HOW MENTAL SYMPTOMS HELP YOU WIN SSD BENEFITS
The Social Security Administration (SSA) recognizes that even if your main disability is a physical illness, mental symptoms can still impact your ability to work.
Many people believe the SSA looks only at their main medical problem. That is not true. If you have a physical condition and mental symptoms, then the SSA must consider both. In many cases, mental symptoms become the missing piece that helps you qualify for disability benefits.
For example, chronic pain often causes depression, anxiety, and dysthymia. These symptoms may seem minor by themselves. However, when the SSA combines them with your physical limits, they can reduce your ability to work. Not just at your old job, but at all jobs.
That is why you should never leave mental symptoms out of your SSD claim. Even mild mental symptoms can make a big difference. In fact, they may help the SSA understand why you cannot return to your past job or adjust to other work.
If you have moderate mental symptoms, but the symptoms alone aren’t enough to keep you from working, then it is important to understand how the SSA views mental issues along with your physical conditions. Medical records that prove moderate mental health symptoms can be a powerful tool in ruling out your ability to work.
THE SSA LOOKS AT YOUR WHOLE MEDICAL CONDITION
The SSA does not look at one illness by itself. Instead, it reviews every medical condition that limits your ability to work. This includes both physical and mental conditions.
For example, you may have kidney disease, lupus, back problems, or another painful condition. At the same time, you may also struggle with panic attacks or social anxiety. Even if your mental symptoms do not qualify as a separate disability, the SSA must still include them when deciding your claim.
The law requires the SSA to consider the combined effect of all of your medical problems. A physical condition alone may not be enough to qualify for benefits. Likewise, mild depression alone may not qualify. However, when the SSA evaluates every limitation together, you may no longer be able to perform full time work. This is one reason many people receive benefits even though no single medical condition seems severe enough by itself.
CHRONIC PAIN CAN CREATE MENTAL SYMPTOMS
Living with constant pain affects your emotions, your thinking, and your daily life. When every movement hurts, simple activities become difficult. For example, you may stop enjoying your hobbies. Or, you may avoid family gatherings and stay at home because leaving the house is too painful. Over time, these changes often lead to depression, anxiety, and frustration.
Many people also become forgetful because of pain. Pain makes it difficult to stay focused. It becomes harder to finish tasks or remember appointments. You may find yourself reading the same page several times because you can’t remember what you read. In addition, poor sleep makes these problems even worse. Many painful conditions interrupt sleep throughout the night. As a result, you wake up tired and have trouble thinking clearly during the day.
The SSA understands that chronic pain affects both your body and your emotions. Therefore, your medical records should explain both types of symptoms.
MENTAL SYMPTOMS CAN MAKE PHYSICAL LIMITATIONS WORSE
Mental symptoms do not simply exist beside your physical condition. Instead, they often make your physical problems harder to manage. For example, mental symptoms can lower your motivation to complete daily tasks. Anxiety can make it harder to leave your home or interact with other people. Poor concentration can slow your work pace. Likewise, memory problems can cause you to make mistakes at work throughout the day.
Mental symptoms can reduce your ability to deal with stress. Even small changes at work may become overwhelming. You may struggle to keep up with production, follow instructions, or stay organized.
The SSA considers all of these limitations together. Therefore, even moderate mental symptoms may increase the overall impact of your physical condition. However, you must prove your mental symptoms. There is only one way to do that: submit medical evidence from your therapist or mental health doctor.
Taking medications is not proof that you have mental symptoms. In fact, if that is all you are doing, then it may prove the opposite. If you aren’t seeing a counselor, then an SSA judge will probably conclude your medications have cured your mental symptoms. If you want to prove your mental symptoms, then you need to get treatment.
SUBMIT TREATMENT FOR MENTAL SYMPTOMS TO THE SSA
Even if you are filing for SSD benefits because of a physical condition, you still need to let the SSA know about your mental symptoms. Give the SSA the names and dates of any mental health professionals you’ve seen. You should also include the names of any medications you are taking for mental disorders on your application.
If you aren’t getting treatment for your symptoms, then seek help from a doctor or therapist as soon as you can. Lots of people struggling with chronic pain have been taught to just deal with moderate symptoms of mental illness. Therefore, they are reluctant to seek treatment. Don’t let that be you.
When you visit your doctor and therapist, describe any feelings of sadness, anger, confusion, or frustration you feel. Don’t just tell your doctor you are fine. Don’t minimize your mental symptoms. The doctor will add to your medical record only what you share. If your record doesn’t contain symptoms of mental disorders, then the SSA doesn’t know that your chronic physical conditions impact your mental health. Therefore, depending on what the rest of your record says, the SSA might find that you can work.
