When workers get too sick to work at their jobs, the Social Security Administration (SSA) offers a solution. Workers that can qualify for the benefit can be paid a monthly amount while they reduce or eliminate their workload. Many different physical conditions are covered under the SSA guidelines, but few people realize that mental conditions are also covered. If a mental illness is keeping you from doing your job, read on.

Proving Your Condition

For almost anyone, getting the SSA to approve them for benefits can be difficult. The application process is arduous and complex and the wait for processing is long. To make matters worse, applicants often face a denial on their initial application.

One of the main ways to get your application approved is to show proof of your condition, no matter what it is. While diagnostic tests for mental disorders are generally useless, there are other ways to show that you are suffering from a condition like depression, bipolar disorder, PTSD and more. The main thing to keep in mind is that you must be able to show the SSA how your illness directly affects your ability to work at your job. It is not enough that you are saddled with an illness, you must show that it prevents you from working. Be sure, therefore, that you take the following steps:

1. Seek help for your disorder from a family doctor or a mental health expert. While there are no concrete rules about what type of physician to see for this type of condition, using a mental health expert will not only strengthen your case but allow you to get the help you need. You should consider seeing a licensed mental health expert, a clinical social worker, a psychiatrist or a psychologist.

2. Stay in treatment continuously. It can take months and months of therapy and medication management to begin to feel better, and the SSA needs to see that you are keeping your therapy appointments and following all prescribed care guidelines.

3. Be prepared to access certain treatment records to provide to the SSA. While much of your health information is personal and private, the SSA may need to view proof of your condition to approve your benefits.

What to Know about Decompensation

This big word is really about the path that your illness took as it affected the way you used to do your job. If your job involves public speaking, a mental condition that involves anxiety likely made it difficult for you to cover this job task that you previously had no problem doing. This is decompensation and is not required to prove your condition but does help.

As mentioned above, most initial claims get denied. Speak to a Social Security attorney, such as at Wolfe  Jones Wolfe Hancock Daniel & South LLC, at once and get the help you need to get through your appeals hearing and get those valuable benefits.