Can You Get Disability Benefits for Anxiety in Wisconsin?
Social Security Disability Can Help You Steady Your Life
If you live with severe anxiety that inhibits your life, you may wonder if you could ever qualify for something like Social Security Disability benefits.
Getting approved requires you to have physical or mental health conditions that leave you almost completely unable to work. Winning benefits means you get much needed financial relief.
But is anxiety a disability to Social Security? Will anybody understand what this is like for you?
Social Security Disability does recognize anxiety as a qualifying impairment. The Social Security Administration (SSA) specifically lists several mental health disorders involving anxiety that can be the basis of a disability claim:
- Generalized anxiety disorder
- Social anxiety disorder
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Panic disorder
- Agoraphobia (fear of the outside world)
- Somatic symptom disorder (extreme distress over physical symptoms)
- Personality and impulse control disorder
- Eating disorders
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Other trauma or stressor-related disorders
This recognition of anxiety as a problem doesn’t mean proving your case will be easy, though. You may want to talk to an experienced disability lawyer about how you will meet Social Security’s complicated rules and what information and evidence you need to show them.
In Madison, Wausau, Janesville, Monroe and across southern Wisconsin, get in touch with the Wisconsin disability attorneys at the Becker Law Office and Hawks Quindel. We’ve helped thousands of Wisconsinites with their disability benefits.
Symptoms You Can Document to Claim Social Security Disability for Anxiety
To win Social Security Disability benefits for anxiety, you have to do a lot more than simply tell Social Security your anxiety prevents you from working. Social Security denies most people for disability benefits if their applications aren’t carefully built.
You need to provide details of your symptoms and how they impact your daily life and functioning. The SSA does provide a guide including the kinds of symptoms of anxiety you can describe in your claim:
- Concentration problems
- Constant fear about safety
- Extreme vigilance
- Fatigue
- Irritability
- Muscle tightness
- Obsessiveness
- Panic attacks
- Problems interacting with others
- Problems managing your daily life
- Problems processing information
- Restlessness
- Sleep problems
A Social Security Disability lawyer can ask you questions and gather information about what you experience with anxiety that you didn’t think about or realize could be important to your disability claim.
Mental health disorders like anxiety or depression can also combine with other medical conditions you have, including physical diseases, to increase your chances of winning benefits. Your disability attorney will know what to look for.
You pay no upfront fees to work with a Social Security Disability lawyer. Your attorney only gets paid when you win benefits.
And you can start with the Becker Law Office and Hawks Quindel by having a free consultation about your situation and needs.
How to Show that Your Anxiety is a Disability that Qualifies for Social Security Benefits
Once you have an idea of your personal story about anxiety and its symptoms, now you have to back up what you say with evidence.
Medical evidence is the core of every successful Social Security Disability case.
For anxiety and other mental health conditions, these kind of evidence can be valuable:
- Documentation of your diagnosis from mental health professionals
- Results of tests and ratings of your functioning
- Observations from your health care providers from exams and interviews
- Written confirmation that you’ve undertaken long-term, consistent treatment for anxiety
- Documentation that you rely on medical treatment, therapy and other supports to function
- A list of medications you take for anxiety, their effects and effectiveness
- Statements from people who personally know you about how anxiety affects you
- A detailed, firsthand account from you, like a journal, of what it’s like for you to live with anxiety
A key type of evidence of debilitating anxiety that you need to submit is what Social Security calls “objective” evidence, which means sources of information other than yourself.
You can get the right evidence—and get it without having to do all the legwork yourself—if you work with a knowledgeable Social Security Disability lawyer in Wisconsin.
Becker Law Office and Hawks Quindel disability attorneys are here to help you get the support you need to focus on your own well-being and move toward a better life.
If your anxiety is stopping you from working, reach out to us.