Seizure disorders can be extraordinarily disruptive of a person’s ability to maintain regular employment. The Social Security Administration (SSA) recognizes epilepsy as a seriousness condition, and it is included in the Social Security Disability Insurance Blue Book of listed impairments.

The key to determining whether your epilepsy or nonepileptic seizure disorder will qualify for Social Security Disability (SSD) or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits is the severity of the impairment as it affects your daily ability to work.

London Eligibility specializes in providing expert advocacy and legal help for people suffering from a disability. If you worked enough years and paid taxes on your income, you are eligible for SSD benefits if your impairment is severe. If you did not work earlier in your life, then you are eligible for SSI benefits if you have limited financial resources and low income along with your severe seizure disorder.

Epilepsy and Social Security Disability Benefits

Epilepsy is an illness in which electrical activity in the brain reacts abnormally, causing sudden, unpredictable seizures. People suffering from one type of epilepsy are overcome with sudden, unexpected loss of consciousness, often suffering physical injury when falling to the ground or to the floor.

These violent falls are then followed by a periods of alternating uncontrollable muscle contractions and relaxations that most people know as convulsions.

This type of tonic-clonic epileptic seizure occasionally causes the sufferer to experience incontinence or injury to their tongue from the pressure biting from the jaw muscle contractions. These seizures are also exhausting. Can someone suffering from these types of seizures work full time? Would they stay at work for the rest of the day if they suffered a seizure at 10:30 am? How would their relationship with their boss and coworkers be affected?

A second type of seizure disorder involves what are called dyscognitive seizures. Unlike the tonic-clonic variety, people who suffer these seizures are no longer focused or oriented to their time and place. They are staring blankly, and may be involuntarily smacking their lips, swallowing, or moving facial muscles as though chewing. Repetitive gestures are also common. Though people suffering from a dyscognitive seizure disorder do not fall to the ground or display violent convulsions, their brain is nonetheless undergoing unpredictable, abnormal electrical activity.

Ongoing Treatment Compliance Is Required

Epilepsy can often be treated successfully, reducing the frequency or severity of seizures and permitting sufferers to regularly perform what Social Security would describe as “substantial gainful activities.”

Because of the frequent effectiveness of medical treatment, Social Security Disability benefits are only available to those claimants who remain compliant with the prescribed treatment. While there may be some limited cases in which SSD allows exceptions for failing to comply with treatment, treatment is ongoing treatment generally a must to be awarded Social Security disability benefits.

For example, if your doctor tells you to stop drinking because can decrease the effectiveness of anti-seizure meds and even increase the risk of seizures, and you still drink alcohol, you will not be in treatment compliance.

Exceptions might include situations in which you want the treatment but can’t afford it and no free or publicly subsidized treatment is available in your community. Or, if a recommended treatment is considered risky, treatment compliance may be waived.

What Seizure Frequency and Severity Is Required for SSD or SSI Benefits?

The Social Security Disability Blue Book of Listed Impairments includes the criteria by which an SSD or SSI claim bases on a seizure disorder is assessed:

To Win Social Security Disability Benefits for Tonic-Clonic Seizures (Grand Mal Seizures):

1). Seizure occurs at least one time every other month for 4 consecutive months,

AND,

A). sever limitation of one of these functions:

•      I). standing, balancing, use of arms or legs, or similar physical function
•      II). understanding, or using information at work, or remembering
•      III). interacting with other people
•      IV). concentrating, persisting, or maintaining pace,
•      V). behavioral or emotional control at work or maintaining well-being there.

OR

A). Seizure occurs at least one time every month for 3 consecutive months, no severe limitations are required.

To Win Social Security Disability Benefits for Dyscognitive Seizures (Petit Mal Seizures):

1). Seizure occurs at least one time every other week for 3 consecutive months,

AND

A). severe limitation of one of these functions:

•      I). standing, balancing, use of arms or legs, or similar physical function
•      II). understanding, or using information at work, or remembering
•      III). interacting with other people
•      IV). concentrating, persisting, or maintaining pace,
•      V). behavioral or emotional control at work or maintaining well-being there.

OR

A). Seizure occurs at least once a week for three consecutive months; no severe limitation are required.

Medical Verification Required

Your medical records and doctor’s recorded observations, findings, and any other confirmatory test results are of central importance to support your claim for disability benefits. Working with an experienced disability lawyer or advocacy firm can improve the likelihood of a successful claim because these professionals know what SSD and SSI wants to see included in the application package.

The Social Security Administration even has rules as to how it counts seizures. What you may think was two or three seizures occurring in the same few hours will probably be counted as one seizure by the Social Security Administration.