Depression

In order to be granted Social Security Disability or SSI benefits your depression must be affecting you to the point that you will not be able to do any kind of work for at least 12 months. If you are unable to do the work you currently do, consider whether or not you could reasonably do another job. If you still feel like you couldn’t, then you may have a good claim. Depression will be very hard to prove without medical documentation. You should be seeing doctors, especially a psychologist or psychiatrist regularly to substantiate this claim.

We’ll have to be able to prove that the depression, or this combined with your other disabilities has lasted, or will last at least 12 months. When your disability claim for depression is reviewed, Social Security will want to know if your depression has caused a loss of interest in almost all activities, appetite disturbance, change in weight, sleep disturbance, psycho-motor agitation, decreased energy, feelings of guilt or worthlessness, difficulty concentrating, difficulty thinking, thoughts of suicide, and hallucinations, delusions, or paranoid thinking. The more of these symptoms you display, and the more severe, the higher the chances are of your case being granted. Most of the time a depression only claim is not very strong. Depression combined with other disabilities can be a strong claim.

As with any disability, your chances of being granted increase if you have consistent medical records of your condition. If you have not seen any doctors within a few months of your application, you may be sent to a doctor who will evaluate your condition. It is best to have your own doctor.

If you are not sure whether or not your claim would qualify for benefits, give us a call. It is always best to get an application in if you are unsure. Some people wait so long that they lose their eligibility for Social Security, and many lose months of benefits for waiting to apply.

The medical listing that describes the criteria for Depression is; 12.04 Affective Disorders – Adult.