Social Security Disability: Respiratory (Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, COPD, etc.)

Respiratory impairments, like many others, can range from very light to extremely chronic. If you do not qualify for Disability under one of Social Security’s listings (as most people do not), the severity of your respiratory issues will be evaluated under many factors. Some questions I often discuss with clients suffering from these impairments are:

How often are you experiencing these symptoms?

What causes your symptoms?

Does anything help with these symptoms?

Do you use medication, an inhaler, or other types of breathing treatments? If so, how often and how long do these treatments take?

This is certainly not all the necessary questions to consider for Social Security Disability, but they are definitely answers I want to know as a Disability attorney. The most common symptom people seem to experience with respiratory issues is shortness of breath or difficulty breathing. What Social Security wants to know is how often are you experiencing this shortness of breath, what causes it, and whether it can be controlled. Some people experience mild shortness of breath with heavy exertion and they can fix it by using a quick inhaler; however, I have worked with other who can have extreme shortness of breath even while resting and must have long breathing treatments multiple times a day. Obviously, the more severe and uncontrollable your breathing symptoms are makes you more likely to be approved for Social Security Disability.

As a Social Security Disability lawyer, I have represented many people with asthma, COPD, Cystic Fibrosis, and other respiratory issues preventing people from working, and would be happy to talk to you about your claim.