does not require that you be depressed every day of the month, but you must show your depressive symptoms occur frequently enough to prevent you from working.

Quite often, your medical treatment records for a particular visit will say that you are “feeling better” or that your depression has “improved.” The SSA might use these records as a reason to deny you disability benefits. If your medical records include such notes, you can explain at a hearing before an administrative law judge whether you have good days and bad days with your disorder, and how often each occurs.

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What Are The Disabling Symptoms Of Depression

Clinical depression is marked by pervasive feelings of sadness, despair, and loss of interest in activities you once enjoyed. It is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.

The way depression manifests may differ from case to case, but the most common underlying symptoms include:

• Pervasive feelings of sadness and worthlessness
• Fatigue and loss of energy
• Inability to concentrate or focus
• Slowed speech and physical movements
• Unusual sleep patterns
• Loss of interest or enjoyment in all activities
• Loss of appetite and/or significant change in body weight and
• Suicidal thoughts.

Any of these symptoms, if presenting severely and frequently enough, can be disabling.

Though it may be obvious to you why you can no longer work with depression, your insurance company will require details of all your symptoms and the ways in which they specifically impair your ability to perform your job duties.

Remember that depression presents differently in each person. To fairly evaluate your long term disability claim for depression, your insurer must understand how your condition personally affects your functioning.

Secondary Service Connection For Depression And Anxiety

Service connection for depression and anxiety may also be established on a secondary basis. In this case, an already service-connected condition aggravates or causes the veterans depression and/or anxiety. For example, if the veteran is service-connected for a very debilitating back condition, it is possible that they will develop depression due to the chronic pain and limitations on activities of daily living. When filing for secondary service connection, providing a nexus opinion is especially important. The nexus between the veterans primary service-connected condition and their secondary condition must be clearly established in order to be granted secondary service connection for the latter.

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Benefits For Disabled Adults

• Supplemental Security Income

SSDI is available to disabled adult workers who have paid Social Security taxes, while SSI is a need-based program only available to applicants that meet strict limitations on income and asset holdings. If you have never worked due to your mental illness, you will not qualify for SSDI. If you have financial support from friends or family, you will not qualify for SSI.

Applying For Disability With Depression

Basic requirements for disability claimsdepressiondisability evaluation processrequirements for SSI and SSDISGA level work activitysevere medically verifiable mental or physical conditionDepression is evaluated under the criteria of listing 12.04 Affective Disorders.Impairment listing 12.04 criteria may be satisfied by the following methods.andrepeated decompensationsorfiling for Social Security and/or Supplemental Security disabilityMore about the conditionMost popular topics on SSDRC.com

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Correct Treatment But No Documentation

Insurance companies will deny many claims because of a lack of medical documentation. So, even if your doctor follows best practices and you follow their advice if it isnt recorded, its like it never happened.

Its common in cases of depression for the insurance company to ask for your doctors clinical records. They do this to see if the doctor is following best practices adjusting medication and making appropriate recommendations. If the doctors medical file doesnt document whats happening, then the insurance company will deny your claim.

Get Appropriate Treatment For Depression

When evaluating your depression long term disability claim, the insurance company will want to see youre receiving appropriate treatment. Even if your claim is approved, they will still require proof of ongoing treatment for your condition.

The insurance company can easily use non-compliance and lack of appropriate care as a reason to deny or terminate your depression long term disability claim.

To demonstrate appropriate treatment, your treatment team should include specialists such as a psychiatrist and/or psychologist. Treatment options may include:

Again, it is important to follow your doctors recommendation. Your insurance company will want to see you are in treatment and doing everything in your power to improve your symptoms.

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How To Apply For Social Security Disability With Bipolar Disorder

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Bipolar disorder causes severe mood swings that can make learning, working, or other aspects of daily life difficult to perform. Fortunately, the Social Security Administration offers financial benefits to help alleviate these struggles.

These benefits, called Social Security Disability benefits, are available to those who meet certain requirements and successfully complete the application. An adult or child living with Bipolar disorder can benefit from understanding the entire disability process in order to gain the financial support deserved.

