Epilepsy Disability Lawyer in California

Epilepsy: Understanding the Condition and Your Disability Benefits

More than three million people in the United States live with seizures caused by epilepsy. Many of them also endure the financial struggle caused when the seizures associated with epilepsy interfere with their ability to work.

If you have been diagnosed with epilepsy or other seizure-producing disorders, a disability lawyer California residents have trusted for more than four decades with all matters related to Social Security disability benefits can help. Sackett Law frees you of the burden and frustration of maneuvering through an overly complicated and impersonal Social Security disability claims system.

Meeting the strict requirements needed to prove you have an epilepsy disability qualifying for Social Security Disability Insurance or Supplement Security Income benefits can be an uphill struggle. The Social Security Administration annually rejects the claims of more than two-thirds of the initial applications it receives from people needing disability benefits.

Sackett Law can help improve your chances of qualifying for benefits with an epilepsy disability. Our disability lawyers know what it takes to prove you are entitled to disability for epilepsy because we have been doing it for decades for folks in California and throughout the U.S.

Is Epilepsy A Disability? A Comprehensive Guide to Symptoms and Treatment

Ask the average person to say the first thing that comes to mind upon hearing the word “epilepsy,” what the vast majority of them probably say, “seizures.” Repeated seizures are the primary characteristic of epilepsy, which physicians identify as a disorder of the brain.

Seizures are sudden behavior alterations caused by sudden changes in the brain’s electrical functioning. Instead of orderly and tiny electrical impulses, the brain sends out disordered bursts of electrical energy that affect a person’s body movements, sensations, and consciousness.

Each area of the brain controls different parts of the body. The specific part of the brain from which the electrical bursts originate determines the symptoms accompanying seizure activity a person experiences during an epileptic seizure.

For instance, electric impulses originating in the left primary motor cortex of the brain control the movement of the right arm and leg. An epileptic seizure originating in that area of the brain may cause sudden, uncontrolled movement of the right arm, leg, or both.

Types Of Seizures Associated With Epilepsy

Neurologists, the medical specialists who typically diagnose and treat epilepsy, classify seizures as primary generalized seizures or partial seizures. There are two categories of seizures: Primary generalized and partial.

Generalized seizures are caused by electrical bursts on both sides of the brain simultaneously, while partial seizures start with an electrical burst from only one brain area. Another term used to describe partial seizures is focal onset seizures.

A person experiencing a focal onset seizure may have the following symptoms:

1. Sensory changes, including sight, taste, and smell.
2. Uncontrolled muscle spasming or jerking movements, typically in the arms and legs.
3. Tingling sensation or feeling dizzy.

Generalized seizures include the following types:

1. Tonic seizures
2. Atonic seizures
3. Absence seizures
4. Tonic-clonic seizures
5. Clonic seizures

Depending on the type of generalized seizure, a person may experience muscle stiffening of varying degrees, which can sometimes cause them to fall to the ground or lose consciousness.

If you experience symptoms of epilepsy, you must be examined by a physician to determine their cause. The examination may include diagnostic tests to rule out causes other than epilepsy.

Does Epilepsy Qualify For Disability?

Whether you can get disability for epilepsy primarily depends on proving that you have a medically determinable physical or mental impairment preventing you from doing work activities required to do the type of work you did in the past or another type of work available in the national economy. The impairment or a combination of impairments must last or be expected to last a continuous 12-month period or be expected to cause death.

Before determining whether you are disabled, the SSA reviews your application to decide whether or not you meet the non-medical eligibility requirements for the SSDI or SSI program. Eligibility for SSDI requires a sufficiently long work record at jobs where you were subject to payment of Social Security taxes on your earnings.

The SSI program, unlike SSDI, is need-based. To be eligible, you must have little or no income and resources of less than $2,000. Couples where both partners are eligible for benefits cannot have assets or resources valued at more than $3,000.

If you meet the non-medical requirements for SSDI or SSI, your application goes to the Disability Determination Services, a state agency where a claims examiner reviews it to determine if you are disabled because of epilepsy. Examiners use the Blue Book or listing of impairments to help them review your application and medical documentation.

The Blue Book lists requirements for the different types of seizures. For example, if you experience primary generalized tonic-clonic seizures, your medical records must prove you had seizures every two months over a consecutive four-month period. You can qualify for focal seizures, but the medical evidence must document a seizure every two weeks over a three-month period.

Contact Sackett Law When Epilepsy Disability Prevents You From Working

The Blue Book is not the only way to qualify for epilepsy disability benefits. If the limitations of epilepsy keep you from doing types of work you did in the past or other types of work, you may be eligible for SSI or SSDI.

If you are denied benefits, Sackett Law can help by challenging the denial through an appeal process that can get you the epilepsy disability benefits your medical condition makes you eligible to receive. Contact Sackett Law today for a free consultation.