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How to Get Disability for Fibromyalgia in Salinas, California
Financial Support When You Can’t Work
Living with fibromyalgia means living with physical—and emotional—pain.
Other people don’t understand your condition. To them, you look healthy and normal. They don’t believe you’re suffering so much that you can’t work.
But fibromyalgia is real. It absolutely can be severe enough to prevent you from working. And it can leave you financially struggling.
You can get help in the form of Social Security Disability (SSD) benefits. The monthly disability income and Medicare eligibility can give you the financial stability you need to concentrate on your health and well-being.
But you still have the problem of proving to Social Security that your fibromyalgia makes it impossible for you to work. Most people who apply for SSD benefits get denied.
At Angelina Valle & Associates, we can help.
Angelina Valle is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a Social Security Disability lawyer with more than 32 years of experience helping people in San Jose, Salinas, CA, and all over the Bay Area win SSD benefits.
How to Win a Fibromyalgia Disability Case
When fibromyalgia interferes with your working years, you may qualify for benefits under the Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) program.
But it won’t be enough just to tell Social Security how you’re feeling. You must provide medical evidence from your doctor visits as you’ve tried to manage your condition.
Reports and test results from health care providers should show you’re suffering from symptoms like these:
- Pain in your whole body
- Stiffness
- Severe, ongoing exhaustion
- Digestive problems
- Sleeping problems, such as insomnia
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Problems thinking, which people sometimes call “fibro fog”
Fibromyalgia wasn’t always recognized by Social Security, but that changed in 2012. That year, the government ruled that fibromyalgia does in fact cause debilitating “pain in the joints, muscles, tendons, or nearby soft tissues.”
That gives you legal path for qualifying for benefits, but every case is different.
To better understand your individual chances of qualifying for disability with fibromyalgia, Angelina Valle & Associates will evaluate you claim for free.
Evidence You Need to Get Disability for Fibromyalgia
In that 2012 ruling, the Social Security Administration explained what kinds of evidence you need to submit to be awarded disability benefits for fibromyalgia:
- Reports from every doctor you’ve seen, detailing your symptoms
- Records of every treatment you’ve tried to battle fibromyalgia
- Statements from people who know you, like employers, family members, friends and neighbors, about the ways fibromyalgia affects your daily life
And with any medical condition, you always have to prove three things to qualify for disability benefits:
- You can’t continue in your past work—and the reason is your health.
- You can’t switch to a different kind of work, also because of your health.
- The medical condition that keeps you from working will last at least a year.
Proving all of this means filling out a lot of forms and gathering a lot of documents and evidence. Fibromyalgia has drained your energy, but Angelina Valle takes the burden off you by handling all the legwork.
While they search for a cure for fibromyalgia, disability benefits are a way to make your life easier.
At Angelina Valle & Associates, you’ll get support for your disability claim—and pay no attorney fee until you win benefits.