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How To Apply For Disability Benefits With Depression

Last Updated: May 25, 2021References

This article was written by Jennifer Mueller, JD. Jennifer Mueller is an in-house legal expert at wikiHow. Jennifer reviews, fact-checks, and evaluates wikiHow’s legal content to ensure thoroughness and accuracy. She received her JD from Indiana University Maurer School of Law in 2006.There are 14 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been viewed 14,484 times.

If you can no longer work due to depression, you may be able to get disability benefits from the federal government through Supplemental Security Income or Social Security Disability Insurance. SSI benefits are need-based and are granted depending on your income and assets. Your eligibility for SSDI, on the other hand, depends on how long your worked and the amount of contributions youve made to the Social Security trust fund.

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Types Of Disability Benefits For Depression

If you become unable to work because of depression, you have a few options. You might be eligible for disability benefits from the government, your employer, or your insurer.

This list covers the possible options for depression in Canada:

• Employment Insurance sickness benefits
• Short-term disability insurance
• Provincial disability benefits
• Disability tax credit

Lets go over each so you know whether you qualify, how to apply, and how to appeal if they deny your claim.

Causes Of Depression Or Anxiety

Although it is not clear, family genes or other biological reasons may cause or influence the emergence of depression. It is not uncommon to see these conditions shared by members of the same family. Depression may also be brought on by changes in ones life such as divorce, death, or a job change, however, such periods of depression normally resolve themselves within a relatively short period of time. However, if such a severe mood lasts every day for two-weeks or longer, then depression may require treatment to be resolved.

If your depression has been persisting, it is important to seek treatment early, both for treatment and to document its existence and severity should you have difficulty recovering and have to file a disability claim.

Anxiety may come on for no apparent reason or may also be familial. If left untreated, anxiety can worsen to the point that it interferes with the ability to concentrate and complete tasks needed for normal work activities. Some individuals anxiety reaches the point that they may refuse to leave their homes for fear of triggering an episode of panic.

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Medical Qualifying With A Mental Illness

The SSA conducts a detailed review of your medical records to determine your eligibility for benefits. During this review, they try to match your records to a disability listing in the Blue Book. The Blue Book is the SSAs medical guide that is used to evaluate every disability application.

Disability listings outline the severity level requirements and the specific medical evidence needed to support a claim for benefits. Mental illnesses appear in Section 12.00 and include:

• 12.06, Anxiety-related Disorders you may qualify under this listing if you have a severe phobia, post-traumatic stress, a panic disorder, or another anxiety-related condition.
• 12.08, Personality Disorders this is the listing under which you may qualify if you have severe, clinical depression.
• 12.04, Affective Disorders if you have bipolar disorder, your application will be reviewed under this listing.

Extensive medical records are necessary to qualify, including:

• Information on your diagnosis, ideally from a psychiatrist or psychologist
• Brain scans or other evidence of physical abnormalities that document an organic cause for symptoms, if applicable
• Treatment records, documenting medications, therapy, and other management methods used and their effects
• Thoroughly documented episodes of increased symptoms or periods of decompensation
• Well documented affects of your symptoms on your everyday abilities or activities of daily living

How To Qualify For A Va Rating For Depression

To qualify for a VA disability rating for depression, the event that caused the depression will need to have happened while you were on active duty.

However, this does not mean that it necessarily had to occur while you were in the line of duty.

It could be entirely unrelated to your experience in the military but happened while you were on active duty.

For example, you may have had an incident occur while you were in the line of duty, such as being in a firefight or having another service member die in front of you. You might have had a loved one die while you were overseas.

Many events can trigger depression in a person.

Everyone is unique and the things that might cause depression in one person might not affect another the same way.

If you are suffering from depression now, consider some of the events that occurred while you were on active duty and whether one of those may have been the trigger.

When filling for your depression VA disability claim, you will need to know the trigger that caused the depression.

Its also important to add that any traumatic event that happened during active duty qualifies as a trigger.

