In this blog, an attorney with your Social Security disability law firm in Ocala discusses how the SSA might determine how substance abuse affects your eligibility for disability benefits assuming that the abuse ceases.
The questions facing you and your Ocala Social Security disability lawyer center on whether or not you would still be impaired if you ceased your dependence on alcohol or drugs and the degree to which your use of those substances contributes to your impairment. If the removal of the drugs or alcohol from your system remedies your condition, it is unlikely that you will be declared disabled. If not, then the Social Security Administration must base its decision on the impairments that you are left with.
In order for the SSA to declare you disabled, it must be shown that your condition once the drugs and alcohol are removed is sufficiently limited to render you unable to work. If so, then despite the source of your condition you can be considered disabled. The substances you used before are no longer present but the limitations are still there. Recovering from your addiction did not remove them.
If you have destroyed your liver due to drinking, stopping will not cure it. In such a case, you could be considered disabled because the alcohol abuse is irrelevant and you are left with a limiting impairment.
If, however, you are impaired because the use of drugs is causing fainting spells and severe behavior problems that your physician says would disappear if you stopped using, then it is unlikely that you will be declared disabled. The drug use bears directly on your condition, and you were not left with a limiting impairment.
Put your Social Security disability law firm in Ocala to work for you. Call the CJ Henry Law Firm, PLLC at 352.304.5300 for help today.
