How to Go on Disability Due to Stress

Every living person, young or old, has experienced stress in one form or another. While we all become stressed at times, stress doesn't usually prevent us from participating in life. However, in some forms, such as severe anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder, stress can prohibit us from functioning on a daily basis. If you've found that you can no longer work or attend to your personal business effectively due to stress, you may want to apply for Social Security Disability.

Things You'll Need

• Birth certificate
• Social Security card
• Driver's license or State I.D.
• Bank account information
• Medical records

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Instructions

• 1

  Build a case through your medical records. At the first sign you are in over your head with stress, see your family doctor. Emphasize exactly how stress affects your life and prohibits you from doing what you need to do. Follow your doctor's instructions, take any prescribed medications and ask for a referral to a psychiatrist, psychologist or counselor.

• 2

  Keep a journal of how stress affects your life and how it keeps you from working, shopping, cooking, cleaning or otherwise taking care of your basic personal needs and those of your family.

• 3

  Apply for Social Security Disability. You can do this yourself on the Social Security Administration's website at ssa.gov. or at your local Social Security office. The website has a checklist of all the information you will need before you begin your application.

• 4

  Follow all instructions you receive from the SSA and meet all deadlines. If you get denied disability, follow through with the appeal procedure. There are several levels to the disability process and a denial at one level does not necessarily mean a denial at another level.