Social Security Disability for medical conditions of the back for people under 50 years old.

One of the most common disabilities claimed on Social Security disability applications is for back conditions. Some back conditions are herniated discs, arthritis, lumbar fracture, degenerative disc disease and spinal stenosis. Many times, back conditions are just a part of your claim but on this page I will talk about disability for those whose primary disability is there back and the secondary symptoms from the condition and who are under 50 years of age. In SSD and SSI claims where the only disability is a back injury how old you are and the type of work used to do play a very significant role in determining your chances of success. If you are under 50 years old and you do not meet or equal a listed impairment, then you will have to be able to show that your limitations from your back condition would prevent you from even being able to do a significant number of sedentary jobs. This means jobs that require you to lift very little weight (10 lbs at most) and you are sitting most of the time. To give you an idea of the types of jobs Social Security will frequently say someone with the back condition can do: they often consider jobs such as surveillance system monitor, ticket taker at the movie theater, greeter and other jobs of this sort. Often times, even the inability to sit for long periods of time is not enough for Social Security to find you disabled. Believe it or not there are many jobs that allow the worker to sit and stand as they need to. Pain and the effect of prescription medicine such as narcotic pain medication and limitations they impose on one's ability to concentrate and memorize things is supposed to be considered by SSA when they determine if a younger individual with back problems is able to work. In practice, the decision makers at Social Security appear to disregard or minimize these limitations on one's ability to work. However, if you have these limitations it is very important that you say so, and that it is supported by the medical evidence. Back disability cases for younger individuals are difficult to win no matter how severe your back condition is. In these types of cases you should strongly consider hiring a lawyer to help you with this type of claim. I am not saying they cannot be won, but you will need a good theory as to why you are disabled which is supported by strong medical records and opinion evidence from your doctors. If you feel you meet or equal a listed impairment it is very important that you take a copy of the listing to your Dr. to see if they also feel you meet or equal a listed impairment. If they do, then you should ask them for a report explaining which listing (here you will find SSA medical listing for back conditions), why and what evidence supports that conclusion. Many people with back problems who have suffered with chronic pain frequently develop depression as a result. Unfortunately, many of these people don't take their doctors advice and seek the help of a psychiatrist to treat the depression. I often hear comments like "my Dr. told me I have depression and should be under the care of a psychiatrist, but I'm not crazy I'm just in a lot of pain." I know many of you reading this and saying that sounds like me. This is not a good approach to take for your own medical health or for your disability claim. If you truly have depression as a result of chronic pain you should seek treatment. I am not suggesting that everybody who has a back problem should run out and see a psychiatrist to help their disability claim. This is not only the wrong thing to do in general, but is probably not going to help your claim because a psychiatrist will probably not find you to be depressed or have any limitations from it. In these claims, it is also important if you use an assistive device for walking. I do not have enough room on this page to try and explain how to win your disability claim for a back condition when you are a younger individual, but the purpose of this post was to make you aware of the difficulties of this type of claim so that you get the help you need to give yourself the best chance to win. For more information on Social Security disability back claims visit my website which goes into more detail about how you can help yourself and this type of claim.

Social Securirty Disability and Back Impairments

One of the most common medical conditions listed in a SSDI or SSI claim is some sort of back impairment. The more common conditions of the back and neck are herniated discs, spinal arachnoiditis, spinal stenosis, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc disease, facet arthritis, and vertebral fracture. How a claim for benefits is won for these conditions depends on many factors. I will try and simplify the way the majority of these cases are won. In general if you are over 50 years old and your prior work is considered light or heavier you will probably only have to show your back condition limits you to sedentary work to be found disabled. If you are younger than 50 years old or prior work was sedentary the case usually requires that you be found capable of less than sedentary work and there would not be a significant number of jobs you could perform. There are some exceptions to this see my web page GRID Rules to understand the whole picture. So if you are under 50 or over 50 but your prior work was sedentary how do you show you can't even do a significant number of sedentary jobs with a back impairment. There are several ways you can do this I will discuss a couple here. Your inability to sit for long periods of time is important but what is more important is why you can't sit for long. It is because of pain. Your documentation and testimony of pain is important because it can show an inability to concentrate in a work setting. The medication you take particularly narcotic pain medication can further decrease your ability to concentrate. It is also very common for those who suffer from a long history of back pain to develop depression. The symptoms of depression can have serious impacts on ones ability to do sedentary work. To see how depression can affect a disability claim see my page on depression and SSDI. If your back impairment is in your cervical spine it can often lead to pain and loss of sensation in your arms and hands and often times leads to headaches. All these limitations also interfere with ones ability to do sedentary work. For more details on back impairments and Social Security disability.