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Illinois Anxiety Disorders Disability Attorney

Social Security Disability Benefits for Anxiety Disorders: Eligibility and Process

Anxiety is a common mental health condition experienced by millions of people. One in five adults had anxiety symptoms in the past two weeks, according to a report from the federal report, It being so common, it’s easy to forget that anxiety disorders can be severe enough to interfere with your ability to engage in routine day-to-day activities, including working and earning a living.

Worrying and feeling anxious are common emotions everyone experiences occasionally. For millions of people, the symptoms of anxiety become overwhelming and get in the way of their daily activities, including interfering with their ability to work.

When anxiety becomes so severe that it keeps you from doing your work activities, you may be eligible for anxiety disorder disability benefits from the Social Security Administration. The Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI) programs pay monthly benefits to people diagnosed with anxiety that is severe enough to be totally and permanently disabling.

The frustration and stress of navigating a complex and challenging application and approval process with the Social Security Administration on your own. The anxiety disability attorneys at GCC Disability Law provide outstanding representation and advice throughout the anxiety disability claim process to relieve you of the burden.


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Understanding Anxiety Disorders: Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

It’s normal to occasionally worry about situations or events, such as a pending promotion at work or a test at school. However, worrying excessively, being fearful to the extent that it interferes with your daily activities, or being unable to control your responses to events or situations may be signs of a mental health condition known as an anxiety disorder.

If you believe you may have a mental health condition, discuss it with a health care professional who can provide a diagnosis and prescribe an appropriate treatment plan that may include medication. The Social Security Administration recognizes an anxiety disorder as a disability for purposes of eligibility for disability benefits when it causes persistent symptoms that continue for at least six months.

Psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health practitioners recognize several types of anxiety disorders, including:

  • Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is characterized by frequent, excessive, and unrealistic worry about common, everyday situations and things, such as health, job, home life, or school, among others.
  • Panic disorder involves panic attacks that come on unexpectedly and frequently.
  • Social anxiety disorder involves an intense and continuing fear of being subjected to negative judgment by other people, which may cause agoraphobia, a fear of crowds, and going to places outside of the home.

Anxiety disorders affect millions of adults and children in the United States. Symptoms vary depending on the type of anxiety disorder. Common symptoms you may experience with a GAD include:

  • Inability to fall asleep or remain sleeping.
  • Feeling on edge and restless.
  • Unable to concentrate.
  • Uncontrolled worrying.
  • Irritability.
  • Fatigue.
  • Headaches, muscle aches, and pains of unknown origin.

The symptoms frequently differ from person to person, so it is best to leave the diagnosis of your condition to a health care professional who specializes in treating mental health conditions.

The diagnosis procedure includes performing a medical evaluation, including a physical examination, perhaps other tests, to rule out other medical conditions or medications as the cause of the anxiety disorder. A health care provider will then review your symptoms and how they affect you to determine if you suffer from an anxiety disorder.

Qualifying For Disability Benefits With An Anxiety Disorder

Social Security for anxiety disorders is available through SSDI and SSI. The Social Security Administration uses the same definition of disability for both programs, but each has different non-medical eligibility criteria.

To be eligible for SSDI, you must have a long enough work history that is also recent enough to be “insured” through the Social Security system. SSI does not have a work requirement, but it is a needs-based program. You cannot have more than limited income and resources.

The disability definition used to evaluate SSD eligibility for anxiety is the existence of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment, expected to last for at least 12 months or cause death, that prevents a person from doing substantial, gainful work activities. In other words, qualifying for anxiety disability benefits requires that you be totally and permanently disabled.

The ”Blue Book,” or listing of impairments, is a compilation of physical and mental health conditions, Social Security considers severe enough to meet the disability definition. Section 12.06 of the listing of impairments has the criteria that must be met for anxiety and obsessive-compulsive disorders. If you meet them, your condition is severe enough for SSD eligibility for anxiety.

If you do not meet or equal a listed impairment, your anxiety disability claim may still be approved with medical documentation proving it meets the criteria for the definition of disability used to determine SSD eligibility for anxiety. The condition must limit your residual functional capacity to where you cannot do the work you did in the past or other jobs available in the national economy.

Illinois Anxiety Disorders Disability Attorney
Illinois Anxiety Disorders Disability Attorney

Available Monthly Benefits For An Anxiety Disability Claim

The maximum SSI monthly benefit payment is $967 in 2025 for individuals and $1,450 for couples. A calculation to determine a disabled worker’s monthly SSDI benefit payment relies on a portion of the worker’s lifetime earnings, but the maximum payable monthly for anxiety disorder disability benefits through SSDI in 2025 is $4,018. The average SSDI payment is $1,580.

Help Available From Experienced Anxiety Disability Attorneys

The stressful process of navigating the disability benefits application process is made even more so by the fact that over two-thirds of applicants are denied benefits each year. Challenging denial of an anxiety disability claim adds even more stress to your life unless you rely on the anxiety disability attorneys at GCC Law to relieve you of the burden by handling the claim for you.

You have too much at stake to take on the Social Security claims process on your own. Instead, contact us for a free consultation and to get things started with your application or appeal of a denial of benefits.

Call Our Illinois Anxiety Disorders Disability Lawyers Today

At GCC Law Firm, our Illinois anxiety disorders disability attorneys provide personalized, solutions-driven legal advocacy for clients. If your SSDI or SSI claim has been denied in Illinois, we can help. Contact us to schedule a free and completely confidential initial consultation, please contact our law firm today.

Call (479) 340-0002.

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