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Can I Receive Disability Because of my OCD?

OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) has been used a great deal in media and popular culture in recent years rather flippantly. Often used to describe someone with fastidious habits or is a “neat freak”, the truth is that sufferers of OCD live with a severe disease which can be crippling.

There are two words in this diagnosis so let’s go over both of them and explore what they mean.

Obsession – This is referring to reoccurring thoughts that the sufferer cannot “shake”. They don’t necessarily have to do with anything important or life-threatening, like “did I leave the iron plugged in?”. Instead, the thoughts can range from rehashing a simple interaction had earlier in the day with a cashier or even a noise they heard. The thoughts can be so constant and illogical the person thinks they are going mad.

Compulsion – The feeling or urge to act out something like a ritual in order to pacify or calm the OCD sensation. This is often a trick of the mind, making the person with OCD think that the impulses with subside if they act physically out a compulsion. Of course, what this turns into is acting out the same action or ritual over and over again until the thought eventually subsides on its own.

Compulsions can consist of and are not limited to:

• checking and rechecking door locks
• checking and rechecking the stove is turned off
• checking and rechecking that the iron isn’t plugged in
• cleaning and recleaning the same area
• closing doors over and over
• repeating phrases or terms out loud
• making a certain noise (OCD is a cousin of Tourette’s Syndrome)

People with OCD have obsessive and compulsive thoughts which will urge them to replay an event or scenario over and over again in their mind and sometimes physically act out in an attempt to pacify it. But the rituals are not always external.

As you can imagine, this can be quite debilitating. If a person’s OCD is so severe that they cannot function in every day life and earn a living, they may qualify for Social Security Disability assistance under listing is 12.06.

To qualify for disability because of OCD, a person must be diagnosed by a psychologist and must have tried multiple treatments over a period of time. These treatments involve medicines such as SSRI’s as well as therapies like CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy).

Even though most patient’s with OCD respond to one or both of these avenues of treatment there is a percentage that don’t. These are called treatment resistant cases.

If your OCD is keeping you from holding down a job and earning a sufficient living then you may want to contact a disability attorney. Your attorney will advise you on what steps you need to take to build a case. They will also help you file and present your case.

Having a disability attorney help with your case improves your chances of getting approved dramatically. It is definitely worth your time to meet with one.