Preface: It should be noted that medical evidence (such as treatment records and opinions) are often the best evidence of how social anxiety disorder is disabling. However, by its very nature, social anxiety disorder can make treatment difficult if not impossible. This post discusses alternative methods of documenting a social anxiety disability case.

Every case is different so it is very difficult to make general statements about how to prove a case. At least, other than, “make sure SSA gets your medical records.” Personally, I recommend working with a lawyer to help figure out the best way to develop your case. However, here are some general tips for developing a Social Anxiety Disorder disability case.

When an individual seriously isolates themselves (avoiding doctors, friends, family, etc), it may help to get letters documenting the isolation. For example, have friends and family write about the individual avoiding family get-togethers, church, dinners, children’s sporting events, weddings, funerals, or other events.

You can also document avoiding other public situations such as:

• Shopping only during night / slow periods,
• Leaving stores if they are too crowded or too noisy.
• Leaving groceries without checking out.
• Sitting in the back at events.
• Leaving events early.
• Handling children’s school conferences by telephone instead of attending in person.

These are just some examples. There is no limit to the possible ways of documenting social anxiety disorder.

photo credit: ☮Katrina☮

Can you imagine the therapeutic value of this? From phobia therapies like the one below, to helping people with social phobias, to even more complex therapies such as helping individuals with Asperger’s syndrome pick up on social cues, vocal inflections and body language. The possibilities are amazing!

It also opens the possibility of long distance and even multiple provider therapies: the patient interacts with a single avatar which may be “driven” by different therapists at different times (allowing 24 hour care and a consistent “face”), or even running on auto-pilot as in the “Milo & Kate” demo above.  I did not realize we were so close the the ‘ractors in Neal Stephenson’s Diamond Age.

Virtual Phobia Therapy:

Virtual therapies could be amazing, or they could be awful! What’s your opinion?

University of California “Health Matters” program on Social Anxiety Disorder.

This is a terrific video providing an in depth discussion of social anxiety and social phobia, its causes and treatment.

Can you get Social Security disability benefits for social phobia? The short answer is yes.

However, knowing that a condition can be disabling does not tell you HOW to prove that social phobia is disabling in your case.

As in any Social Security disability case, you have to show that social phobia keeps you from being able to engage in a substantial gainful activity (SGA).

Social phobia most likely affects your ability to work by making it impossible for you to have more than very occasional contact with the public, co-workers, or supervisors. That would be the workplace limitation that would preclude most kinds of substantial gainful activity and prevent you from being able to work.

You can prove this limitation by obtaining supporting statements showing isolation, difficulty interacting with others, avoiding social events — or avoiding contact with others during social events, going to the store to shop at 1:00 in the morning to avoid dealing with others.

Several of my clients have shared with me that they have left their groceries at the check out line because there were suddenly too many people in line, or there was some kind of commotion, or some other problem.

These cases are very personal.  There is no recipe guaranteed to win your Social Security claim. But, if you just can’t be around people, if you avoid contact, even with people you like, you may qualify for Social Security.

It is often helpful to enlist the aid of an attorney, or even a family member, to help you list all the ways social phobia/social anxiety disorder affects your ability to function.  Then figure out ways to document these problems.

Of course, as I have talked about many times before, medical records are critical.  But, especially in social phobia cases, you will need to go beyond the medical records when developing your case.

Touching video about what it is like to live with social anxiety / social phobia.