If you have persistent hallucinations that prevent you from earning a living or carrying out daily living activities, you may be eligible to collect Social Security benefits. Most people associate hallucinations with hearing voices or seeing images that do not exist. But they can also involve the other senses — touch, smell, and taste — and they have a number of potential causes, including schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease.
No matter the cause of your hallucinations, a lawyer from Disability Advantage Group can help you get disability benefits for hallucinations if they disrupt your life to the point where you cannot work. Our focus is on Social Security disability; we have a long track record of winning benefits for our clients, and we do not collect a fee until we win your case. For a free consultation with a member of our staff, call us today at 865-566-0800.
Types of Hallucinations
Hallucinations are a symptom of a mental or neurological disorder that causes you to sense things that do not exist. There are five types of hallucinations:
- Auditory hallucinations: Commonly referred to as “hearing voices,” an auditory hallucination causes you to hear sounds that seem real but are coming from inside your head. The sounds might be innocuous, such as people having a casual conversation, or they could be more sinister, instructing you to do things or even harm yourself or others.
- Visual hallucinations: A visual hallucination involves seeing things that are not there. Once again, these images could be random and innocent, such as a bug crawling on the wall; they could invoke a strong emotional response, such as seeing a person who is no longer living; or they could be threatening, such as a gunman or terrorist.
- Olfactory hallucinations: An olfactory hallucination causes you to smell odors that do not exist.
- Tactile hallucination: A tactile hallucination involves feeling sensations that are not real, such as someone touching you or a feeling or extreme heat or cold.
- Gustatory hallucinations: Gustatory hallucinations involve taste. For instance, you might feel that a glass of water has a pungent taste that does not exist.
Regardless of the underlying cause, any of these can disrupt your life and affect your ability to sustain meaningful, gainful employment. If you are totally disabled because of hallucinations, Disability Advantage Group can help you collect supporting evidence and file a successful claim for Social Security disability. For a free case evaluation, call us today at 865-566-0800.
The Social Security Disability Listing for Hallucinations
The Social Security disability “Blue Book” lists the various illnesses and injuries considered eligible for benefits. To qualify for benefits based on a Blue Book listing, you must have a diagnosis of a listed condition, and your diagnosis must meet the eligibility criteria provided with the listing.
Hallucinations do not have their own listing in the Blue Book, but most of the common underlying causes of hallucinations are listed. These include:
Disability Advantage Group will review your medical evidence and determine if the underlying cause of your hallucinations is listed in the Blue Book and if your diagnosis meets the criteria of the listing. If so, we will collect evidence making it clear that you meet the criteria. If not, we can help you get approved for Social Security disability via other means, such as undergoing an RFC exam with your doctor.
The RFC Exam
If you are totally disabled but do not meet the criteria for a Blue Book listing, you can get approved for disability by proving that your ailment is functionally equivalent to a listed condition. That is, it impacts your ability to work and carry out daily living activities to the same degree a listed condition would.
The easiest and most effective way to make this case is to undergo a residual functional capacity, or RFC, exam. Your own doctor can perform the exam and then provide the results to send along with your disability claim. The test results will show the degree to which your hallucinations cause functional impairment, preventing you from working and performing other essential daily tasks.
An RFC test is simple, and it is not invasive. A lawyer from Disability Advantage Group can explain the process and how to prepare for it. For a free consultation and case evaluation, call 865-566-0800.
The Blue Book Criteria for Hallucinations
Many people who get approved for Social Security disability do not do so based on a Blue Book listing. That is because the Blue Book criteria for most conditions are difficult to satisfy. In the case of hallucinations, the underlying cause of them determines the criteria you have to meet.
Disability Advantage Group will review your medical evidence and determine if you qualify based on a Blue Book listing. If you do, we help you prove it; if not, we can help you get approved by other means.
Non-Medical Requirements for Social Security Disability
Before you file your disability claim, our Social Security disability lawyers also make sure you meet the non-medical requirements for benefits. These are different depending on whether you are applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI).
SSDI is a disability insurance program for working Americans and requires you to have a sufficient history of working and paying taxes. SSI is a means-tested benefit program and requires you to have a financial need, demonstrated by an income and net worth that fall below certain levels.
For a Free Consultation With Disability Advantage Group, Call 865-566-0800 Today
If you have hallucinations that prevent you from working, a lawyer from Disability Advantage Group can help. We want to get you the Social Security disability benefits you deserve. For a free consultation with a member of our staff, call 865-566-0800 today.