Let An Attorney Help You Avoid Having Your Mental Health Disability Application Denied

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Some disabilities are more obvious than others. If you are using a wheelchair or are blind, for example, you may not have to face the same scrutiny from social security that you might encounter when you have a mental illness. Mental illnesses can be debilitating, but people are often hesitant to believe that a mental illness is a valid reason for disability claims. Hiring or consulting with an attorney who has experience getting mentally ill patients disability payments can help you avoid denial when you file for disability with social security. Here are some ways. 

An Attorney Will Know Which Illnesses are Automatically Approved

You may not know that there is a list of conditions and illnesses that make someone automatically eligible for social security disability as long as requirements are met, and some of these are mental illnesses. In most cases, you must demonstrate that you have been diagnosed with the mental illness and that it is severe enough to seriously impair your day to day life. Here are a few illness that are in this group. 

  • drug and alcohol dependency
  • intellectual disorders
  • anxiety disorders
  • autism related disorders
  • affective disorders
  • personality disorders

The Social Security Administration offers a complete list on its website along with the very specific qualifications that must be met to be eligible for disability in each category. 

An attorney can help you identify if your illness meets the criteria for automatic approval. The attorney can also guide you step by step through the process of obtaining proof of your disability and satisfying requirements outlined by the Social Security Administration.

If you are found to be eligible for one of these mental illnesses your approval and payment of benefits will come through much more quickly than it would for other disabilities. 

An Attorney Can Help You Prove Your Mental Illness

Most physical illnesses can be proven through medical records and test results. It can be much more challenging to prove that you suffer from a mental illness. Illnesses like depression and anxiety may not have physical symptoms. Medical evaluations and conclusions can even differ from one doctor to the next. 

An attorney with experience in mental health disability claims will know what social security is looking for in regards to proof of mental illness. An attorney can help you sort through your medical history to determine what is important in your circumstances and which evidence should be highlighted when presenting your case. 

If you are denied benefits for any reason, your attorney will reconstruct your application and submit it again. The attorney may also point out inconsistencies in the SSA's evaluation of your condition and raise any questions about the validity of opinions expressed by people working for the SSA. 

An Attorney Will Help Protect Your Privacy

Medical information is personal, and your privacy is supposed to be protected when you file a disability claim. However, any evidence you give in support of your claim will be seen by many people. 

The SSA will ask for as much information as possible, but you are not required to share every aspect of your life and history. An attorney can help you keep your medical records as confidential as possible by telling you which information is necessary to share and which is not. The attorney will also make sure that evaluations conducted by SSA's own doctors are appropriate and professional. 

Social security sees many applications for mental illness each day, and many of these applications are rejected based on insufficient proof, poor organization of evidence or simply one person's quick judgment. A denied social security disability lawyer can help you get past these problems and get approved for disability benefits. 


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