These can be things such as:

• Death in the family
• Divorce
• Training, deployments, and separation from family and friends
• Giving birth to a child

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Locking Yourself In The Bathroom

Do you bolt out of your workplace? Do you lock yourself inside the bathroom? Or will you leave your workplace, isolate yourself, suffer in silence and become unable to finish your allocated tasks for the day due to difficulty with concentration and memory?

SSA may want you to obtain a medical opinion from your psychologist regarding the level of your anxiety ranging from mild, moderate to severe.

What are the causes of your anxiety? What is the effect of your anxiety disorder and how does it affect your ability to work?

If you have suffered panic attacks in your previous employment, if possible, try to obtain statements from your previous employer regarding your work absences as a result of anxiety symptoms.

Bipolar Disorder Is Considered A Qualifying Disorder For Ssdi

When thinking about Social Security Disability benefits , many people first consider physical disabilities. Yet millions of Americans have mental health conditions that limit their ability to work such as bipolar disorder. Although bipolar disorder is relatively rare, the majority of people with this condition report that they are seriously disabled.

Bipolar disorder is a mental illness that is characterized by unusual shifts in mood, energy and activity levels. People who have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder often have varying abilities to carry out daily tasks. Bipolar disorder involves clear changes in mood, from manic, highly energized periods to more depressed, sad times.

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How Can You Get Ssdi For Depression Criteria To Qualify

The SSDI application will benefit you if you have been struggling with depression for a year or longer, and you are unable to work as before. Mental health disorders are added to the list of medical conditions that qualify you for the benefits. These mental conditions include depression, schizophrenia, autism spectrum disorder, and bipolar disorder.

To qualify for the SSDI, you must experience a minimum of at least five symptoms of depression listed above. You should also have at least one of the following:

• You cannot comprehend information dished to you, interact with others, have the right concentration, and take care of yourself. To qualify, you must be experiencing a minimum of two of the listed symptoms.
• Your depression is considered a disability if your medical records indicate that your symptoms have been persistent. You have been receiving treatment for depression for at least two years.
• You should also be having a hard time adapting to your new lifestyle of living with depression as a disability and adapting to the new set routine.

To have more credit, you should have worked before and paid for your Social Security. The credits are based on your annual net income. If you are not confident whether you qualify for the SSDI, you can contact the administration to confirm your eligibility.

According to the SSDI, you can qualify for exclusive monthly benefits or instead get a medical-vocational allowance.

For you to receive medical funding, the following are needed:

How Can I Apply For Disability Under Ssa

To be eligible for SSDI, you must first have paid into Social Security through a past job long enough to accrue credits.

Credit requirements for benefits change annually. As of 2021, you need an average of 40 credits to receive SSDI disability benefits for depression.

You can earn only 4 credits every year. Most people may need to work an average of 10 years at a job paying into Social Security to apply for SSDI.

SSI has less demanding requirements because its designed to help you meet basic income needs for clothing, food, or housing.

To qualify for SSI, you must:

• live with a disability or be at least age 65
• have limited income
• have limited resources
• be a U.S. citizen, U.S. national, or qualified noncitizen
• reside in one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, or the Northern Mariana Islands

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Can You Get Disability For Depression

Depression is not a matter to be left unchecked as sometimes it can get highly severe. It can become so severe that it will decrease your ability to work and do any job, even if you have taken medication or opted for treatments and therapies.

But can you get disability for depression? If your depression is treatment-resistant, it has become a hindrance between you and your job, and you cannot do any work. People suffering from depression always try to obtain Social Security Disability Insurance benefits or Supplemental Security Income disability benefits. You may be able to qualify for Social Security disability benefits like financial assistance and health insurance.

To qualify for and receive disability benefits, a person needs to meet certain disability criteria. Other than this, the history of depression of the person should be well documented by the persons treating doctor- the medical record should include all the treatments that were attempted, their pros and cons, and also it should show that the disorder has affected the ability of the person to function properly and manage daily tasks and that they are also unable to work properly. After meeting all the requirements, only then can you get disability for depression.