Absolutely. In fact, bipolar disorder is considered to be one of the few mental health conditions that is highly likely to cause a significant and long-term psychosocial disability.
The NDIS funds several critical services for people with Bipolar Disorder. These include personal care support, community access support, nutritional support, skills development, transport, household tasks, and behavioural support.
Bipolar disorder is included in the Social Security Listings of Impairments, which means that if your illness has been diagnosed by a qualified medical practitioner and is severe enough to keep you from working, you are eligible to receive disability benefits.
You can get disability for bipolar in the form of SSI benefits if you meet the medical criteria outlined by the SSA. In order to get SSI benefits for bipolar disorder, you need to meet the financial requirements outlined by the SSA. Since SSI is a needs-based program, you need to have very little income and resources.
To get Social Security benefits, the SSA will ask you to show that: you've lived with bipolar disorder for at least 1 year. your condition is severe enough to prevent you from doing your job or any other job. your disability will last for more than a year.
Generally, SSDI payments can range from an average of $800 and $1800 per month, although those amounts can be more or less depending upon your particular circumstances.
Besides medical records, these documents may be helpful in proving your claim: Letters or other records from your doctor and/or therapist detailing how the effects of your bipolar condition persists despite treatment and other efforts to manage the condition.
Bipolar disorder and driving
If you have bipolar disorder, you must inform the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) as it may affect your driving.
Poor judgment and impulse control, frequent mood swings, irritability, inability to concentrate, hyperactivity, and other common symptoms of the manic phases of bipolar disorder all affect your ability to perform your job and interact with others.
Is Bipolar a Serious Mental Illness? Bipolar disorder is considered a serious mental illness (SMI) although many people can find help through lifestyle changes combined with medications. A diagnosis of bipolar should be taken seriously. When left untreated, this impairment can be life threatening.
You might be eligible for DES if you're: living with a mental health condition, treated illness, injury or disability that makes it difficult to find and keep a job. This includes living with anxiety or depression, a physical or intellectual disability, learning difficulties, visual or hearing impairment.
Bipolar disorder is a serious mental illness that causes unusual shifts in mood, ranging from extreme highs (mania) to lows (depression).
Many people with bipolar work best with a regular, stable routine that helps with mood balance. Experts recommend avoiding any shift work or jobs that disrupt a regular sleep pattern.
Brain Changes
Research shows bipolar disorder may damage the brain over time. Experts think it's because you slowly lose amino acids. They help build the proteins that make up the insulation around your neurons.
Bipolar disorder and alcohol use disorder or other types of substance abuse can be a dangerous combination. Each can worsen the symptoms and severity of the other. Having both conditions increases the risk of mood swings, depression, violence and suicide.
Bipolar disorder is generally a chronic, lifelong condition. While it is your choice whether or not to use medication, not doing so could lead to severe complications and significant risks to your health and wellbeing.
Bipolar disorder is a lifelong condition that causes one to experience extreme fluctuations in mood. These mood swings often manifest in alternating episodes of mania or hypomania and episodes of depression and can last days, weeks, or months.
There are no specific blood tests or brain scans to diagnose bipolar disorder. Even so, a doctor may perform a physical exam and order lab tests, including a thyroid function test and urine analyses. These tests can help determine if other conditions or factors could be causing your symptoms.
Do Mental Illnesses Appear on Background Checks? Typically, no. Diagnosed mental illnesses are a part of a person's medical record and, as such, are protected under law. Doctors are sworn to confidentiality and could risk losing their jobs if they expose any information without a person's explicit consent.
The best thing to tell a psychiatrist to get disability is the truth about what you are going through. Don't exaggerate, try to impress or worry about what a mental health professional is thinking about you.
To prove your mental disability, you will need to have medical documentations, records and notes from any physicians you are seeing to show that your mental disability makes it impossible for you to work full time. The more medical evidence you have, the easier it is to prove your mental disability.
If you're employed, you may be able to work shorter hours or in a more flexible way, particularly if job pressure triggers your symptoms. Employers must make reasonable adjustments to make the employment of people with disabilities possible. This includes people with bipolar disorder.
Thousands of Americans who are diagnosed with this condition every year are unable to work and hold employment due to their symptoms. If an individual is unable to work because of bipolar disorder, he or she may qualify for either Supplement Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI).