Is ADHD a disability?

When you or your child get diagnosed with ADHD, it is only natural to start thinking about what type of help you can get from society to overcome the disorder. ADHD disability benefits would enable a person to get financial help while working or studying, to make sure they can afford having a harder time getting a raise, finding employment, and taking longer time to study than their counterparts without a hyperactive disorder.

So is it possible to get awarded social security benefits from having ADHD alone? As with all disabilities, it all depends on the severity of the symptoms. When it comes to children, their line of work is their education. For adults, their ability to perform as a worker is what makes or breaks their disability appeal. So the way to think about this is: Does my disorder cause problems for my occupation? How severe are these problems? The worse off you are, the greater the chance is to get social security benefits.

Medical requirements

To get disability benefits from having ADHD, according to Social Security, you need to have medically documented inattention, impulsiveness and hyperactivity. It is not possible to get a supplemental security income from having, say, only two of these three symptoms.

In addition, for children aged 3 to 18, they need to have at least two of the following conditions, and the conditions need to result from ADHD:

• Impairment in age-appropriate cognitive/communication function.

• Meaning: The applicant has marked problems with understanding or communicating.

Impairment in age-appropriate social functioning.

• Meaning: The applicant has marked problems with functioning socially, interacting with other people, etc.

Impairment in age-appropriate personal functioning.

• Meaning: The applicant has marked problems with functioning on a personal level, meaning that the personal life has to be negatively affected by ADHD.

Required documentation

These requirements has to be supported by documentation from earlier tests made, medical findings, school evaluations, etc. Most people who have lived with the disorder since childhood have documentation from school, from doctors and from parents who tried to get help with the symptoms their child was displaying.

Getting a disability check from having ADHD is indeed quite hard. You will have to prove not only that you have the problems which are required to be eligible for social security benefits, but also that those problems are severe enough to cause big problems in the way you function and live your life.

The major problem is that the diagnosis and evaluation of ADHD is very subjective. It can be difficult to get a medical professional to attest to the fact that your ability to function, work and study is very hard because of ADHD.