INCLUDE MENTAL SYMPTOMS ON YOUR ACTIVITIES OF DAILY LIVING FORM
Social Security will ask you to describe how your mental symptoms affect your daily life. They will ask you to compete an Activities of Daily Living form. Many people don’t take the time to complete this form in detail. However, it is the best way for you to let the SSA know what you can and can’t do on a regular basis.
The form asks you to explain how your mental symptoms impact you during a normal day. If you can’t sleep through the night, you have trouble doing basic chores, or if you frequently lose your train of thought, then mention these issues on the form. Explain how your mental symptoms affect your routine. Describe problems with concentration, memory, and following instructions. If you can’t handle stress or you sleep too much, then tell the SSA.
Do not simply answer yes or no on the form. Instead, provide clear examples that show how your mental symptoms limit your daily activities. For example, perhaps you no longer shop because you don’t want to be around other people. Or, perhaps you no longer go to church or the movies for the same reason. If you no longer attend social events, then let the SSA know. But do it by using examples instead of just saying, “I don’t like to be around others.”
THE SSA INCLUDES YOUR MENTAL SYMPTOMS IN YOUR RFC
The SSA will look at your medical records and your activities of daily living to determine your residual functional capacity (RFC). Your RFC is what the agency thinks you can do after they take your physical and mental symptoms into account.
A typical RFC will contain physical limitations on how long you can sit, stand, and walk, lift and carry. If you have any additional restrictions on your ability to perform movements like bending or handling objects, then those should be part of your RFC as well. Your RFC will also include mental symptoms, such as whether you can perform complex or simple tasks and how much contact you can have with other people. It should also include whether you need extra time during the day to finish your job duties.
The SSA also considers your mental abilities. It evaluates whether you can focus, remember instructions, and maintain a normal work pace. It also includes your ability to respond to criticism, interact with other workers and customers, and deal with changes in the workplace. Even moderate problems in these areas can reduce the number of jobs you can perform. In some cases, mental symptoms become the deciding factor that leads to an approval of benefits.
MENTAL SYMPTOMS CAN REMOVE TRANSFERABLE SKILLS
Many people believe only physical limits matter in an SSD claim. However, mental symptoms often have an even greater effect on your ability to work.
If you are age 50 or older, the SSA follows special rules when deciding whether you can adjust to different work. These rules become very important if you cannot return to your past job. The SSA first looks at the skills you learned from your previous work. These are transferable job skills: skill you can use in another job with very little training.
For example, you may know how to manage money, keep records, use a computer, prepare reports, schedule appointments, or maintain inventory. These skills may allow you to move into another type of work that is physically easier for you. However, mental symptoms can make those skills useless. For example, social anxiety may keep you from working around other people. Memory problems may cause you to forget important steps. Poor concentration may slow your work pace. Together, these problems may prevent you from using your work skills.
As a result, the SSA may decide that you cannot adjust to another job. This is why mental symptoms are so important to your case. It is only mental symptoms that eliminate skills.
MENTAL SYMPTOMS CAN RULE OUT EVEN SIMPLE WORK
Many people assume simple work requires very few mental abilities. But, that is not true. Even an entry level job requires you to stay on task throughout the work day. At all jobs you must follow instructions, arrive on time, work at a steady pace, and interact with your boss and other workers.
You must also be able to handle normal work stress. Finally, you need to make decisions and complete tasks without constant reminders. If your mental symptoms cause you to lose focus, or your have frequent panic attacks, then it may be impossible for you to work. Likewise, if mental symptoms interrupt your concentration, then your productivity may fall below what your employer expects. The SSA must consider these mental limitations when deciding whether you can work on a regular basis.
However, the SSA will only consider what you prove and the burden of proving your mental symptoms is on you. Therefore, you must submit mental health records that document your symptoms. Before you begin mental health therapy, make sure your therapist keeps progress notes. Also, make sure they are willing to submit them to the SSA. Without progress notes and a treatment record, the opinion of your therapist that you are disabled means nothing. In other words, your therapist should write a letter about your mental symptoms. But the letter carries no weight unless you have years of consistent treatment records.
YOUR MEDICAL RECORDS SHOULD MATCH YOUR TESTIMONY
One of the biggest reasons people lose their benefits is because their medical records do not match what they tell the SSA. For example, you may testify that you can only focus for ten minutes. However, if your treatment notes never mention concentration problems, then the SSA won’t accept your statements.
