Perhaps the most common question people have after getting denied is “how did I get denied? My record says right here that I have a diagnosis.” They are often surprised to learn that a diagnosis is absolutely meaningless.
A diagnosis is just a thing that a doctor thinks you might have. If you go into your doctor’s office and say that you feel depressed, you will get diagnosed with depression. If you tell your doctor that your back hurts, you will get diagnosed with back pain. Also, two people with the exact same diagnosis can have two completely different sets of symptoms. If you and your friend both get diagnosed with the flu, you might get chills and a headache while your friend gets a fever and a sour stomach. Because a diagnosis has no real value, you cannot get Social Security Disability benefits just by having a diagnosis.
When Social Security decides if you are disabled, they don’t care what or how many diagnoses you have. They want to know what symptoms you have because of those diagnoses, and then they want to know if those symptoms make it so that you cannot do any job. Even the most scary sounding diagnosis doesn’t tell Social Security what symptoms you have, how severe those symptoms are, and how those symptoms affect your ability to work.
This is why it is so important to have a Social Security Disability Lawyer working with you to get you benefits. An attorney will know what matters and what doesn’t, and will help to present the stuff that matters to the Judge in a way that the Judge can use.
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