One of the first things that any good disability lawyer in California should tell you is that every case is different. What works for one person may not work for others. Therefore, you should not necessarily base your decisions on whether to apply for disability — or base your expectations of receiving support — on generalizations from other cases.
With that in mind, you can see why question of which conditions qualify for disability could be complicated. Another aspect that makes the issue complex is that social security does not necessarily have to list your condition explicitly for you to collect benefits.
The list referred to here is the so-called social security blue book. It is an exhaustive — but not complete — index of conditions associated with disabilities. The Social Security Administration publishes this resource online, and you can browse the list of conditions which may qualify you for assistance at any time.
The blue book contains 14 chapters. Each chapter deals with a different type of injury or medical issues. Some of the examples include:
- Musculoskeletal, such as back and neck injuries
- Mental, such as stress-related disorders
- Immune, such as HIV infection
In some cases, the blue book may not contain your specific condition but it may have an analogous category. If this is the case for you, you would want to be especially diligent in any type of official communication you make with social security while applying for benefits.
As mentioned above, every case of disability is different. You should not give up hope based on the negative results other people have had, and you should be careful even when applying for benefits for a well-established cause of disability. By the same token, this is not legal advice. It is meant to inform you about the general topic
