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Mental Disorders and Social Security Disability

It is widely known that mental disorders can be just as debilitating as physical disorders. After all, the brain is what runs the entire body. Often times people with mental disorders (and their families) are not clear if their condition will allow them to qualify for disability benefits. In this article we will go over a list of mental conditions and briefly explain what they are. We will also give a short list of what qualifies a condition as a disability.

Your condition must be diagnosed by a doctor and meet the following criteria:

• The mental condition must prevent you from continuing work that you were able to do up until recently.
• The mental condition must prevent you from being able to be trained for other work which is available at this time.
• The mental condition must be expected to last at least one year.

The Social Security Administration lists multiple mental illness categories which may make a person eligible for Social Security benefits. These illnesses are:

Affective Disorders: Conditions such as depression or bipolar which are not illnesses that are the result of brain abnormalities.

Anxiety Disorders: Continuous and episodic anxiety disorders qualify for disability. Panic attacks and phobias fall under these categories as well. The person must not be able to work as a result of these disorders in order to meet the disability conditions.

Autistic Mental Disorders: These disorders affect communication and cognitive function and social skills.

Mental Retardation: Learning disorders often qualify persons for individual SSD.

Organic Disorders: Delirium, Alzheimer’s and illnesses that affects the nervous system.

Personality Disorders: Many illnesses fall under this category. Some are obsessive-compulsive disorder and passive-aggressive disorder.

Psychotic Disorder: These are disorders like schizophrenia and paranoia, which may qualify a person for a compassion allowance.

Somatoform Disorders: Mental illness in which the patient displays erratic behavior for which there is no discernible cause.