The Social Security Administration’s evaluation of stress as a disability
Louisville disability clients sometimes ask whether work stress is sufficient to qualify for disability benefits from the Social Security Administration.
For every disability, the Social Security Administration follows the same five-step evaluation process. The third step in this process is to consider whether the impairment meets or equals an impairment described in the Social Security regulations.
Anxiety disorders are recognized by the Social Security Administration as impairments
The Social Security Administration does not specifically include “stress” in its listings of impairments. However, under the general category of “Mental Disorders” there is a listing for “Anxiety-related disorders.”
As with many of the Social Security impairment listings, the description of anxiety disorders is compound, complex, and difficult to meet.
The first step for meeting the anxiety impairment listing is to have a medically documented finding of at least one of the following:
- Generalized persistent anxiety accompanied by three out of four of the following signs or symptoms:
- Motor tension.
- Autonomic hyperactivity.
- Apprehensive expectation.
- Vigilance and scanning.
- A persistent irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation which results in a compelling desire to avoid the dreaded object, activity, or situation.
- Recurrent severe panic attacks manifested by a sudden unpredictable onset of intense apprehension, fear, terror and sense of impending doom occurring on the average of at least once a week.
- Recurrent obsessions or compulsions which are a source of marked distress.
- Recurrent and intrusive recollections of a traumatic experience, which are a source of marked distress.
Then, if you document one of those five things, you must also have either a complete inability to function independently outside the area of your home or at least two of the following:
- Marked restriction of activities of daily living.
- Marked difficulties in maintaining social functioning.
- Marked difficulties in maintaining concentration, persistence, or pace.
- Repeated episodes of decompensation, each of extended duration.
Qualifying for disability benefits by establishing stress as equaling a listing
Since the third step in the Social Security Administration’s sequential evaluation process is to consider whether the impairment meets or equals an impairment, it is possible to have stress recognized as a disability even if it does not qualify under the anxiety disorders impairment.
However, the qualifications to equal a listed impairment are quite stringent, and essentially requires that your impairment is just as severe as a similar impairment that is in the listings.
The Social Security Administration has issued a ruling that discusses stress, and this ruling demonstrates that stress is to be considered in the context of mental illness, and that a claim of stress and mental illness must be evaluated thoroughly and on an individualized basis.
However, this ruling recognizes that mentally impaired people may have difficulty accommodating to the demands of work, and may cease to function effectively when facing even seeming trivial circumstances such as getting to work regularly and remaining in the workplace for a full day.
Get knowledgeable and experienced help from a Louisville disability lawyer
Cases based solely on stress can be challenging. If you have such a case (or a case that includes stress along with other disabling conditions) and are not already represented by a Louisville Social Security disability lawyer and want my evaluation, give me a brief description of your claim using the form to the right.
Or you may e-mail or call my office at:
Kentucky Social Security disability lawyer
