When is fibromyalgia a disability

If your fibromyalgia is accompanied by a psychiatric disorder, or if it causes short term memory loss or difficulty concentrating, it can affect your mental capacity for work.

These symptoms can make it difficult to succeed in any work environment, whether physical or sedentary. Since fibromyalgia can be a difficult medical condition to diagnose, health care providers usually rule out other diseases by conducting a thorough physical examination that includes several different types of blood tests.

According to SSA guidelines, you have to show you suffer from a serious physical or mental impairment that makes it impossible to work. The SSA defines a disability as "the inability to do any substantial gainful activity due to your medical or mental problem.

The Blue Book does not specifically list fibromyalgia as a medical condition that qualifies you for disability benefits. However, the Blue Book contains a section devoted to musculoskeletal disorders that might qualify you for disability benefits if you meet the severity of symptoms standards listed by the SSA. Even if your disability claim is denied by the SSA for fibromyalgia, you can undergo a Residual Functional Capacity RFC assessment that determines your ability to work with the symptoms of the medical disorder.

A physician from the SSA puts you through several tests to conclude whether the pain and fatigue associated with the disease are severe enough to prevent you from working your current job. You can contact the nearest SSA office to apply for disability benefits for fibromyalgia. Most of the information the federal agency collects can be done over the phone, as well as by mail and online.

The key is to prove the symptoms of fibromyalgia prevent you from working your current job. Your physician should submit the results of diagnostic tests and your employer has to show you have missed a significant amount of time from work because the severe symptoms of the disease make it impossible to complete normal job tasks.

Working with a Social Security attorney can help strengthen the claim you file for Social Security disability benefits with fibromyalgia. What that means for claimants is that there are no cut and dried standards for whether you can be approved for disability benefits based on fibromyalgia. Instead, you must show medical evidence which supports one of the following:.

Many Social Security disability claimants find it helpful to have a lawyer go over the particulars of their claim with them before presenting their claim to the SSA. Fill out the form located throughout this site for a free evaluation of your disability claim by an attorney or advocate in your area.

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