How to win social security with ADHD and bipolar disorder?

You have to be able to prove that it is bad enough that you can not hold a job, and have a psychiatrist to support that. Also, many people find that getting a layer or advocate helps. Still may have to try many times to get approved.

However, if you can work, you should, just having bipolar and adhd is not a simple ticket to getting SSI because many of us are capable of fuctioning just fine and holding a job with proper treatment. If you truely cant, do be aware you will be looked at very scepticly because of how many people do try to milk the system, and use something as bipolar as an exucuse to not have to work when they really can.

For people making the lazy comments, yes some people do use it as an excuse to be lazy, and i cant stand that because I have bipolar and have been working full time since i was 17....8 years with one company, left there on good terms for a better job that i am going on 2 years at. However, sometimes bipolar IS severe enough to prevent someone from being able to hold a stable fulltime job. And its not as simple as "take you meds and get a job". Sometimes it takes quite a while to find the meds that work.......if its even possible to find meds that work at all......some people never even do. Also, many people only need be on SSI for a relitivly short time until they can get themselfs straightned out enought to be able to hold a job. Being awfully judgemental to assume that someone is just being lazy from a single sentance. You dont know if they are just looking for some help til they can get straightened out, or just really looking for a hand out of free money. If it was "my dr just said i have bipolar, can i get disability for that so i dont have to work and can quit my job?" then feel free to tear them appart for being lazy

My ex-husband had manic depression, now known as bipolar disorder. It took about a year but he did get it. He had to go through several doctors, ours and social security. He had to go through a psychologist. It had to be proved his was so severe as to interfere with his ability to hold a job. His was very severe, he visited with a psychologist every week and was at the doctor every month for blood tests. His medicine was just about the strongest dose you could take.

It is very difficult to get SSI even if you are bipolar and ADHD. You have to be able to PROVE that you cannot work and you need a psychiatrist to back that up. I have a friend who has been fired from over 30 jobs and she is still being denied SSI.

I'm 23 and was approved with SSDI about 6 months before I turned 22. It was determined by a phsycologist that I could not work and her decision is was put me on the SSDI. I didn't have to go through a lawyer or my own doctor. I applied online, and they called me.

It also depends on how old you are/were when you decame disabled. For example my mom has been trying to get on SSI or SSDI for a while now because she's in severe pain every day because of her back, she has a problem with one of her hands where she can use her thumb and that limits some of her abilities, she has severe depression, yet because of her age, and also her lack of work history she was denied both of them.

This is to one of the comments about people like us being lazy...for a few weeks now I have been wanting to go back to work. I am sick of staying at home! A friend of mine has his own business and was willing to offer me a job. About a week before what would have been my first day I fell into a low and had a panic attack - now this was just at home. Imagine what I would have been like had I returned to work. It would have been an embarassment for both of us. So to the douche who thinks we're just lazy...be glad that you don't have to deal with what we have, be glad that you're healthy and "normal". But don't shove it in our face that we're not! >:O

You cannot play "victim" people are diagnosed with those "disorders" every day...anybody can be ADHD and Bi-polar 2 is they answer the questions right on the form.

If you are a bi polar 1 it may be more likely as that borders schizophrenia

Bipolar is controllable with meds, as is ADHD. Why would you need social security? Suck it up, get treatment, and get a job like the rest of us.

Take your medication and get a job. People with ADHD and bipolar can get jobs and be successful - unless they are too lazy.