You may have mental limitations that interfere with your ability to work.  In a determination of your Social Security disability claim, it is important to show specifically what limitations you have.  You may be asked about your ability to do the following:

• Make decisions;
• Understand, recall, and execute instructions;
• Respond to supervisors, co-workers, and usual work situations; and
• Adapt to routine changes in a workplace.

These are important aspects of any job in any workplace.  If you have severe limitations then your condition may be disabling.

The administrative law judge will want to evaluate your reaction to stress levels.  The judge may even ask you directly what causes you stress and how you deal with it. If this happens, be upfront with the judge and tell him or her about the stress factors in your life, but especially the ones at work.

It’s normal for claimants to struggle a bit when identifying what stresses them about work or the workplace. Here’s a list of the types of things in the workplace that some people find stressful:

• Making decisions;
• Sticking to a schedule or deadlines;
• Dealing with supervisors, especially critical or difficult ones;
• The knowledge that your work is being monitored or judged;
• Boredom or monotony;
• Just getting to work on time each day;
• Being at the same place for a full day;
• Fear of not meeting expectations or failing;
• Finishing assignments;
• Working with others;
• Dealing with the public;
• Working quickly or under pressure;
• Having to be detail-oriented all or most of the time; and
• Performing complicated tasks well.

You need to think about whether any of these factors are particularly stressful for you. If they are, you want to give some examples to show how you react to this type of stress so that the administrative law judge will clearly understand your problems.

Many people who apply for Social Security disability benefits cannot work because of chronic pain.  If you suffer from chronic pain you must be able to clearly describe the pain at your disability hearing.  Are your symptoms a source of constant, never-ending pain and discomfort or do they stop and start? Are they worse during some periods than others?  If your symptoms come and go, or if there are times when they get especially bad, you need to describe this to the administrative law judge at your Social Security disability hearing.

If the judge asks how often your symptoms arise, you have to use words more specific than “sometimes” or “occasionally” or “once in a while.”  These could mean anything from once a day to once every few months. And a judge is not going to characterize symptoms arising that infrequently as disabling. You must be very specific: how often are you in pain?; how long does the pain last?; what activities make the pain worse?  If some weeks are better than others, you want to tell the judge what the worst weeks are like and what the better weeks are like.  When and how often do you have the bad weeks, and when and how often are they less bad?  The more clearly you can explain the timing of your symptoms to the judge, the better basis that judge will have for recognizing your disability and your inability to work.

When describing how painful your symptoms can get, you may want to use a 1 to 10 scale, where 1 means virtually no pain and 10 means the pain is so bad that it makes you cry.  As always, though, you want to be accurate and truthful in describing your symptoms, understanding that the 10 level describes a severity that no one can withstand for extended periods.

How will you respond when a judge asks, “Why can’t you work?” It’s not enough just to name your condition when others with the same medical “label” are still able to work. Remember that Social Security defines “disabled” as meaning that you cannot work because of the limitations that your medical and/or psychiatric conditions cause.  You must be able to describe your symptoms and how those symptoms limit you in your day-to-day activities.

Symptoms are a description of what you are actually going through. If you have pain, if you have trouble breathing, if you lose physical control in some way, these are all personal symptoms that you must describe fully and clearly.  That is how the judge can understand why you are unable to work. It’s not the name of your illness or medical condition that keeps you from working. It’s the symptoms that result from those conditions.

So how do you do this?  Think about what you tell the people you know and love when you describe your symptoms to them. Think about how you describe your symptoms to your doctor.  Chances are you don’t just say, “I have pain.” You are probably a lot more specific than that: when does it hurt, where does it hurt, how much, what brings it on, how long does it last? Is it the same thing every day or does it vary? What makes it better, what makes it worse? The judge wants to understand all of this.

Always tell the judge the truth about your symptoms as clearly and as completely as you can. Don’t overdo it, and don’t withhold any information. Everything you say should be consistent with your medical records. Don’t be so dramatic in describing your symptoms that a judge won’t believe you. On the other hand, if you downplay your condition and don’t describe your symptoms fully and accurately, the judge may not have any basis for recognizing your disability. So don’t leave anything out.

Social Security disability hearings are conducted by an administrative law judge (ALJ). Even though ALJs conduct hearings in a less formal manner than a courtroom judge, you should pay them the same degree of respect.

It is the ALJ’s job to render an independent decision on your entitlement to disability benefits. This decision should not be influenced by the denial of your initial application or the reconsideration of that decision. Nationwide, more than half of ALJ decisions favor the claimant – the hearing is your best odds at any step in the Social Security appeals system.

Unlike a court hearing, there is no lawyer on the other side to cross-examine you. The ALJ is neither your advocate nor your adversary; his job is to find out the facts about your claim.

Do not take out your anger on the ALJ; he is not responsible for the way the system has treated you. You can be sure that the ALJ has heard it all a million times, so do not waste his time complaining about the system or asking questions like, “Why have I been denied?” or “Why has it taken so long for me to have a hearing?” The only time you should ask the judge a question is when you do not understand what he is asking you. Like lawyers, judges often have the bad habit of asking simple questions in complicated ways. Do not be embarrassed to ask for clarification.

You should treat the ALJ with the courtesy and candor that you would show an old friend. Imagine that you are simply bringing him up-to-date about all of your problems. It’s okay to use “regular” words – the ALJ doesn’t expect you to speak like a lawyer.