FACTS ABOUT ADHD AND FILING FOR DISABILITY

Facts about ADHD and Filing for Disability

These selected pages answer some of the most basic, but also some of the most important, questions for individuals who are considering filing a claim for disability benefits.

How to apply for disability and the information that Social Security needs

Who will qualify for disability and what qualifying is based on

Requirements for disability - Qualifications Criteria for SSD and SSI

How to Prove you are disabled and win your disability benefits

Facts about the condition

1. Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, ADHD, causes hyperactivity, inattentiveness and impulsiveness in the affected individual's behavior. The disorder causes developmental lags, often of three to five years, in problem solving, time management, organization and planning, sustaining attention, completing tasks, impulse and emotion control, listening, and peer relationship skills. Therefore, ADHD is considered both a developmental disorder and a disruptive behavior disorder.

2. ADHD is the most commonly diagnosed chronic disorder among children. Although ADHD used to be considered as only a childhood condition, more recent studies have shown that it often continues in adulthood, rather than most 'outgrowing' the condition. Many adults are only now being diagnosed with ADHD, as the disorder becomes more widely known and better understood.

3. There several types of ADHD, depending the range of symptoms. Individuals diagnosed with ADHD can be hyperactive-impulsive, inattentive, or combined hyperactive-impulsive and inattentive. The third is the most commonly diagnosed type of ADHD. In addition, symptoms and severity vary widely, and often another condition is also present, including oppositional defiant disorder, depression and anxiety, or being learning disabled or gifted.

4. A variety of factors are believed to contribute to the development of ADHD. Studies have shown that ADHD is largely hereditary, and that most children with a diagnosis have at least one parent or other relative who has ADHD as well. Exposure to toxins, such as cigarette smoking and lead exposure, both in the womb and early childhood are believed to also contribute to the development of ADHD.

5. There are a variety of treatment methods to manage ADHD, including prescription medications and counseling. Prescribed drug therapy includes short and long acting stimulants, one non-stimulant called atomoxetine, and occasionally antidepressants or high blood pressure medications. Counseling treatment includes talk therapy, behavior modification, and skill training. The most successful treatment involves a combination of these treatments. While often a frustrating and difficult disorder, children - and adults - with ADHD can manage the condition and be successful at school, work and social environments.

Qualifying 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 and treatment notes that 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 also includes discharge summaries from hospital stays, reports of imaging studies (such as xrays, MRIs, and CT scans) and lab panels (i.e. bloodwork) as well as reports from physical therapy.

In many disability claims, it may also include the results of a report issued by an independent physician who examines you at the request of the Social Security Administration.

Qualifying for SSD or SSI benefits 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. In the case of adults, your work history information will allow a disability examiner (examiners make decisions at the initial claim and reconsideration appeal levels, but not at the hearing level where a judges decides the outcome of the case) to A) classify your past work, B) determine the physical and mental demands of your past work, C) decide if you can go back to a past job, and D) whether or not you have the ability to switch to some type of other work.

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?

There are several reasons but here are just two:

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

Note: it is not enough for a doctor to simply state that their patient is disabled. To satisy Social Security's requirements, the physician must list in what ways and to what extent the individual is functionally limited. For this reason, many representatives and attorneys request that the physician fill out and sign a specialized medical source statement that captures the correct information. Solid Supporting statements from physicians easily make the difference between winning or losing a disability case at the hearing level.

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. This is because at the initial levels of the disability system, a disability examiner decides the case without meeting the claimant. The examiner may contact the claimant to gather information on activities of daily living and with regard to medical treatment or past jobs, but usually nothing more. At the hearing level, however, presenting an argument for approval based on medical evidence that has been obtained and submitted is exactly what happens.

What medical conditions will get you approved for disability?

What kind of Mental Problems Qualify for Disability?

Which conditions will social security recognize as a disability?

Tips for getting Social Security Disability or SSI benefits approved