Can I Get Disability for PTSD?

disability for PTSD

If you have PTSD that prevents you from working, you may qualify for Social Security disability benefits.

Can I Get Disability for PTSD?

If you have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event that causes intense fear, helplessness, or horror, and you have been unable to recover from it, you may have PTSD. If you have been diagnosed with PTSD by a medical professional and your PTSD interferes with your daily life, you may qualify for SSDI or SSI benefits.

While soldiers returning from war and others who serve in combat experience PTSD, others may as well. PTSD can also stem from childhood abuse, rape, or other violence. While PTSD typically sets in shortly after the experience, it may be delayed several years.

PTSD symptoms often include:

  • Flashbacks of the traumatic event
  • Avoiding thinking or talking about the traumatic event
  • Feeling emotionally numb
  • Avoiding activities
  • Feeling hopeless
  • Difficulty concentrating
  • Inability or difficulty in maintaining close relationships
  • Irritability or anger
  • Overwhelming feelings of guilt or shame
  • Self-destructive behavior
  • Difficulty sleeping
  • Being easily startled or frightened

Social Security for PTSD

Social Security relies on your medical records to indicate that your PTSD is so severe that it prevents you from working. Therefore, it is important to have a doctor (or a team of doctors) who support your case.

Social Security has a Blue Book listing for PTSD. If your medical records show that your PTSD is severe enough to meet the listing, your claim will be approved.

To meet the listing, there must be medical evidence that you have experienced:

  1. Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or violence;
  2. Subsequent involuntary re-experiencing of the traumatic event (for example, intrusive memories, dreams, or flashbacks);
  3. Avoidance of external reminders of the event;
  4. Disturbance in mood and behavior; and
  5. Increases in arousal and reactivity (for example, exaggerated startle response, sleep disturbance).

Then, you must also meet the requirements in either A or B:

A. You must have an extreme limitation of one, or marked limitation of two, of these areas of mental functioning:

  1. Understand, remember, or apply information
  2. Interact with others
  3. Concentrate, persist, or maintain pace
  4. Adapt or manage oneself

B. Have a medically documented history of the PTSD over the course of two years with both:

  1. Medical treatment, mental health therapy, psychosocial support, or a highly structured setting that is ongoing and that diminishes the symptoms and signs of your mental disorder; and
  2. Marginal adjustment (a minimal capacity to adapt to changes in your environment or to demands that are not already part of your daily life).

Need Help?

If you need help applying for disability with PTSD, or appealing an unfavorable decision, contact a local attorney today.