How Do You Prove Your Disability Case If You Have a Mental Condition or Impairment?

On This Page

1. What Mental Disabilities Qualify for Social Security Benefits?
2. How to Prove You Have a Mental Disability to the SSA
3. Understanding How Medical Evidence Affects Getting Mental Disability Benefits
4. You Can Get Disability for Mental Health Without a Blue Book Impairment Listing
5. You Can Get SSI and SSDI Benefits for a Mental Illness
6. What Happens If I'm Denied Disability for a Mental Illness?

LEGALLY REVIEWED BY

C. William Kenny

December 12, 2022

Board certified by National Board of Trial Advocacy

To prove your disability case, you should provide medical evidence for your mental health condition or impairment listed in the Social Security Administration (SSA)’s Blue Book listing of impairments. You can also establish you have a qualifying impairment by providing information to the disability examiner so they can get your medical records from all health care professionals familiar with your diagnosis and treatment.

Our Social Security Disability lawyers in Pittsburgh can ensure you provide all the essential information so that the examiner from the Office of Disability Determination Services (DDS) can access the medical evidence that proves your impairment.

What Mental Disabilities Qualify for Social Security Benefits?

In the SSA’s Blue Book, Section 12 – Mental Disorders addresses the criteria to get approved based on a mental condition or impairment.

Mental health conditions that qualify for disability benefits include:

• Neurocognitive disorders
• Neurodevelopmental disorders
• Schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders
• Personality disorders
• Intellectual disorders
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
• Autism spectrum disorder
• Eating disorders
• Trauma and stressor-related disorders (e.g., post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD))
• Somatic symptom disorder and related disorders

 The SSA will look at your medical evidence and application information to confirm if you meet the criteria under one of these listings.

Can You Get Social Security Disability Benefits for Depression and Anxiety?

The SSA’s Blue Book lists depression and anxiety as two mental health conditions that qualify for disability benefits. It recognizes that anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders and depressive, bipolar, and related disorders are disabling conditions.

Your application for disability benefits must assert that because you have a mental impairment, you have problems working and supporting yourself. As noted, you should include medical evidence with your application.

How to Prove You Have a Mental Disability to the SSA

When you have an impairment, you may seek treatment from various doctors, specialists, and mental health professionals. Each of these health care providers can offer treatment notes and other documentation to bolster your disability benefits claim. The SSA will look for statements about your mental health symptoms, behavior patterns, social interactions, ability to complete tasks, and other information about your daily life.

Additional medical evidence can include:

• Diagnostic tests you have taken
• A history of the prescription medications you take or have taken
• Blood work results
• X-rays and/or other imaging scans
• Mental health treatment and therapies you have received
• Rehabilitation programs you have been a part of

The following can provide medical information that supports your case:

• Your primary care physician
• A specialist
• Your psychiatrist, psychologist, or therapist
• Your local hospital
• Other mental health facilities
• Social workers
• Other caregivers

The Social Security Administration (SSA) may require you to see an authorized physician. If that happens, you should still continue to see your regular doctor. It is important that you work with your doctor or another medical professional on your Social Security Disability case. Their documentation can also prove helpful in supporting your mental health claim.

Understanding How Medical Evidence Affects Getting Mental Disability Benefits

Your medical records and other evidence play a central role in getting approval for a mental health condition or impairment. The disability examiner who oversees your case will need to look at your doctor’s notes, test results, treatment plan, treatment results, and other information about your medical condition. Doing so allows them to assess the severity of your condition to see how it prevents you from working.

Since your medical evidence is the only way the SSA can determine if you meet the qualifications for disability benefits, you must ensure it can access your records from every doctor, clinic, and hospital that treated you.

You Must Provide Contact Information With Your Mental Health Disability Claim

When you apply for disability, you must give the SSA a list of contact information so it can request your records. This information includes: 

• Doctor or hospital name
• Address
• Phone number
• Patient ID, when possible

If you have our attorneys working on your case, we can share what other supporting information could help your claim. Without this contact information, the disability examiner will not have access to your diagnosis, any test results, treatment plan and outcome, and information about your medication. 

You Can Get Disability for Mental Health Without a Blue Book Impairment Listing

If you do not qualify for disability based on a Blue Book listing for mental illness, you could still receive benefits. Doing so is possible through a residual functional capacity (RFC) evaluation.

This evaluation considers how your impairment – including the side effects of any treatment and other disabilities – affects your abilities. It considers your medical evidence, but it also uses the information from your application to look at the full picture.

Your RFC is not only concerned with your diagnosed mental condition but also with your overall ability to get, keep, and work on a job. If the SSA determines you cannot work your previous job or any other job you might be suited for, you can be awarded benefits.

How the SSA Evaluates Your RFC

The SSA can evaluate your RFC in three ways:

• Have a doctor from the Office of Disability Determination Services review your medical records and application information
• Have your doctor complete a special form based on their knowledge of your impairments and abilities
• Ask you to attend one or more consultative examinations with a doctor who the agency pays for

Any of these methods should allow DDS to determine the type of work you can do, how often you can work, and how long you can work.

You Can Get SSI and SSDI Benefits for a Mental Illness

The SSA offers two disability programs: Supplemental Security Income (SSI) and Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). Both allow people with mental health impairments to secure benefits. Here’s what you need to know:

• SSDI is a work credit-based system. Your eligibility depends on how long you’ve worked jobs that pay Social Security taxes.
• SSI isn’t based on work credits. Instead, your eligibility depends on your “countable” assets. The SSA notes that, as an unmarried person, you cannot have more than $2,000 in countable assets to qualify for this program.

When you partner with a disability lawyer who advocates for individuals with disabilities, you have a team to help you navigate the Social Security Disability application and appeals process.

What Happens If I’m Denied Disability for a Mental Illness?

If the SSA has already denied your claims for Social Security Disability Insurance/Disability Insurance Benefits or Supplemental Security Income, our disability appeals lawyers attorneys can file your appeal and fight for your disability benefits. 

One reason the SSA denies claims is because of insufficient evidence to prove a disabling mental health condition. Our attorneys will review the reasons for the denial. We will ensure the SSA has all the information it needs about your medical care and care providers.

After the SSA denies an initial claim, you have only 60 days to challenge it. Call us right away to discuss how to move forward with appealing your SSD decision. Hiring legal representation at this stage can help you in many ways. Working with an attorney can help you identify the relevant evidence you need for a claim, meet all your case’s deadlines, prepare you for any hearings you must attend, and keep your case on track.

Call Us: We Can Help You get Social Security Disability for a Mental Health Disorder

To get disability benefits in Pittsburgh, you must prove you suffer from a disability so severe it keeps you from working. Holding a job can be especially difficult when the disability is a mental condition or impairment. Our Social Security disability attorneys know what it takes to get approved for disability, and we will fight for the benefits you deserve.

Call the Pittsburgh Social Security Disability team from Berger and Green today to discuss your matter during a free consultation. Our Pennsylvania mental disability lawyers can start advocating for what you need today.