Can Your Glendale Social Security Disability Lawyer Get You OCD Benefits?

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a chronic condition. Its symptoms include anxious and compulsive thoughts, actions, and repetitive behaviors that make it difficult for victims to work typically.
No matter if the condition is genetic, neurological, or traumatic, life gets difficult for you. It’s especially difficult to focus enough to get a decent job and maintain social relationships.
It thus makes you wonder if your Glendale social security disability lawyer can get you benefits for OCD.
You will be relieved to know that it’s possible in some cases.
It’s because OCD is one of the disabling conditions under section 12.06 of the Social Security Administration. You, however, can claim benefits only if you meet some requirements.

Requirements

You should be able to prove that your OCD causes:

• Involuntary and time-consuming preoccupations and unwanted thoughts
• Repetitive behaviors to reduce anxiety
• Extreme limitations in some mental functioning like understanding, applying, or remembering important everyday information.
• Difficulty in concentrating on a particular task and interacting with people in private or on the job
• Trouble in persisting with a task, maintaining the right pace while completing tasks or adapting your behavior

Your Glendale social security disability lawyer will guide you at for a successful disability claim. You will have to present your medical records and supporting information to let Social Security know how much OCD has limited you.

OCD Affects  Your Functioning

Obsessive thoughts include a fear of germ contamination followed by cleansing. It also includes a fear of danger followed by constant checking of doors, faucets and stoves, and possible hoarding. This is time-consuming, taking up at least an hour a day.
You end up in a cycle of obsessive and compulsive actions, and your anxiety increases if you try resisting a compulsion.
The only way to relieve the tension is by performing the compulsive action again. So it makes it difficult to focus on a single task and hold a job and leads to OCD if left untreated.
OCD victims are usually treated with anti-depressant medications because OCD is often a chronic condition leading to clinical depression.

Social Security Disability Benefits for Severe OCD Cases

You can claim disability benefits if your OCD is so severe that it interferes with your holding a job and maintaining relationships. You tend to get anxious or disturbed under medication, which in turn makes it difficult for you to work.
Having an OCD diagnosis depicting involuntary preoccupations, unwanted thoughts, or repetitive behaviors for reducing anxiety helps you qualify for benefits.
You should also prove your loss of abilities in extreme limitations, or:

• Loss of interactive appropriate social behavior
• Loss of learning, understanding, remembering, and following instructions
• Difficulty concentrating on tasks
• Difficulty in managing your behavior, emotions, self-care, and adaptations

Some victims managed to develop coping skills that reduce the symptoms. They have a supportive environment or follow a routine that doesn’t need much adaptation. It’s encouraging to know that they can also qualify for SSDI’s benefits.
Your social security disability lawyer will have to prove that you have had OCD for at least two years, and are under treatment. You should also show that you are minimally able to adapt to environmental and routine changes.

Medical-Vocational Allowance

Some victims may have symptoms that are not severe enough to qualify for social security benefits. For example, if your OCD interferes with your concentration but not with your social functioning or understanding.
You are thus entitled to a medical-vocational allowance.
Your social security disability attorney in Glendale will have to prove that you can’t work at your job to make a claim. They will have to explain that you can’t focus for long periods, or work at a reasonable pace.
If convinced, the SSA will see if there are other jobs you can learn and do.
Your lawyer will now have to prove that you don’t have the skills or education for even a simple, unskilled job. However, unless you have some physical handicap, the SSA will suggest you do something routine like bagging groceries.
Your lawyer will have to prove that your compulsions make it difficult for you to focus and perform even simple tasks.
You also require a robust medical record proving your severe limitations. You also need proof that a qualified mental health professional treats you. A psychiatrist is the best doctor to show the SSA how critical your condition is.
So you see, it is indeed possible for your Glendale social security disability lawyer to claim OCD benefits.
They, however, have to gather sufficient proof to show that your condition is so severe that you cannot work to fend for yourself.