Attempting to prove a mental health disability to the Social Security Administration when an applicant has a substance abuse problem can be an uphill climb, especially if the applicant continues to abuse either drugs or alcohol while a claim is pending.
This is accentuated when you consider the follow statement found in Social Security’s rules and regulations:
“An individual shall not be considered to be disabled for purposes of this title if alcoholism or drug addiction would be a contributing factor material to the Commissioner’s determination that the individual is disabled.”
If an applicant has a substance abuse problem and claims he has a mental illness, Social Security adjudicators can claim that the substance abuse is either the cause or a contributor to a mental health disability. The only way to take this argument away from Social Security adjudicators is to stop using illegal drugs or alcohol for a sustained period of time. If the mental illness still exists then the claim that substance abuse led to the mental illness can be negated.
If it were only that simple.
Logic tells us that no one would willingly abuse drugs or alcohol if they could control their usage. Substance abuse is an illness, and just like with any illness, most people need assistance from medical professionals to stop substance abuse.
Applicants who have a substance abuse problem will be evaluated by Social Security using its normal five step sequential process, but also face an additional evaluation step because of substance abuse.
The last step tries to examine whether an applicant would still experience a mental health disability if the substance abuse issue were taken off the table. The basic question an evaluation comes down to is if an applicant would be able to work if the applicant stopped using drugs and or alcohol.
For more information about the difficulties of proving a mental health disability when a substance abuse problem exists click here.
