Mental Health Conditions That Qualify for Disability Benefits

The Social Security Administration (SSA) recognizes that mental disorders can be just as disabling as physical conditions. Getting approved for benefits, though, means meeting specific medical and functional criteria that requires more than just having a diagnosis. The attorneys at The Keener Law Firm understand how to build strong disability cases for clients with mental health conditions, combining thorough documentation with strategic legal advocacy.

Understanding the Blue Book Listings for Mental Disorders

The SSA maintains a comprehensive guide called the Blue Book that lists medical conditions considered potentially disabling. Section 12.00 covers mental disorders and includes 11 specific categories:

• Neurocognitive Disorders (12.02): Conditions marked by significant cognitive decline, such as dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injuries, Parkinson’s disease, and Huntington’s disease.
• Schizophrenia Spectrum and Other Psychotic Disorders (12.03): Conditions characterized by hallucinations, delusions, or disorganized speech or behavior, including schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder.
• Depressive, Bipolar, and Related Disorders (12.04): Major depressive disorder, persistent depressive disorder, bipolar I and II disorders, and cyclothymic disorder. Depression and bipolar disorder make up a substantial portion of mental health disability claims.
• Intellectual Disorder (12.05): Significantly below-average intellectual functioning, typically demonstrated through IQ testing and assessments of adaptive functioning.
• Anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders (12.06): Generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, social anxiety disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
• Somatic Symptom and Related Disorders (12.07): Physical symptoms that cause significant distress or functional impairment, including somatic symptom disorder, illness anxiety disorder, and conversion disorder.
• Personality and Impulse-Control Disorders (12.08): Enduring patterns of behavior that deviate from cultural expectations, including paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal, borderline, avoidant, dependent, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
• Autism Spectrum Disorder (12.10): Autism and related developmental conditions affecting communication, social interaction, and behavior.
• Neurodevelopmental Disorders (12.11): Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), specific learning disorders, tic disorders, and borderline intellectual functioning.
• Eating Disorders (12.13): Anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, binge-eating disorder, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder when they result in serious physical or psychological impairment.
• Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders (12.15): Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other trauma-related conditions.

Meeting the Medical and Functional Requirements

Having a diagnosis from one of these categories doesn’t automatically mean you’ll receive benefits. The SSA evaluates both how medically severe your condition is and how it affects your ability to function in work settings.

The Social Security Administration focuses on how your mental disorder limits your functioning in four key areas:

1. Understanding, remembering, or applying information: Your ability to learn new tasks, follow instructions, solve problems, and make decisions.
2. Interacting with others: Whether you can cooperate with supervisors and coworkers, handle criticism, respond appropriately to social cues, and maintain relationships.
3. Concentrating, persisting, or maintaining pace: Your capacity to focus on tasks, complete them in a reasonable timeframe, and work at a consistent pace throughout the day.
4. Adapting or managing oneself: Your ability to regulate emotions, control behavior, maintain personal hygiene, and respond appropriately to changes or demands.

To meet a specific listing in the Blue Book, you usually need to show either an extreme limitation in one area or marked limitation in two areas. An extreme limitation means you cannot function in that area independently, appropriately, or effectively on a sustained basis. A marked limitation means your functioning is seriously limited.

The experienced disability attorneys at The Keener Law Firm know how to present medical evidence and functional limitations in ways that clearly demonstrate how your mental health condition prevents you from maintaining employment.

Alternative Paths to Getting Disability Benefits Approved

If your condition doesn’t meet or equal a Blue Book listing, you can still receive benefits through what’s called a medical-vocational allowance. This process requires the SSA to consider your residual functional capacity combined with your age, education, and work history.

The SSA will assess what types of work you can still perform despite your limitations. If the SSA determines that no jobs exist in the national economy that you can perform given your limitations and vocational factors, then you’ll be approved for benefits even without meeting a specific listing.

For certain mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, depression, and PTSD, there’s an another way to win approval. If you can document that your condition has existed for at least two years and that you’ve received ongoing treatment, the SSA may find you disabled even if you don’t meet all the standard functional criteria. This “serious and persistent” designation recognizes that some mental disorders, by their very nature and chronicity, severely limit your ability to work even with treatment and support.

Work History Requirements and Benefit Amounts

The type of disability benefits you receive depends on your work history and financial situation. The Social Security Disability Insurance program requires that you’ve worked long enough and recently enough to be insured under the program. In 2025, you acquire one work credit for each $1,810 you earn with a maximum of four credits available per year.

The number of credits you need varies by age. Most workers making an SSDI claim need 40 credits (10 years of work). However, younger workers may need fewer credits. For instance, if you became disabled before age 24, you need just six credits earned in the three years before your disability began.

SSDI payments are based on your average lifetime earnings before becoming disabled. In 2025, the average monthly SSDI benefit is approximately $1,580, with a maximum benefit of $4,018 per month. Your specific amount depends on your earnings history, not the severity of your mental health condition.

However, the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program is a needs-based program for individuals with limited income and resources. You don’t need work credits to receive SSI, but you must meet strict financial limits. Generally, you need to have less than $2,000 in available countable assets ($3,000 for a couple applying). In 2025, the maximum federal SSI payment is $967 per month for an individual and $1,450 for a couple receiving benefits.

Building a Strong Disability Claim

The success of your disability claim depends on the quality and completeness of your medical evidence. You need comprehensive documentation from mental health professionals who treat you regularly. One-time evaluations or sporadic treatment will not provide the evidence of ongoing disability necessary to win approval.