SSDRC

Filing an Application for Disability Benefits

Social Security Disability List of Impairments

Social Security Disability and SSI Back pay

Social Security Disability Status

SSI Disability Benefits

Social Security Disability and SSI Requirements

Social Security, SSI, and Mental Disability

How Long Does It Take To Get Disability Benefits?

Qualifying: What do you Need to Prove to Qualify for Disability?

Facts about Chronic fatigue and Filing for Disability

1. Chronic fatigue syndrome causes extreme fatigue that is not alleviated by sleep or rest.

2. There is no known cause for the condition, although sometimes it seems to occur after a bad virus like the flu, in those with a history of allergies, or in those with stress and depression.

3. Chronic fatigue syndrome has only recently been accepted as a legitimate condition by the medical community.

4. There are a set of specific symptoms along with fatigue that make up chronic fatigue syndrome. These are memory loss and trouble concentrating, enlarged and painful lymph nodes, muscle and joint pain that moves around without swelling or redness, headaches, sleep that does not feel restful, and extreme exhaustion following physical or mental exercise.

5. Fatigue is often a symptom of another condition, so many illnesses will be ruled out by doctors before diagnosing chronic fatigue syndrome.

6. The Center for Disease Control gives a list of conditions with symptoms resembling chronic fatigue syndrome that should be ruled out. These include sleep disorders and major depression, mononucleosis, Lyme disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia.

7. Those with chronic fatigue syndrome are likely to have depression, social isolation, lifestyle restrictions and missed days of work, all of which compound the original complication of depression.

8. Chronic fatigue syndrome is treated through a variety of tactics aimed at managing the condition. Antidepressants are often prescribed to help with depression that is associated with the condition. Other treatment of associated problems include treating sleeping problems, allergy symptoms, low blood pressure and the nervous system. Moderating activity and gradually increasing activity along with cognitive behavior therapy are often helpful tactics.

9. Alternative medicine is also somewhat common among patients with chronic fatigue syndrome.

10. Some fully recover from chronic fatigue syndrome, while others improve but never return fully to their pre-condition levels of energy. The earlier the onset and the earlier treatment starts, the better chances are for improvement in the condition.

Can you qualify for disability benefits with this condition?

Whether or not you qualify for disability and, as a result, are approved for disability benefits will depend entirely on the information obtained from your medical records. This includes whatever statements may have been obtained from your treating physician (a doctor who has a history of treating your condition and is, therefore, qualified to comment as to your condition and prognosis).

It will also depend on the information obtained from your vocational, or work, history if you are an adult, or academic records if you are a minor-age child. The important thing to keep in mind is that the social security administration does not award benefits based on simply having a condition, but, instead, will base an approval or denial on the extent to which a condition causes functional limitations. Functional limitations can be great enough to make work activity not possible (or, for a child, make it impossible to engage in age-appropriate activities).

Why are so many disability cases lost at the disability application and reconsideration appeal levels?

Speaking as a former Disability Claims Examiner, I can state that there are several reasons:

1) Social Security makes no attempt to obtain a statement from a claimant's treating physician. By contrast, at the hearing level, a claimant and his or her disability attorney will generally obtain and present this type of statement to a judge;

2) Prior to the hearing level, a claimant will not have the opportunity to explain how their condition limits them, nor will their attorney or representative have the opportunity to make a presentation based on the evidence of the case. At the hearing level, of course, this is exactly what happens. And a number of disability representatives will also take such steps even earlier, at the reconsideration appeal level;

3) Disability judges, unlike disability examiners who decides cases at the first two levels of the system, can make independent decisions without being overturned by immediate supervisors--which happens frequently.