Likewise, if you tell the SSA that you avoid people because of social anxiety, then your doctors should know that as well. If your records say you have no emotional problems, then the SSA will give less weight to your testimony. This does not mean you should exaggerate your symptoms. Instead, tell the truth. Be honest with both your doctors and the SSA. When your records remain consistent over time, your claim becomes much stronger.
DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE MODERATE MENTAL SYMPTOMS
Many people think they must have severe depression or severe anxiety before those conditions matter. That is simply not true.
Even moderate mental symptoms can impact your ability to perform full time work. Small problems with focus, memory, stress, or social interaction are often serious when combined with chronic pain or physical illness. For example, someone with spinal pain may already struggle to sit, stand, and walk throughout the day. If that same person also has depression that slows thinking and reduces concentration, then the combination of symptoms may prevent full time employment.
The SSA must consider every limitation together instead of looking at each medical condition by itself. But, they only have to consider symptoms that are part of the medical record. Therefore, not only must you visit a therapist, you must also do it regularly. Many people ask how much they need to go to the therapist. The answer is as much as you can afford to go. If you can go every week, then do it. If not, then go every two weeks. The minimum number of visits should be once a month.
YOUR TREATING DOCTOR CAN IMPROVE YOUR SSD CASE
The SSA reviews the medical opinions of your treating doctors. If you have a therapist you visit weekly, then they can explain how your mental symptoms interact your physical conditions. Additionally, your doctors can be helpful to your case. You should ask your treating doctors to submit a statement about your mental symptoms to the SSA.
The best medical source statements are written by providers who treat you in their area of expertise. Ask your doctors and therapist to refer to examples from their progress notes when writing their statements. Make sure that their opinions are about your mental symptoms. For example, they can talk about how long you can concentrate. They can point out examples where you cannot follow instructions.
If your doctor agrees to write a medical statement, then it is important to make sure they address the medical conditions in their areas of practice. For example, if your psychologist writes a statement stating that you can lift only five pounds, then the SSA isn’t going to accept that statement. A statement about mental symptoms needs to come from your therapist and a doctor who prescribes your mental health medications.
IF YOU NEED HELP WINNING SSD BENEFITS, THEN HIRE US
At our law firm, our Social Security lawyers have won over 20,000 SSDI and SSI cases. Also, we have won over $100 million in ongoing and past due SSD benefits for our clients. Your chances of winning benefits triples if you hire an attorney. However, you need to hire an attorney who has legal experience and understands the law. You should also hire an attorney to prepare you for your psychological exam with the SSA.
If you have a mental symptoms that prevent you from working for over 12 months, then we can help win your benefits. You can apply for SSDI and SSI benefits on Social Security’s website. If you need help filing your claim, then call us.
Every day you wait to file your claim is a day you lose money. SSI benefits begin on the date of your application. SSDI benefits can go back in time, but only one year from the date of your application. We have additional information about filing for benefits for an intellectual disability.
Contact us today. Take advantage of our free review of your case. Call and we will answer your questions. You can explain why your mental symptoms prevents you from working. We will be able to tell you if you qualify for benefits. Likewise, we can also tell you if you have a good chance of winning SSD benefits.
THE LAWYERS AND STAFF AT OUR SSD LAW FIRM
Our About Us page informs you about our SSD attorneys and staff. For example, Andria Summers can help you with your Medicare plan. Also, she has worked on thousands of Social Security cases.
Dianna Cannon has over 30 years of experience helping her clients win benefits. Ms. Cannon also has law licenses in a number of states. For example, she has licenses in California, Utah, Nevada, and Washington State. If you need help filing for benefits or you need to appeal a decision from the SSA, then contact us. Learn about filing for SSD benefits in California and Utah SSDI benefits. Likewise, you can learn about Nevada SSDI and SSI benefits. We can help you no matter where you live.
Additionally, Brett Bunkall has experience helping people obtain their SSI and SSDI benefits. He also has a license to practice law in Utah and from the Idaho State Bar Association. Find out about SSD benefits in Idaho. Similarly, all of our lawyers and staff are Social Security disability legal experts. We want to help you get the benefits that you deserve.
Put our experience to work for you. Call us if you need help with your SSDI and SSI application. If SSA sent you a denial, then call us. We will see if we can help you. Also, if you have questions about mental symptoms, then we can help. We will answer your questions for free. Contact us today.
