How To Win Disability Benefits For PTSD?

The everyday challenges of post-traumatic stress disorder can be severe enough to interfere with your ability to work and earn a living. Instead of adding financial struggles to the challenges you already face, a PTSD disability claim can give you monthly cash payments and Medicare Insurance or Medicaid coverage for medical expenses.

The Social Security Administration oversees two programs, Social Security Disability Insurance and Supplemental Security Income, that provide disability benefits for mental health conditions, including PTSD. Getting approved for Social Security Disability for PTSD is not easy. Only about one-third of claims submitted annually for disability benefits win approval during the initial application review process.

The disability advocates at Disability Experts of Florida want you to have as much information as possible to improve your chance to win disability benefits for PTSD. The following PTSD disability application tips can improve your chance of winning benefits.

What is PTSD?

The federal government estimates that approximately 13 million people in the United States have PTSD. About 6% of the U.S. population will suffer from PTSD at least once in their lifetime.

PTSD is a mental health disorder caused by living through or witnessing a traumatic or stressful event, such as combat, accidents, sexual assault, or physical abuse. The symptoms associated with PTSD may begin immediately after exposure to a frightening or stressful event. Some people may not experience symptoms for months or years later.

The disorder affects people in different ways. The symptoms experienced by one person may be very different from those experienced by another. People also differ in the duration of symptoms.

Some of the types of symptoms experienced by people diagnosed as having PTSD include:

• Sleeping difficulties, including nightmares.
• Flashbacks or feeling as though the event is reoccurring.
• Detachment from others.
• Loss of interest in activities that you previously enjoyed.
• Angry outbursts or extreme emotional reactions.
• Frightening thoughts.
• Cognitive problems, including being unable to concentrate or remember.
• Feeling on edge or irritable.

A person with PTSD may resort to substance abuse and have symptoms or signs consistent with anxiety or depression.

Many people with PTSD respond well to treatment that helps them cope with and manage the stress and other symptoms of the disorder. Treatment options include psychotherapy and prescribed medication. However, if your symptoms do not respond well to treatment and you cannot work, you may qualify for PTSD disability benefits.

Applying For Disability Benefits With PTSD

You need a work history of long enough during and recent enough with Social Security taxes paid on the money you earned to apply for benefits through the SSDI program. A work history is not required to apply for SSI benefits, but income limits exist, and your resources or assets cannot exceed $2,000 in value or $3,000 for married couples.

SSDI and SSI require medical evidence that your mental health condition is severe enough to prevent you from doing substantial gainful activity. The condition must be expected to last for at least 12 months or cause death.

A listing of impairments or Blue Book is one of the methods used by disability claim examiners to determine if your application and medical records prove that you qualify for benefits. Section 12.15 lists PTSD as a trauma- and stressor-related disorder with criteria that must be met to meet or equal the listing.

If you cannot meet the criteria for a PTSD disability approval, there may be other listed medical conditions, such as heart disorders, anxiety, and depression, caused by PTSD that you may qualify under. A disability advocate at Disability Experts of Florida has experience helping people win PTSD SSDI benefits and SSI and can assist you throughout the application process.

An inability to qualify under the listings when applying for disability with PTSD does not end your chance for approval. The impairments caused by PTSD may not meet the criteria of a listing, but you can qualify for SSI and SSDI for PTSD if you cannot do the work you did previously.

You may achieve PTSD disability approval by being unable to do previous types of work and cannot adjust to other kinds of work. Social Security evaluates your age, work experience, education, and skills to decide whether you can adapt to different types of work available in the national economy.

Age can be a significant factor in winning Social Security disability for PTSD or other medical conditions. If you are younger than 50, age is not considered to seriously affect your ability to adjust to different types of work. However, the effect of age increases in significance after 50.

Learn More About PTSD From A Disability Advocate

Disability Experts of Florida helps people throughout the country with all types of disability claims, from applying for disability with PTSD to challenging a denial of benefits or other adverse decisions through the appeal process. Contact Disability Experts of Florida today for a free claim evaluation and consultation with a disability advocate.