As I mentioned on the main case strategies page of this site, there is no Social Security listing for migraine headaches. In the absence of a listing, how does one go about proving disability? One alternative is to argue that your capacity to perform work has been so reduced by your condition that you would not be a reliable employee in any job situation.
This type of argument is known in technical terms as the functional capacity argument (aka the residual functional capacity, or RFC, argument). An argument like this says to the Judge that you can no longer work because of:
- Your medical problems
- additional medical problems that diminish your reliability
- specific functional limitations (your limited ability to sit, stand, or walk, for example)
- pain and other “non-exertional” limitations
- medication side effects such as fatigue, drowsiness, nausea, poor concentration, etc.
- depression/anxiety resulting from your physical condition and inability to work
Keep in mind, Social Security’s definition of disability looks to your capacity for work rather than just your medical problem. So be sure to highlight all of the limitations brought on by your illness, not just your illness itself.
Also, since Social Security is concerned with whether you could perform any work, you have to demonstrate to the Judge that you would not be a reliable worker at even the easiest, sit-down, low stress job that exists in the national economy. In many Social Security disability hearings, Judges even call upon vocational expert witnesses to testify as to the kind of work they think you may be capable of given your past work history and current limitations.
So the best way to prove disability is to really show the limitations brought on by your conditions. The more limitations, the better; with every limitation that the Judge accepts, one category of work is potentially eliminated. For example, if we show that you have medication side effects that cause occasional drowsiness, we would eliminate all jobs that require driving, or those that require the use or ropes, ladders and scaffolds. If the judge accepts that you cannot lift more than 5 pounds, then we eliminate all jobs that have greater lifting requirements.
Filed under Strategies for Winning by on Sep 4th, 2009. Comment. 
In migraine headache cases, the functional capacity limitations that I usually see involve job attendance and daily reliability. Migraine patients frequently experience headaches randomly, with no specific cause identified. When a migraine hits, the claimant needs to lie down in a dark room and avoid all stimuli including noise or light. If the claimant happens to be at work, he/she has to leave or be driven home. Unscheduled absences from work are also common. From what my clients tell me, severe migraine headaches cause pain at such a level that no activities of any type would be possible.
The main questions to be answered, therefore, have to do with:
- the frequency of the migraines
- the severity of the migraines
- how long do the migraines last when they occur?
If your doctor will document activity limitations – preferably in a functional capacity checklist – you have a good chance at winning. For example, you will want your treating doctor to state that you will need unscheduled breaks from work, that you will miss several days of work each month because you can’t come in, and that you need low stress activities.
Filed under Strategies for Winning by on Sep 4th, 2009. Comment.
Cindy McCain, the wife of former presidential candidate John McCain has revealed her long battle with chronic migraine headaches. Ms. McCain discusses what triggers her migraines and how she is dealing with these headaches in this article by Jessica Ryen Doyle of Fox News:
Not quite a year ago, Cindy McCain was traveling overseas when a bottle of perfume broke in her bag. She barely had time to unzip the bag when the aroma knocked her “down hard.”
Photo by Jeff Kida
“I’ve never gone down that hard overseas,” said McCain, 55, referring to the migraine headache she had. “I didn’t know anyone. I had to turn around and come back.”
McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, is speaking out publicly for the first time about her migraines – a medical condition
she refers to as a “disability.” For many years, while she lived in Phoenix with her kids and her husband was commuting to and from Washington, D.C., she kept her migraines a secret, fearing she’d ruin the time they had together.
But McCain doesn’t want to stay quiet any longer. Speaking Thursday at the 14th Congress of the International Headache Society in Philadelphia, McCain vowed there will be a cure for migraines in her lifetime.
McCain is one of more than 30 million Americans who suffer from migraines. Women are three times more likely to have them than men, and there is a genetic component to them. McCain said she can remember her grandmother suffered from “headaches,” but she had died before McCain was officially diagnosed with them.
“When I was officially diagnosed, I was 40,” McCain said. “But for several years before that, doctors would tell me, ‘Oh, you’re neurotic, or you’re just stressed, take an aspirin.’”
During a migraine attack, which can happen two or three times a week and last for up to 10 days, McCain said she can experience auras, ringing in her ears, nausea and blindness in her left eye – all depending on what triggered the headache and where she is. Read more on Cindy McCain Breaks Her Silence on Migraine Headaches…
Filed under Migraine issues in the news by on Sep 10th, 2009. Comment.
