Bipolar Disorder and Social Security Disability

Bipolar disorder can often be a difficult condition to obtain an approval for disability benefits on. The reasons for experiencing such great difficulties are twofold. First, individuals often develop bipolar disorder in their twenties, but due to the various Social Security age categories, obtaining disability under the age of 50 is much more difficult. Second, the symptoms of bipolar disorder, namely that of mania and/or depression, tend to occur in episodes rather than being constant.

While many firms or practices will not take clients under the age of 50 with bipolar disorder, we have a lot of experience dealing with such cases. Having won a significant percentage of these cases, I feel that it is important to share a few tips on how to go about getting an approval when the deck seems to be stacked against you. Perhaps the most important thing you can do is to have a therapist and/or psychologist/psychiatrist that you see on a regular basis. It is especially important, however, to see these professionals during the most severe episodes of your symptoms. SSA must have these episodes documented via the medical records or they will be skeptical as to the severity of these episodes, as well as the tendency for these episodes to occur in the first place.

The second important takeaway is to try out any medication that is prescribed by your doctors. With the medication compliance SSA rule, you must either consistently take medications that are prescribed by your physicians or be able to show that you have experienced significant enough side effects from those medications to prevent you from continue taking them.

The key to winning a Disability claim for bipolar disorder is to show what is called “episodes of decompensation.” These are essentially the depressive and manic episodes that you may experience. We must show how often these occur, how long they last, and how these episodes impact your ability to function on a day-to-day basis. We must show that these episodes involve symptoms that are severe enough to prevent you from sustaining work on a full-time basis. Since we at Mission Possible take many of these cases, we strongly recommend talking to one of our representatives if you or a family member wants to consider pursuing Social Security Disability.

~ Michael