Drug abuse is often a sign a person suffers from a serious mental disorder. While mental disabilities may qualify a person for Social Security Disability Insurance benefits, officials are often too quick to dismiss applicants based on a record of drug abuse. But as a federal magistrate in Illinois recently noted, “recognizing the sometimes subtle distinction between applicants whose mental disorder causes the applicants to abuse drugs compared to applicants whose drug abuse triggers mental disorders can be difficult to discern at times.” Nevertheless, there are legal guidelines in place for making such distinctions and Social Security officials cannot simply ignore them.
The Role of “Decompensation” in Assessing Mental Disorders
Indeed, the magistrate quoted above chided Social Security for failing to properly review the claim of a woman who suffered from “severe mental health issues.” According to records, the applicant has been struggling with depression since childhood. She attempted to kill herself on at least five occasions and was hospitalized several times for “major depressive disorder” and drug abuse. Not only was she hospitalized six times over a two-year period, she was admitted to the hospital on the day her initial hearing before Social Security was scheduled.
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